Saturday, January 5, 2019

Mei Mei Roast : the alternative to Kay Lee Roast Meat

Madam Lee Kui In, 56, better known by her nickname, Mei Mei (妹妹), which means younger sister, is the younger sister of the founder of famous Kay Lee Roast Meat that sold their recipe for $4 million to Aztech Group in 2014. She used to work for Kay Lee Roast Meat for a good 15 years before starting this stall with her husband at the canteen in an industrial building more than a decade ago, serving old style Cantonese roast meats. 

I was there on the last day of 2018 for lunch. There was a regular customer came by to take away and another customer ordered half a roasted duck and $10 worth of roasted meat with 2 plates of rice. As it is not difficult to tell from their uniforms that these regular customers are wearing that they are mostly the mechanics working in the machine shops nearby. While ordering, I caught sight of an Apollo oven right behind the stall. I ordered a single serving of a roasted duck, roast pork and char siew ($7.00) with a plate of rice ($0.50). The friendly assistant asked, "Any soup?" and I went with a Lotus Root Soup ($4).


The Char Siew tasted like those from Kay Lee Roast Meat though not quite the same, it was nicely charred, not as dark in color, also not as sweet and sticky. It was actually quite good but my dining companion said, "After eating the Char Siew from Roast Paradise, most of the others just seemed so mediocre."


The duck came with a thin layer of skin, the meat did not have gamey taste and tasted quite flavorful. The roast pork had a good proportion of fat and lean meat, it tasted moist and with a slightly crisp skin.


The Lotus Root Soup consists of slices of lotus root, pork ribs with rice beans.


This was my first time came across these beans and actually wondered what are these. My dining companion said, "It looks like rice but tasted like beans." I posted the picture online and was told these are the rice beans, the Chinese name is 赤小豆, it supposed to have certain nutritional aspects. 


This stall is a good alternative to the Kay Lee Roast Meat as their standard is going south after setting up the central kitchen and opening of more outlets. I remember talking to KF Seetoh about their declining standard after the acquisition by Aztech Group and he said, "They should just stick to do what they are best in doing."


MEI MEI ROAST
Block 3014 Ubi Road 1 #01-308 SINGAPORE 408702
Operating Hours: 11.00 am to 5.00 pm (Mon to Fri) / 11.00 am to 3.00 pm (Sun & Public Holiday)

3 comments:

  1. https://imgur.com/a/4mH5JVI

    I went for lunch today. I don't think I'll go again unless I happen to be in the area and I might go for other stalls instead.

    I still think you should try 鼎聚香 at Bishan 151. You can see from the bottom two photos, the roast pork had much better skin compared to mei mei. Both are crispy but the Bishan one is thicker cut. Both are same price at $4. Char siew I prefer Bishan also. Reason being the ubi one uses more fatty meat which has more 筋 and becomes chewy. Taste wise both are comparable.

    Bishan uses chacoal fire.

    The boss used to work at Mouth Restaurant for many years before venturing out. He has at least three stalls now.

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  2. I will try the one at Bishan. Do you know their opening hours?

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    1. 8am-9pm everyday but I suggest going before lunch time. The morning session is prepared by the boss himself. They are on Facebook too.

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