Community Development Council vouchers
10 eats in north-east Singapore – tried and tested
These places in Ang Mo Kio and Hougang offer tasty food that is also value for money
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From kway chap to roti prata, here are 10 stalls and eateries in the north-east where you can spend your Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers on yummy and value-for-money meals. They include famous stalls like Sin Heng Kee Porridge in Hougang to hidden gems such as Hong Feng La Mian & Xiao Long Bao in Ang Mo Kio.
• This is the first of a six-part monthly series on the best eats islandwide that take CDC vouchers.
• For the full list of places that accept CDC vouchers, go to www.gowhere.gov.sg/cdcvouchersmerchants
• Follow Hedy Khoo on Instagram and Straits Times Food on Instagram and Facebook.
Hearty goodness
1 SIN HENG KEE PORRIDGE
WHERE 01-150, 685 Hougang Street 61
OPEN 7am to 8pm, Wednesdays to Mondays; closed on Tuesdays
Be prepared to wait in line for up to 30 minutes during lunch hour. Or go after 2.30pm when the crowd thins out.
Top items include the Signature Porridge ($6.50), which comes with sliced pork, housemade meatball, pork liver, powder intestines, sliced dory, minced chicken, century egg and cuttlefish.
Much care goes into the preparation of the porridge.
The powder intestines are braised in spices before they are added to the porridge.
The ingredient portions are generous. The thick pork liver slices are tender and powdery, while the slices of fresh lean pork are smooth and well marinated, without the use of tenderisers.
The Double Pork Porridge ($4.50) may seem like an overload of pork, but the meat is so well marinated, most customers polish off the entire bowl. The Mixed Pig Organ Porridge ($5) is an offal lover’s dream.
The eatery uses Thai new crop rice for its porridge, which is thick and filling. What ties this addictive dish together is house-fried shallot oil.
Xiao long bao beats those from some famous chains
2 HONG FENG LA MIAN & XIAO LONG BAO
WHERE Stall 3, 01-1771, 122 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
OPEN 9am to 8pm, Thursdays to Tuesdays; closed on Wednesdays
TEL 9727-0628
The Shanghai Xiao Long Bao ($6 for six) at this coffee-shop stall are among the best soup dumplings I have eaten in a while – even better than those from famous international restaurant chains.
The skin of the dumplings – freshly wrapped throughout the day – is delicately thin, yet strong enough to hold the soup and fresh minced pork filling.
No detail is overlooked. The ginger is finely and evenly shredded with a mandolin slicer, not sloppily cut as is often the case at many other places selling soup dumplings.
The plump fried dumplings ($5 for eight, $6 for 10, above background) come in the shape of round taels – a wrapping style traditionally used during festive occasions, which requires more time and skill, says stall owner Hu Yanhong, 50.
She also takes pride in using only fresh chilled pork for her filling and wrappers prepared from housemade dough. The filling is generously packed with garlic chives and the dumplings are fried to order, over low heat so they turn out golden brown and crisp.
The Lao Bei Jing Zha Jiang Mian (dry, $4.50, left) is a steal. The springy noodles are covered in minced pork with a fermented bean sauce that takes two hours to cook over a low fire.
Each bowl comes with two large pieces of woodear mushroom and plenty of crisp shredded cucumber.
Offally good
3 LAO SAN KWAY CHAP
WHERE Stall 5, 01-1196, 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
OPEN 8am to 8pm, Fridays to Wednesdays; closed on Thursdays
The $5 set gives the best value for money at this much-lauded kway chap stall. But with increasing prices, it no longer comes with a braised egg, unless you pay an extra $1.
Nonetheless, what is on the plate is yummy and, most importantly, the offal is well cleaned with no odour.
The set comes with a big bowl of rice noodle squares in a broth flavoured with Chinese herbs such as chuan xiong (Sichuan lovage), half a tau kwa or fish cake, and one serving each of braised pork belly and large intestines.
I recommend topping up $1 for the cai buay (salted vegetables), which is perfectly cooked in lard and garlic.
Another $5 dish is the braised pork trotter. The braising sauce is flavourful from the use of star anise and cinnamon. The pork – thoroughly infused with a mix of spices and premium soya sauce – is tender.
Tender pork rib noodles
4 GUO QIN NOODLE
WHERE Stall 2B, 01-06, 631 Hougang Avenue 8
OPEN 4.45am to 6pm (weekdays), 4.45am to 5pm (weekends); closed on alternate Tuesdays
The pork rib noodle ($4) is a must-try here. You get four chunks of flavour-soaked, utterly tender ribs.
Ask for hor fun instead of the usual egg noodles. The slurpworthy hor fun goes better with the pork ribs as it soaks up the gravy so you do not waste a drop. The pork has an almost creamy mouthfeel.
The dumpling noodle ($4.20) comes with three large handmade dumplings with a filling of fresh pork and water chestnut. The pork is bouncy and sweet.
Do not dismiss the small bowl of plain broth that accompanies the noodles. It is packed with flavour as it is cooked with 10kg of pork bones every morning.
Aromatic curry, cheery maggi goreng, crispy prata
5 SIN MING ROTI PRATA
WHERE 01-51, 24 Sin Ming Road
OPEN 6.30am to 6pm daily; closed on alternate Fridays TEL 6453-3893
The coin prata ($4.50 for six pieces) is crispy with a slight chewiness, and the accompanying spicy curry brims with dal and mutton flavours.
The stall also whips up a mean maggi goreng ($4.50), which comes with a sunny-side-up complete with a runny yolk.
The fried noodles, which are not greasy, are cooked with the pack of seasoning that comes with the instant noodles. But there is also plenty of flavour from the housemade sambal packed with onion, garlic, ginger and chilli.
If the cooks have time, they may decorate your plate with a smiley face using ketchup.
For something more hearty, go for the nasi briyani with chicken curry set ($6). The rice has a distinct fragrance of rose water used in the cooking process.
The chicken curry is rich, thick and aromatic with spices.
Robust prawn noodle soup
6 UNCLE LOUIS PRAWN NOODLE
WHERE 01-112 Cheng San Market And Cooked Food Centre, 527 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10
OPEN 5.30am to 2pm, Wednesdays to Mondays; closed on Tuesdays
The robust prawn noodle soup ($5) here is a refreshing change from the diluted monosodium glutamate-laden versions I often encounter.
When he could not find a prawn noodle stall good enough to satisfy his cravings, stall owner Louis Ong, 58, opened his own in March. He also runs a chicken rice stall in the same food centre.
His way of cooking the broth is how a fastidious home cook would do it. He prepares it from large pork bones, chicken carcasses, chicken feet, jicama, rock sugar and sugar cane.
The backbone of the soup is house-fried shallots, which he double-fries in two batches.
The ingredients for just one pot of broth cost about $70. The resulting broth is clear, but incredibly tasty, and I slurp up every drop. It has a meaty flavour not found in artificially sweetened broth, and I can taste the fresh sweetness of the sea-farmed prawns from Ecuador, which have a crunchy texture.
Mixed with the prawn noodles are slices of well-marinated lean pork and bouncy handmade Teochew fish cake packed with spring onion, carrot and chilli.
Toast to fermented wine mee sua
7 LAO LIN FISHBALL NOODLE
WHERE Stall 4A, 01-1690, 202 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
OPEN 7am to 6pm; no fixed days off
Stall owner Lim Yaling, 45, is not Hockchew, but her rendition of red fermented wine chicken mee sua ($6) is a pretty valiant effort at recreating the dish from the dialect group.
Originally from Anxi County in China’s Fujian province, Madam Lim grew up eating red wine lees with rice or porridge – like how Teochews pair pickles with porridge.
For her dish, she combines her housemade wine lees with commercially available ones. She adds a dash of a deeply aromatic rice wine with a dark caramel hue to each bowl of mee sua, which comes with four to five pieces of tender, boneless chicken thigh meat. The mee sua is filling and Madam Lim does not stint on the toothsome broth either.
Taste of Bangkok
8 HUAY KWANG THAI WANTON MEE
WHERE 01-1682, 202 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
OPEN 10am to 9pm, Tuesdays to Sundays; closed on Mondays
Get a taste of Bangkok at this eatery, which serves up Thai-style Char Siew Wanton Noodle ($6) and Braised Pork Trotter Kuay Teow ($6, below) that are value for money.
The wonton noodles ($6) come with two fried dumplings, six to seven slices of caramelised pork belly char siew and three slices of Thai fish sausage – along with a bowl of soup with three pieces of wonton.
The pale yellow noodles are carefully blanched and garnished with fried garlic and golden lard croutons. Help yourself to the dry chilli flakes at the counter, but be warned that they pack some serious heat.
The pork trotter kway teow comes with five thick chopstick-tender slices of braised trotter meat, three slices of dried mushroom and thick-stemmed kailan which is soft and not fibrous. The pickled mustard balances out the meatiness.
As the kway teow is the thin type and more like Ipoh hor fun, it is best to eat the dish quickly, as the noodles turn mushy if left in the broth for too long.
Nasi lemak with sambal for chilli fiends
9 NASI LEMAK AYAM TALIWANG
WHERE 01-40 Ci Yuan Hawker Centre, 51 Hougang Avenue 9
OPEN 5.30am to 7.30pm, Tuesdays to Sundays; closed on Mondays
The chilli sauces, which are aromatic and pack quite a sting, are the star at this hawker stall run by co-owner Vikhram Muhammad Ikhram Mansoor, 42.
The Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang ($6.20) is a set meal that comes with a whole grilled chicken leg, a sunny-side-up and a serving of ikan bilis and nuts.
The chicken meat is pressure-cooked till tender before grilling. The red sambal that covers the meat is made from both red finger chillies and chilli padi. It is lip-smackingly delicious.
Nasi Lemak Cabe Ijo ($6.20, left) is similar except for the green sambal, which is made from green finger chillies, as well as red and green chilli padi.
The stall uses fresh coconut milk to cook Thai hom mali rice.
Beautifully browned satay
10 SWEE SATAY
WHERE Stall 5A, 01-257, 644 Hougang Avenue 8
OPEN Noon to 10pm, Thursdays to Tuesdays; closed on Wednesdays
TEL 9789-8131
Swee Satay, which has been dishing out smoky charcoal-grilled satay since 1987, has a huge following of regulars.
While the chicken satay (70 cents a stick) is tasty, I wish there were more meat on each skewer. The meat is well marinated with spices such as galangal, lemongrass, ground cumin and coriander.
The pork belly satay (70 cents a stick) is the best choice. The meat is beautifully browned, not overly charred. Fragrance from the charcoal permeates the juicy meat.
Swee Satay owner Lee Bee Heok, 63, uses leaf-wrapped ketupat (70 cents each) instead of those cooked in plastic.
At first glance, the satay sauce appears diluted, but dip the meat in and you will find it nutty, aromatic and not overly oily.
