Ban Mian & Oodles of Noodles

Hi Makan Kakis,

We welcome back our foodie friend and founder of one-stop online shop for all things durian, Josiah Seow of Golden Moments. This week, he tells us all about his favourite Ban Mian stall and I headed over to check it out. True to nature, besides his soupy recommendation, I ended up ordering MORE!

HEAR:

SEE:

He Xing Ban Mian Zhi Jia are quite famous at Sims Vista Food Centre and are known for being their vast array of traditional noodle dishes. For a warming bowl of comfort, you really can’t go wrong with the stall’s viscous signature soup, which has a lot of body and a collagen-y mouthfeel. Its cloudiness is testament to all the meaty, seafoody goodness that goes into its making.

Josiah is partial to their soup with you mian – a springy, al dente noodle he likens to spaghetti. A typical order for him would be regular $3.50 you main soup with $3 extra “liao” of pork and vegetables.

Makan CAR-Kis: Driver Vincent Recommends Unique Green Chilli Rice

This is Part 6 of our series featuring taxi and private hire drivers who show us where to find the best eats across Singapore. Just for a little twist on this food hunt, the drivers get a break and I drive them instead! This week, private hire driver Vincent Lee recommended we give Green Chilli Chicken Rice at Sims Vista Food Centre a try.  It’s dish I’d heard of and even seen in pictures he sent me, but that I hadn’t tasted before.

“You won’t regret it,” was Vincent’s promise, as he explained his personal rule for food recommendations. “It must be nice, only then I will take a photo and share.” And share he does, frequently, in various group chats on his phone.

• READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
• WATCH: Denise try Vincent’s recommendation on Mediacorp GOLD905’s FB Page.
• LISTEN: 

The avid home cook and foodie became a private hire driver when he turned 60 last March, enjoying it as “something to do” in semi-retirement. Vincent’s conversations with passengers usually centre around his favourite subject. “When I pick them up or go to a new place, I always ask ‘where’s the good food here?’,” he said.

The confident cook also often whips up fried bee hoon, assam pedas and Hainanese chicken rice for frequent gatherings with friends and family. Fried Hokkien mee is his children’s favourite and his go-to comfort food is Teochew porridge. 

“I’m definitely a party guy,” he declared. Indeed, fun is an almost daily affair for Vincent and his friends who gather after work for “happy hour”. He joked, “Actually, my favorite pastime is drinking beer!”

Sims Vista Food Centre is one of Vincent’s regular mid-morning stops, just a stone’s throw from where he grew up. “Before I got married, I stayed at Geylang Lorong 16 for 25 years,” he said, happy to be back in his old neighbourhood.

Parked and primed for our meal, we met with the “founder of Green Chilli since 1999” Mr Mustajab Ibrahim (Uncle Jab), 74. “My own invention. Others may copy but they are not the same,” he told me proudly.

He used to sell nasi lemak and various types of biryani before creating his signature dish. But on his wife’s advice, he finally decided to focus on green chilli chicken rice. Settling at Sims Vista about 10 years ago, it took a while to gain the interest of customers.

“When I started, nobody knew. They would ask me, ‘Apa? Apa?’ (‘what is this’ in Malay),” Uncle Jab recounted. Now, the stall sees long queues forming each day, which was what first attracted Vincent to the stall – he joined the line to see what the fuss was about. Since then, he returns at least twice a month for his fix because “the green chili is so beautiful and fragrant”.

Each signature $6 set consists of rice, a whole, bone-in chicken leg slathered in green chilli sambal, fish keropok, two carved cucumber slices, a side dollop of red chilli sambal and soup.

Makan CAR-Kis: Driver Recommends Ayam Berempah Nasi Lemak

Even before driving to pick her up, I already felt a certain kinship with our first female Makan Kaki of this series, private hire driver Michelle Lee, 64. Meeting my long-time listener was going to be a delicious experience, if the many makan recommendations she has shared over the years were anything to go by. 

Michelle, who has been a private driver hire for 4 years, typically starts her day at around 10am. “I drive from two hours to 10 hours. It depends. If mahjong is on, then two hours!” she laughed.  In keeping with her fun-loving spirit, Michelle works her driving schedule around mahjong, makan and travel. “If I’m not driving, I’ll be on holiday,” she added, revealing she has found the perfect job to accommodate all her passions.  

I joked that driving was just a means to fund her travels and she agreed, “It is! Next, I’ll be going to Scandinavia for two weeks. If you want to take a break, go far and for a long time.” 

When she’s not visiting far-flung lands, Michelle especially loves driving & chatting with first-time visitors to Singapore. While the place we were headed to isn’t found on any of the usual tourist lists yet, Michelle enthused, “But they’d get to enjoy local food in a very local setting.” And you can’t get more local than dining at an HDB void deck coffeeshop…

• READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
• WATCH: Denise try Michelle’s recommendation on Mediacorp GOLD905’s FB Page.
• LISTEN: 

Tastefully decorated with neon lights and a shiny ordering counter with separate collection window, Michelle’s new go-to for nasi lemak struck me as “kopitiam luxe”. 

Wild Coco is the brainchild and first dining venture of Mr Wayne Tan, 43, who used to work in F&B marketing and operations. It opened in February last year at the sleepy McNair Road enclave, just off Balestier Road.   

“I always wanted to start my own place and nasi lemak is one of my favourite foods. I prefer the Malaysian style with ayam berempah,” Mr Tan said, referring to the fried chicken marinated with distinctively South-East Asian herbs and spices.  

From L-R: Denise, Owner Wayne Tan & staff, Michelle.

It was exactly those aromatics that first led Michelle to Wild Coco. “When I dropped off a passenger just a few steps away at Block 122, initially it was the smell of the chicken that made my stomach growl. So I parked the car and I went to eat,” she said.  

Note to drivers: parking is ample in the surrounding HDB estate!

At Wild Coco, the extensive no pork, no lard, no MSG menu is built around their signature sets, all consisting of coconut jasmine rice, sunny side up egg, Japanese cucumber, house-made sambal, ikan bilis and salted roasted peanuts.  

Starting with the basic $5.80 set, you can add a main protein – berempah chicken leg ($11.80), chicken breast with wing attached ($12.80), fried fish ($10.80), sambal belado fish ($11.80) or their $14.80 daily specials of either chicken lemak chilli padi (Mon – Wed) or curry chicken (Thu – Sat). Side dishes include stir-fried lady’s fingers, French beans with chye poh, fried tempeh tofu and tauhu goreng.  

International Fried Chicken Day Special!

Hello Makan Kakis,

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL FRIED CHICKEN DAY!

To celebrate crispy, juicy, deep-fried 🐔🍗, Denise has delved into the archives & compiled a handy list of fried chicken places worth checking out. From Southern Fried to Ayam Penyet to Har Cheong Gai, there’s something for everyone:

1. COAL 3606 (Old St Nicks/ Aunty Meow Lang’s Chicken Wings)
2. La Porpo Ayam Geprek/ Penyet
3. Eng Kee Chicken Wings
4. Ah Tan Wings
5. CHIX Nashville-style Hot Chicken
6. Yardbird Southern Table and Bar

Enjoy & have a Pok-pok-pokking good time!

Super-Nostalgic St Nicks Crispy Chicken Wings!

Hello again Foodie Friends!

Please meet our newest Makan Kaki, Cynthea Lam – wellness coach, nutritionist-in-training & founder of Super Farmers, a company focused on helping people to eat well and live well through food and nutrition education. It’s a one-stop-shop for wellness workshops, urban farming kits and restorative herbal teas brand Apoteacary.

Quite by chance, we got to talking at her booth in Boutique Fairs and I ended up purchasing three boxes of deliciously soothing teas and an urban farming trio of microgreens to try growing myself at home (the kang kong, chye sim & gai lan were a success for this noob!).

Cynthea has a great story to tell and a wonderfully engaging personality, perfect for conducting her wellness workshops and dishing out sage advice, so enjoy our podcast and the first of her makan recommendations this week!

HEAR:

• Click to listen/ download podcast – In Part 1, Cynthea tells us why she started Super Farmers, what we can expect from her wellness company and shares advice on common dilemmas like getting your kids to eat more veggies and getting over insomnia.
• Click to listen/ download podcast – In Part 2, Cynthea answers the usual fun food-related questions, including why Thai cuisine is the biggest influence on her cooking-style, what 3 things she can’t do without in the kitchen, who she’d invite and what she’d serve at her fantasy dinner party (it involves four fiesty females!).
• Click to listen/ download podcast – Cynthea recommends a dish straight from her schoolgirl days. St Nicholas Girls’ School alumni will know exactly what she means – the legendary crispy chicken wings once sold in the school canteen are once again available to enjoy. Find out where here!

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Cynthea takes us straight back to her childhood with this delicious and nostalgic treat. She studied at St Nicholas Girls’ School throughout her pre-primary, primary and secondary school education. And St Nicks’ alumni will relate to this – Cynthea simply cannot forget the one thing she (and so many other school mates) loved to eat at recess time – Aunty Meow Lang’s fried chicken wings.

Cynthea remembers that she once ate 10 chicken wings at a go and ended up with tonsillitis. But she still thinks it was totally worth it! That’s how irresistible those chicken wings were. Crispy, golden-brown and deep-fried to perfection, the wings were coated in a batter that was not too thick, just a thin, crunchy sheath that gave way to a moist, tasty interior.  In her opinion, she hasn’t tasted anything better since.

Besides the power of nostalgia, Cynthea reckons the secret to Aunty Meow Lang’s wings was in the way she marinated and fried them with  so much love. Sadly, Aunty Meow Lang is no longer with us and her school stall has since closed. However, good news is, her grandson James is now carrying on her legacy at his stall (Coal 3606) and has started selling the same famous chicken wings according to his grandmother’s beloved recipe. Coal 3606’s Facebook page mentions that the wings were sold at at CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School from 1972 till 2013. 

Interestingly taking the leap from one institution of education to another, Coal 3606 operates out of Republic Polytechnic’s foodcourt, The Lawn. There was a stall in Bukit Merah Lane, but that no longer is in operation and has yet to be updated on their FB. If you don’t fancy a journey into the poly located far North in Woodlands, don’t worry – you can still sink your teeth into the mouth-watering wings by placing an order via text message and have them delivered. Cynthea recommended that, so I did!

I’m happy to report, the wings arrived exactly on time and were still hot as James promised (he stored them in a large aluminium tray surround by tin foil, but not covered, so they wouldn’t get soggy). I wasted no time ripping into one immediately. It was just as Cynthea had described. Crispy on outside, juicy on the inside.

My teeth broke through the crisp batter with an audible crunch, the fragrance of the well-marinated chicken wing making the experience all the more pleasurable. I couldn’t pin point the aromatics, but I think I detected a heady mix of garlic, ginger, soy sauce and honey. Deeply umami flavours played off the hint of sweetness. Crispy skin and meat were thoroughly infused with flavour right down to the bone. And indeed, the flesh remained tender, juices running freely at first bite.

One of Cynthea’s favourite parts (mine too) is the wing tip. Those stayed gloriously crunchy (not burned) and were a delight to gnaw on. Some were so shatteringly crisp that I could devour them entirely, bone and all! I was starting to realise why these wings were near-obsession for Cynthea, who said, “I think I can eat that everyday!”

TASTE:
COAL 3606 (Old St Nicks/ Aunty Meow Lang’s Chicken Wings)
Republic Polytechnic The Lawn Foodcourt
9 Woodlands Avenue Block W4/W6 #03-11 S(738964)
Open: 9.30am – 4.30pm (Mon – Fri; closed Sat & Sun)
Tel: +65 98589792
NOTE:
Open to public only during off-peak hours – before 11am or after 1pm.
Best is to call/ text James Ngiam to be sure the wings are available and entry permitted.
He takes delivery orders too. I simply texted him to agree on the quantity, date & time, then made payment via PayNow. Easy!

 

Sambal-smothered Fried Chicken Inspired by Film Legend P. Ramlee!

What do legendary actor P. Ramlee & fried chicken have in common? They are the passions of one man – Mr Haswandi Hashim – converging deliciously at his stall in Jalan Besar. After my Makan Kaki Chef Bjorn Shen, judge of MasterChef Singapore and Middle-Eastern restaurant Artichoke proclaimed it “the most amazing ayam goreng in Singapore” earlier in February this year, I hurried down to confirm this and was not disappointed. A few things have changed since February and on my last visit, I finally met the man behind Chef Bjorn’s favourite fried chicken. Turns out, this ayam goreng comes with rice and sambals as colourful as the story behind it.

• LISTEN: & download the podcast of this week’s crispy, spicy episode.
• READ: the full story at CNA Lifestyle.
• WATCH: Denise try this makan recommendation on GOLD 905’s facebook page.

Mr Haswandi and his wife Nur Hafizah Ahmad launched La Porpo just two years ago with little fanfare, but have quickly gained a still-growing fan base. As a massive fan of film legend P. Ramlee, Mr Haswandi decided to name his stall after a catchphrase from his idol’s 1972 movie Laksamana Do Re Mi.

“It was a hilarious comedy and there’s one part where P. Ramlee was sitting on a flying carpet when he said ‘la porpo’, which sounded Spanish to me,” he explained. “La porpo is a phrase used often between me and my childhood friends. We all watched the same movie, so that’s our connection and appreciation of P. Ramlee. To us, it means something friendly, warm, creative.”

Like a secret password or magic code within his social circle, it brings together their shared love for movies and makan that Mr Haswandi hopes will extend to his customers. “I want them to come and get crazy about our flavours,” he said with a smile.

That’s why he even named his F&B company Rasa Loca (an amalgamation of Malay and Spanish words that means crazy taste) and one of his spicy chilli pastes Sambal Loca. Mr Haswandi is also pleased he has his son’s seal of approval for a greeting he often uses (almost like the stall’s tagline) and can be seen in signage on the storefront, “Yo… What’s good?”

So what is good at La Porpo? Hands down, their ayam goreng or fried chicken, of course. Mr Haswandi’s recipe, “legendary in the family since my grandparents’ time”, has been passed down orally through generations. Combined with Nur Hafizah’s own family recipe, husband and wife have created the ultimate fried chicken, after much trial and error. Theirs is a fundamental fried chicken recipe versatile enough to use in many dishes like their best-selling Kelantan-style nasi kerabu, ayam penyet and ayam geprek. All started off with the same fried chicken foundation, but the difference is in the sambals.

Taufik Batisah on Hot Chicken, Steak & Nasi Padang

WATCH:

In this video, Taufik Batisah introduces Denise to some of the signature items on the menu of his restaurant, Chix Hot Chicken, including the INSANE HOT CHICKEN (so spicy it made them both cry!)

HEAR:

• Taufik tells us all about his new restaurant venture, Chix Hot Chicken!
• Taufik fills us in on what else is in store this month for Chix Hot Chicken & also shares where likes to go for his favourite steak and Nasi Padang! Scroll down for descriptions, pictures and locations!

SEE:

These sliders are arguably one of the BEST things on the menu! Huge, juicy pieces of boneless chicken, coated with a super crispy batter, sandwiched between two small, pillowy buns and slathered in their house-made tangy pink mayo. You can order the chicken in the level of spice you prefer and it packs a powerful flavour punch. So, so good!

Crackin’ Good Brunch!

HEAR:
CLICK TO HEAR this week’s beautiful brunch episode!

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This week, it’s our foodie friend, Chef Anthony Yeoh‘s turn to recommend some yummy eats and as the weekend approaches, brace yourselves for BRUNCH! If you’re looking for something yum in the city/ CBD area, do check out this multi-concept restaurant/ bar on the corner of Tanjong Pagar Road & Tras Street, Crackerjack. There you’ll find a coffee counter brewing till late afternoon, a beautiful cocktail bar that opens later in the evening and then there’s the restaurant that serves delicious new-American food. Chef Tony recently tried their weekend brunch and recommends these stand-out dishes:
The super-comforting Bone Broth, featuring egg stracciatella (like an egg drop they stir in), kale & barley. But truly, the star is broth, which is really flavourful, made in-house and so restorative, especially if you’re at brunch nursing the effects of the night before!

Another great hangover antidote is their Funnel Cake. Why? Well, this is typical American carnival food – batter funneled into hot oil and deep fried to light, doughy, crispy perfection. And we all know fat means flavour and a good way to soak up the sins of the night before! But make no mistake, these are next level funnel cakes – adult funnel cakes smothered with (hair of the dog!) a boozy whipped cream made from Amaretto (almond liqueur), along with candied bacon and bananas. This is a delicious, high-brow / low-brow play on an American classic.

The play doesn’t stop at Funnel Cakes – try Crackerjacks’s play on corned beef hash, their Sweet Potato Hash! This hearty plate featured house-made breakfast sausage crumbled on sweet potato, along with sauteed capsicum, kale, caramelised onions and an egg. Stick-to-your-ribs good!

Finally, Chef Tony recommends the QFC – Quinoa Fried Chicken. It’s a boneless chicken thigh encrusted with quinoa, which is a super food, a grain that’s high in antioxidants and protein. So could this possibly be healthy in an, er, deep-fried way? Haha. Jicama (Bangkwang, which we use in Popiah) slaw and homemade spicy banana ketchup complete the crunchy chicken dish. With this weird & wonderful banana ketchup, you get a distinct caramelised banana flavour, and a pleasing sauce that’s tangy and spicy at the same time.

TASTE:
CRACKERJACK
43 Tanjong Pagar Rd, Singapore 088464
Open Daily: 9am – 12 midnight (mon – fri), 10am – 12 midnight (sat) & 10am – 4pm (sun)
Tel: +65 81211462