I felt the need to put up some reviews on the food from the
eastern part of Singapore. This plus the fact that we were posted to Skin Centre
which is just ten minutes to Geylang (where some of the best food is reputed to be)
convinced us to make the pilgrimage. Our first intention (or at least my first
intention) was to try out the famed Geylang Beef Kway Teow (or hor fun) that according to
everyone I know from the east is "across the road from the famous beef kway
teow". Have I thoroughly confused you yet? Well, it turns out that
neither the famous nor the famous-wanna-be stalls were open. Either that or we were
totally hopeless at finding our way in the east.
Next we decided to try the famous hokkien mee which Jason and Eugene both recommended
(supposedly charcoal flame fried, though I can't really figure out the difference).
Again, it was a futile attempt. The stall was closed, or at any rate, it didn't have
enough business to warrant it being called "famous", but that's another
argument.
We finally ended up (after looping through the lorongs of Geylang) at Lorong 39
Geylang. This was where Yee Sze, the undisputed Teochew Porridge expert (or at least
that's what Brother Ngian says) claimed was a good teochew "moi" (porridge)
stall. We had to try it to believe it. After (fortunately) finding a small
lane in which to illegally park (this seems to be habit forming), we proceeded to the
stall proper. We were warmly greeted by the stallholders and directed to our seats.
Personally I don't do much ordering when I eat teochew "moi", my only
requisites are the "lor ap" (duck in broth), the "kiam chye" (salted
vegetables) and the fried "chye poh" egg (my teochew's not bad for a canton kid
huh?). The other dishes we had were (at Eugene's request) "ter kar" (pork
leg), steamed sotong, minced meat with bean paste.
The duck was very good, tender and tasty with a distinct taste of cinnammon. As
with most teochew "moi" places, though, the serving was typically small. I
can't say the same for the pork leg though, it was one huge monster! For some reason
or other (perhaps it's their individual style) they ended up serving the leg of pork in
ONE HUGE portion. We had to ask them to take it back to chop it into civilized
pieces!
The rest of the meal was pretty much regular teochew "moi", the salted
vegetables was above average, but otherwise unremarkable. We did not have the
stomach to try the steamed pomfret which is another trademark dish of teochew restaurants.
The food is definitely good enough to warrant a return trip, so I'll try it next
time.
By the way, remember to try their homemade barley, it's pretty good and there aren't
that many places that still make homestyle barley water anymore...
The final price tally? 28 bucks for food for four.
Yeen Kiat had one last thing to commend them about though; their early warning system
is pretty good! Just as we were preparing to leave, the familiar sunhat lady showed
up with her fearsome ticketing machine. The guys at the stall immediately started
creating a commotion, warning us to check our carpark coupons! (I had to make a
quick exit at that point in time, I don't exactly remember why though ;) )
The final verdict? Three and a half stars. If you're a fan of Teochew
Porridge, do give it a try, and foodback to me OK?
- Yuen Ho
