Muslim Cuisines

I have fond memories of living in HDB estates. I remember that some neighbourhood Malay children would carry a basket of food and walk along the corridors shouting "epok epok". Epok epok kentang is the best! 

When I was even younger, there was an old man who would carry two pots hung on both ends of a stick slung across his broad shoulders. The pots were placed in wooden casings on top of charcoal stoves, one with hot water to cook the yellow noodles and bean sprout and the other heated gravy. His mee rebus was one of the best. There was another push cart stall at Jalan Besar. My friends and I would patronise after band practice. There was not just mee rebus but very good satay too.

Near where I stayed in my youth, there were many hawkers and not all were legalised. One put their mee siam in a plastic bag and all placed in a basket and she had bottles containing the mee siam gravy. So when you wanted one, she would pour some gravy into that plastic bag. There are still some good Muslim Cuisines around but most do not sell a lot of stuff but restricted to just a few. I found one at Hougang Ave 5 that does everything then I found another. 

It's like 7-Eleven, open 24 hours it says.

I tried the beef satay. The beef was quite tender but the peanut gravy is a little sweet.

Well, I always love Tahu Goreng. Tahu goreng is best eaten when it is piping hot with crispy skin outside and fresh and soft inside with lots of cucumber and bean sprout and a solid peanut/asam gravy. This is not bad at all but I would love the bean sprout to be more turgid not flaccid.

I have mee rebus more often than the rest so I tried the mee soto. What I love best about mee soto is the soup especially after you throw in spoonfuls of chilli padi. 

Mee Siam is one of the easiest food to eat. The sweet/sour combo with chilli is big on waking you up.

What about Lontong? It is truly a great dish, healthy too with lots of vegetables with tahu. I can just buy some home and later pour it over my rice and a meal is complete.

As I haven't had kueh lopeh or simply lopeh for some time I decided to get a couple. A good lopeh must not be too soft and the dessicated coconut must be generous. The single most important ingredient is the gula melaka. Water gula melaka is a turn off, it must be thick and strong.

Although I was fairly satisfied with most of the food, my favourite was their nasi lemak. They may have taken it from a supplier. They come around only from 7.45 to 8pm and they are freshly packed and warm.

I simply love such nasi lemak because this was how we have them when I was young - packed in banana leaf. This one is good because the rice is soft and it is not a huge packet with only very crsipy ikan bilis and fish. Finally, the chilli. Nasi lemak is done or undone by the chilli. This one is power. It is one of the better nasi lemak in banana leaf that I have tried for sometime. 

Next to it is a Muslim zi char so I got an omelette to compliment the nasi lemak. You know how a simple omelette can do wonders to a nasi lemak? I was a happy man.

There are so much more to explore, to repeat, to find out and to share.