Ah Hua Assam : homely comfort food

This stall is started by Ah Hua and her son, Bryan Wong in July 2019. The menu includes Signature Assam Chicken ($4.50), Braised Chicken ($4.50) that are served with rice and also Assam Fish Head ($15/$20), Handmade Ngor Hiang ($1.50) and Fried Bee Hoon ($1.00).

I went back for the second time within a week. This time, I decided to try the Assam Fried Bee Hoon, added a piece of ngor hiang and egg omelet for $3. Bryan asked, "Do you want sauce for your bee hoon? Curry or Assam sauce?" I replied, "What do you recommend?" He said, "I will say half of the curry sauce and half of Assam sauce." I nodded my head. When he handed the plate to me, I asked, "Ah Hua is your partner ah? The Ah Hua on the signboard is a female and so it cannot be you." He pointed to the lady that was cooking right behind and said, "That is Ah Hua and she is my mother." Ah Hua turned and smiled at me then back to her cooking. Their main ingredient is the Assam chilli paste for all their dishes. And, they have been selling the Assam Chilli Paste online for quite a while before starting this stall.

The Assam fried bee hoon was served on a traditional enamel plate and it tasted quite nice. I could actually taste the spice from the Assam chilli paste but the bee hoon was broken up into shorter strands though. It was done on purpose or caused by the quality of the bee hoon? 

I ordered the Assam Chicken, Ngor Hiang, Curry Vegetable, and Chap Chye with rice for $5.50 during my first visit. The chicken drumstick was nicely cooked in the Assam chilli paste to the desired tenderness and it did not taste as spicy as it looked. I am so used to eating Assam Fish and this was the first time trying Assam Chicken. When my dining companion tasted the handmade ngor hiang, he said, "This is quite good. I could actually taste bits of chestnut in it and quite flavorful too." The chap chye and curry vegetable were cooked well to a nice softness. These dishes tasted like what a mother will cook at home and a homecooked meal is always homely yet comforting.

AH HUA ASSAM
335 Smith Street #02-106 Chinatown Complex Food Centre SINGAPORE 050335

Operating Hours: 10.00 am to 7.00 pm 

Baba Peranakan : comfort food

Edwin Tan, 61, the owner, used to be working as a chef in the hotel industry for about 20 years before starting this stall a decade ago. He started cooking at the tender age of 12, using the recipes by his mother and his grandmother for Nonya dishes. He is serving tasty and comforting Nonya fare at this stall that tucked away at the corner of this popular food centre. I was there about 11 am but there was already a queue. Most of them are regular customers and I am one of them. Some of my usual choices are Ayam Goreng, Sayur Lemak, and Onion Omelette. These dishes are usually cooked in a small portion to ensure its freshness. 

The Ayam Goreng ($3) came in a piece of perfectly deep-fried chicken drumstick and it is my usual favorite. The chicken is well-seasoned with chilli, curry powder, ginger, and shallots for 5 hours before cooking. The Onion Omelette consists of egg, onion, spring onion and chilli for a good portion at just $1. Sayur Lemak is a vegetable curry, the main ingredients are cabbage and slices of fried taupok. It was then cooked well to the desired tenderness and served in the light but tasty gravy. Another comforting dish that I will order is the canned Sardine in tomato sauce, a homely dish that my late Grandpa used to cook for me.

BABA PERANAKAN

335 Smith Street #02-225 Chinatown Complex Food Centre SINGAPORE

Operating Hours: 10.00 am to 1.30 pm (Closed on Wednesdays)

Xiang Wei Qing Economical Rice : homely meal

I was told by a friend that this economical rice stall is a new venture of Douglas Ng, the owner of Fishball Story. This is the new stall that replaced the previous stall after the renovation of that coffee shop. There are 3 coffee shops near the AMK 628 Food Centre, each coffee shop has an economical rice stall but none is as popular as the Nonya Curry Mixed Veg Rice (#01-58) stall in the food centre and I have been a regular customer there. 

I went with my dining companion for lunch on a weekday, the selection of their dishes was not too extensive. I wanted to try their Lemon Chicken but was told it is not available but only the choices of Curry Chicken and Fried Chicken. I decided to go with the Fried Chicken and I was asked to choose the part. The server suggested to take the thigh portion and he offered to cut it into smaller pieces. I wanted to try the Steamed Meat with Salted Fish together with Sweet & Sour Pork and Sambal Potato Leave with 2 plates of rice for $12.20. They were using some of the plates left by the previous stall. Everything was neatly arranged on a tray for self-service. I took notice of the Combi Oven right behind, this is not a common sight at such a hawker stall in the coffee shop. 

This was not the first time that I have tried their Fried Chicken. It was quite good this time, freshly fried and the skin still retained its crispiness though the meat was not as flavorful. Sometimes, it was slightly greasy when it was left for too long and did not taste as good. 

The Steamed Meat with Salted Fish was slightly disappointed. This is likely to be one of those dishes prepared using the combi oven at the stall. The meat was not as soft as I would like it, steamed with a small piece of salted fish and shredded ginger. 

The Sweet & Sour Pork tasted decent though not much of a surprise. Those pieces of pork were deep-fried before adding in the pineapple and cucumber followed by the sweet and sour sauce. It was not as saucy but with a balanced flavor. 

The Sambal Sweet Leaves tasted homely, it would definitely be nicer if it is spicier as its spiciness was a little too mild. 

Though not impressively good, it is good enough for a homely meal.

XIANG WEI QING ECONOMICAL RICE

Block 630 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 SINGAPORE 560630

Tony Cafe : fried chicken wings are just so so

My dining companion sent me a picture of the fried chicken wings rice from Tony Cafe just other day accompanied by texts stating, "I still prefer those from Victor's Chicken and the rice was mushy" and "You are not missing out".  Tony Cafe has been around since 2002, hidden at the quiet corner of The Adelphi at level 2. Shirley, the owner, took over the cafe about 19 years ago. She used to be working in the same building and got the news that the owner was letting go of the cafe and she decided to take over. 

The chicken wings are only available on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, it is based on the same recipe as the now-defunct Corona Chicken. They serve meatball on Tuesdays and Hainanese pork chop on Thursdays. I did not see the chicken wings when I was there at 10.40 am so I asked, "Do you have chicken wings today?" The lady replied, "Yes." I added, "I am here especially for your chicken wings." There was no reply nor a smile so I did not take the conversation further. 

I decided to go with chicken rice though plain rice is available too and I added a fried egg with a portion of stir-fried brinjal for $4.80. The chicken wings were coated in a layer of light batter and beautifully fried to a golden brown. When tasted, though crispy but it was quite oily and also, it did not have much flavor. In my humble opinion, it is not as good as Victor Famous Chicken Wing and Hainanese Chicken Rice in a coffee shop at Veerasamy Road. I was expecting the standard of those chicken wings to be better thus feeling disappointed. Martin, a friend on Facebook went to Tony Cafe for their chicken wings just last week. He commented that it was very good, crispy and flavorful. He felt that it was slightly better than Victor's. The rice was not mushy as mentioned by my dining companion, the flavor was light and not greasy.

The queue started to form after 11.00 am and getting longer when I was leaving. 

TONY CAFE

1 Coleman Street #02-23 The Adelphi SINGAPORE 1798903

Operating Hours: 8.00 am to 8.00 pm (Mon to Fri) / 8.00 am to 5.00 pm (Sat) (Closed on Sundays)

Wasai-Ya Japanese Mixed Rice : Not quite Japanese and so so taste

Wasai-Ya, which means The House of Japanese Cuisine, is the first Japanese mixed rice concept in Singapore. They are located in the food court at Junction 8 in Bishan, just next to the Bishan MRT station. It mentioned on their Facebook page that 'we serve authentic Japanese cuisine the Singaporean way.' It also mentioned right there that their menu is created by Executive Chef Sahashi that has over 27 years of experience preparing traditional Japanese food. It has also indicated there that such a dining concept is by Dining Innovation Pte Ltd which also manages Sumire Yakitori & Izakaya and Shaburi. 

There is a poster which stated Set Menu and clearly listed out Set A at $3.90 (2 green dots), Set B at $4.90 (1 green dot and 1 red dot), Set C at $5.90 (3 green dots), Set D at $6.90 (1 red dot and 2 green dots) and Set E at $7.90 (2 red dots and 1 green dot). Each set menu is served with Miso Soup and rice. I did ask what is the difference between red dot and green dot? The server pointed to those dishes displayed and said, every dish has either a red dot or a green dot to indicate its value. I decided to go with Set E, which means i could choose 2 dishes that has a red dot and 1 dish with a green dot.

There is also a Curry Promotion for Pork Katsu & Vege Curry Don at $4.90, Beef Suki Cheese Curry Don at $6.90 and Crispy Chicken Katsu Curry Don at $5.90. 

The 2 red dot dishes that i have selected were fried cereal chicken and dory fish with spicy sweet sauce. As for the green dot dish, i went for chicken with egg and onion. I did not bother to remember those Japanese sounding names for these dishes. I was asked whether to have it with curry sauce. The overall presentation reminded me of the Hainanese curry rice. 

The dory fish with sweet sauce did not manage to impress. The texture of the fish was quite soft after soaked in the curry sauce for a bit and it did not have much taste of the spicy sweet sauce that it supposed to have. 

The chicken with egg and onion tasted equally ordinary, it was nicely cooked with a slight sweetness likely from the mirin. 

The fried cereal chicken tasted just like those that are commonly available at those economical mixed rice stalls, though still have a slight crispiness but the skin was a bit too dark and a little tough.

I am absolutely not convinced that this is Japanese style mixed rice as i did not taste much of the Japanese factor in it. I would rather go to a usual economical mixed rice stall that offers better dishes at a cheaper price. The menu may has been designed by some experienced chef but if it is not nicely executed, it would not deliver the supposedly authentic flavor after all. This is probably the case here.

WASAI-YA JAPANESE MIXED RICE

Junction 8 Food Junction Stall #MR4 SINGAPORE

Operating Hours: 10.00 am to 11.00 pm

Teochew Porridge

It was a raining afternoon and we wanted something warm and i thought of this teochew porridge.

I was there at about 11.45 am when they just opened. There was already a queue of about 6 people in the line and i decided to join in. Most of the customers seemed to be their regulars as they do know what to order. This was my first time eating there so i decided to follow suit.

I waited for about 10 minutes to place my order. I ordered 2 bowls of white porridge, a plate of braised meat, a platte of tau kwa and tau pork, a plate of minced meat with fermented beans as well as a plate of braised cabbage. All the dishes were for 2 pax. When done ordering, i left them with my table number then helped myself with the spoons and chopsticks. If you do not like porridge, they do have rice as an option as well. I only paid a total of $7.00 for all the dishes and the 2 bowls of porridge. 

All the dishes and the porridge were served by a nice auntie right after i seated down at my table.

The braised meat was very well-braised to give it the right texture and the flavor. It might looked rather fat but it did not taste too oily at all but rather soft and tender. The portion give was rather generous. 

The tua kwa and tau pok seemed to be a popular choice as almost every customer ordered it. Though it tasted just average but it went really went with the plain porridge. 

My favourite amongst all the dishes gotta be the mined meat cooked with fermented beans. It is a very homely dish, something that most families will cooked at home to go with the porridge. It was a little saltish if eat it on its own but the saltiness tasted just right when have it with porridge. And that dish alone was good enough to finish 2 bowls of porridge. My partner went back to get another bowl of porridge for 0.50 cents.

The braised cabbage was my another favourite and i had it all by myself as my partner does not like eating cabbage at all. The cabbage was well-braised to obtain the desired softness with a distinctive taste of dried shrimps. Some people like it if they prefer a crunchier version.

It was a satisfying lunch and i will definitely be back more often.

Strongly recommended.

ECONOMIC MIXED VEGETABLE RICE

Block 341 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 #01-13 SINGAPORE 560341.

The Homely Taste

This cooked stall is a hidden gem in my neighborhood. There is always a constant long queue right at this stall during lunch and dinner. I wanted to try before but turned off by the long queue but i made up my mind to try it this time. I was there at about 7.30 pm and there was already a long queue of more than 10 people as expected. I queued and waited for about 10 minutes to order the foods and waited for another 15 minutes for the foods to be served to our table. 

The dishes that i ordered were Squids with Thai Chilli, Stir-fried Cabbage, Sweet & Sour Pork and Steamed Fish with 3 bowls of porridge for only $10.20. It is cheaper than we expected. I think that is most probably the reason to explain the constant long queue of customers. 

My favourite has got to be the Steamed Fish. Almost every table ordered it and some tables even ordered 2 or more. The fish was of an average sized and nicely steamed with salted vegetable. It tasted really fresh. The fish was tender and juicy with no fishy smell. 

Though Stir-fried cabbage is a simple but they cooked it quite well. They have gotten the texture of the cabbage just right.

The Steamed Squids with Thai Chilli was chosen over the braised meat and it has been proven to be a better choice. The thai chilli sauce a difference in this dish. 

The Sweet & Sour Pork is another must try dish. The pork used has gotten a good balance of fat and lean meat and well seasoned. They fried it well before stir-fried with the sweet & sour sauce together with ingredients like onion, pineapple and cucumber. 

There are fermented bean sauce and chilli sauce available for self-service. The saltiness of the fermented bean sauce complemented the Steamed Fish and plain porridge really went.

I really enjoyed the homely taste of these dishes with porridge. I will definitely be back soon.

ANN HOO COOKED FOOD

Block 527 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 Cheng San Food Centre SINGAPORE 560527.

Teochew Porridge - Homely Taste

I have been wanting to try it but turned off by the forever long queue. I came on a Saturday evening and waited in queue for about 20 minutes to order. Some of the dishes that i ordered were Steamed Squids with Thai Chilli, Stir-fried Cabbage, Sweet & Sour Pork and Steamed Fish.

ANN HOO COOKED FOOD

Block 527 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10

#01-126

SINGAPORE 560527

Operating Hours: 11.00 am to 10.00 pm

Closed on Friday