Ming Chung Restaurant

Would you ever get tired of fine dining? No? Yes? Let's say you go to a restaurant a few times a week and you have your steak, lamb, pork, shark's fins, etc. Would you like a change? May be you would be thinking, I just want to have mee siam.

Even going to a coffee shop or hawker centre, you will soon get tired of the food too. Are there some magic food out there where you can partake umpteen times and not get weary, where you can afford and not feel the pinch, where it is healthy and you feel no guilt? 

In Singapore, we are spoilt for choices as we must have almost every other food in the world. Yet, if you were to be asked for a certain kind of food or recommendation or simply to have over lunch or dinner, you get many folks scratching their heads. What should we eat?

And so, I set out to find good food at very reasonable and affordable prices, is healthy and yet something you could possibly eat over and over again. So I came to Ming Chung Restaurant at 67, Maude Road. Ming Chung is a Heng Hwa restaurant that was started in - listen carefully, 1933! For that matter, Heng Hwa has been spelled as Heng Hua or Hing Hua but basically Heng Hwa people originated from Putien in Fujian province of China.

Heng Hwa citizens of Singapore are a minority dialect group just as Hainanese are as compared to say the Hokkien, Teochew or Cantonese. Strangely enough, despite these facts, I have plenty of Hainanese friends and quite a few Heng Hwa friends. In my case, it isn't proportionate. Ming Chung has two style of seating available - air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned. I was early and before the main peak hour crowd and still a little warm outside so I chose to be in air-con.

When they served the utensils, it was unmistakably Heng Hwa and rooted to the original way when I first had Heng Hwa food and that was in my youth - a pot of hot water to dip you utensils in. I like that. 

I was not able to order too much as to do that we need more people. We started with the deep fried Batang fish or some of you will know it is also called Tenggiri fish because it is best eaten warm or hot. These are probably lightly salted and deep fried. They are very tasty and can actually be eaten on its own or if you like dip them in light soy sauce with red cut chilli and another alternative being their chilli sauce. This is something I can have frequently and won't get tired easily. Fabulous!

Next, I did the "Lor Mee". This is not your regular dark lor mee you find at markets and hawker centre. This the special Heng Hwa lor mee. The noodles are wheat noodles that are light in colour and have a nice texture as it isn't soft or soggy. It comes in a very tasty broth that could probably be pork or chicken stock with fresh seafood like prawns and clams. The more I tasted this, the more I like it and I was saying to myself - hey, I could eat this everyday! Serious.

Heng Hwa cuisine also has this dry-fried bee hoon (vermicelli) with seafood. They always use the finest bee hoon so much thinner than the usual bee hoon you have from most hawkers or restaurants. This item will appeal to those who like the meals light especially the ladies. It is healthy too and easy to eat.

Lala or flower clams are wonderful. They are sweet and juicy. The version here has a light gravy with garlic and a light touch of chilli to spice things up a notch. Why not more spicy? Because if you know well, Heng Hwa food has a way of cooking that brings out the flavour with natural ingredients. 

The combination of the sweetness of the flower clams with the flavour from the natural ingredients makes this an excellent dish to savour. I'll need a large portion the next time.

It was so good I made the ultimate sacrifice to have the last one.

Although it was quite filling by then I still polished up the bowl of lor mee. I could have slurped it up so that they do not need to clean the bowl. This was the best dinner I had for an entire month! It tasted like home-cooked too. Sometimes in life, you want to have the best things, you do not need to look too far. They can be right before your eyes. This gem is one of them. 

Such good no frills food at very reasonable price. Where to find?

Hungry go where? Hungry come here!

I was too engrossed with the food such that I committed the cardinal sin of not having a photo taken with the boss. What will I do now? I am coming back for more! There are other dishes to try. So in this case I shall be bringing friends and family so that I could order a wider selection. I shall be reporting on this again and yes, this time I must have that photo with the boss.

Watch this space.