Tag: Bak Chor Mee

MAKAN KAKIS BEST OF 2019!

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Gluttonous Greetings Makan Kakis!

As we hurtle towards 2020 and a brand new year of feasting, let’s take a little look back at the best of 2019 – here are the most popular makan places that really caught your attention. Click on each for details & enjoy!


1. Indian Fish Head Curry Expert Recommends Chinese Assam Fish Head Curry


2. Charming Italian in Serangoon Gardens


3. Pasta Expert Recommends Best Bak Chor Mee

Just wanna listen to the TOP 3 audio/ download podcast? Click here!

BONUS:
Here’s the rest of the TOP 10 BEST MAKAN PLACES! Looks like 2019 was the year of Bak Chor Mee, Kway Chap & Char Kway Teow – you couldn’t get enough of these local faves, Makan Kakis!

4. FANCY Bak Chor Mee
5. Excellent Zichar Faves in the East
6. Kway Chap to Celebrate the Year of the Pig with Duck Thrown In!
7. Kway Chap & Ramen with a Michellin Connection
8. Makan Kakis’ Fave Char Kway Teow?
9. Putting the CHAR in Char Kway Teow
10. Flawless Flying Wanton Mee

If you like what you hear on air and what you see here, do share the good food with your good friends and tell them about Makan Kakis on Gold 905! Cheers to another year of yumminess – may your 2020 be bursting with the best things to eat and drink – Season’s Eatings!

P.S.

 

Fab (& Fit) Bak Chor Mee!

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Hi Foodie Friends, our new Makan Kaki is the founder-owner of Taiwanese rice bowl & street food inspired communal dining restaurant, The Salted Plum, as well as pasta pop-up, Pasta Supremo.

Shawn Kishore tells us about his humble beginnings in F&B as an 8-year-old “kopi kia” in Tampines, helping out at his Grandma’s noodle stall and filling in for the drinks stall uncle when he was on break.

An F&B Consultant by training, Shawn became a restaurateur with the opportunity to start a pop-up called FIVE TEN (because everything on the menu was $5 or $10!). It went viral and was such a culinary hit, that after the 11-month lease was up, they decided to look for a permanent space and voila, The Salted Plum was born! This is an affordable, fuss-free, communal dining concept that serves dishes inspired Taiwanese Street Food. They now have 2 outlets, one at Circular Road, and another at Suntec City, which just opened a few months ago. Coincidentally, they also decided to start another pop-up at Suntec called Pasta Supremo, which serves fresh, handmade pasta paired with novel sauces. Do scroll down for some droolsome pictures of the delicious dishes served at both dining concepts!

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for Shawn and it’s the only time he has for himself, so that’s why he’s obsessive about a hearty meal to start his day. Enter excellent Bak Chor Mee  –  in one bowl, you have a complete, fuss-free, affordable meal with the perfect balance of flavour, carbs, fat & protein. So where does a guy who ate it everyday day for breakfast 7 years in a row go for his Teochew Fishball Noodle fix? Shawn’s current favourite is just a one minute walk from his restaurant The Salted Plum on Circular road, which makes both convenient and comforting!

Continue reading “Fab (& Fit) Bak Chor Mee!” →

National Day Cake, Sinpopo Coffee & Bak Chor Mee!

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All this month of August, in celebration of our Nation’s birthday, we shine the spotlight on homegrown brands and their success stories. We talk to some of the people working behind-the-scenes who work hard to make things tick and of course, get them to recommend their favourite makan places! This week, we warmly welcome back our Makan Kaki, Lyn Lee, one of the owners of local confectionery Awfully Chocolate & heritage-centric Sinpopo Brand. It’s been 3 years since she was last on-air with us, so we have a lot to catch up on, including the latest offerings from Awfully Chocolate and developments with Sinpopo Brand, which has expanded from a cute restaurant in Katong to a coffee bar and a grocer (Scroll all the way down for pictures & more)!

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Lyn says she was never a fan of Bak Chor Mee until she tried the one from a humble stall in the Tiong Bahru coffee shop at the corner of Seng Poh Road (Block 71). This coffee shop is already famous for Loos’ Curry Scissor Rice and the Vegetarian Bee Hoon, but you’ve also got to try the Bak Chor Mee there, with one caveat – it HAS to be prepared by the Uncle. He made a convert out of Lyn. If the Uncle is cooking it, you’ll see a long queue, but if it’s not prepared by him, there’s something not quite right about the flavours & textures – he really does have the magic touch. Both times in the last month that Lyn has been, Uncle hasn’t been there, so she’s been forced to find another Bak Chor Mee which is more central. She was delighted to discover that an excellent stall from Maxwell Market has popped up at Capitol Piazza.

Guan’s Mee Pok is what Lyn calls “fancy”- you can get add-ons like an onsen egg, yaitori on a stick, dumplings, abalone and other luxe ingredients.

Continue reading “National Day Cake, Sinpopo Coffee & Bak Chor Mee!” →

Pasta Expert Recommends Best Bak Chor Mee!

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Chef Aun of Bar Cicheti, an intimate Pasta & Wine Bar in Chinatown, is our new Makan Kaki and this down-to-earth, self-confessed heartland guy says while he’s trained extensively in Italian cooking, especially with wood-fired pizzas and pastas, his personal tastes remain firmly in Asia. He loves Chinese food, especially dishes with a good smoky wok hei (breath of the wok). He popped by the Gold 905 studio this morning to chat about the two kitchens he’s in charge of (Cicheti in Arab Street & Bar Cicheti in Jiak Chuan Road) and also to tell us more about his favourite MEE POK!

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Chef Aun keeps returning to this stall in Opal Crescent for his Bak Chor Mee fix because he says their noodle texture is different and outstanding. They know how to cook them just right. Whether it’s Mee Pok (broad flat noodles) or Mee Kia (thin noodles), MacPherson Bak Chor Mee never serves noodles that are under or overcooked. Take it from a chef who makes pasta from scratch every single day – Chef Aun knows his noodles and these are al dente perfection!

Continue reading “Pasta Expert Recommends Best Bak Chor Mee!” →

Best of 2017 – Makan Kakis’ Top Ten List

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Gluttonous Greetings Everyone & Happy New Year!

2017 saw a whole host of new foodie friends joining our rolling panel of Makan Kakis and along with them came a stupendous slew of new & delicious food recommendations. So as we begin 2018, let’s take a look back at some of the most popular makan places that really caught your attention in 2017. Click on each for details & enjoy!

10. Another Best Contender for Bak Chor Mee?
9. Curry Rice that’s a CUT Above!
8. Firebaked Excellence
7. Geylang Hokkien Mee NOT in Geylang
6. Super Crispy Prata
5. Raw Egg Bak Chor Mee?!
4. Nuts about Pistachio Grill
3. Magnificent Mee Pok
2. Karried Away by Kway Chap
1. Die-Die-Must-Try Fishball & Herh Keow

Just wanna listen to the audio? Click here!

Thank you so much for your support of our tasty little segment on Gold 905 and for helping it grow bigger and better. If you like what you hear on air and what you see here on the blog, do share share share! Here’s to yet another year of yum – may your 2018 be overflowing with the best things to eat and drink – Season’s Eatings!

P.S.

AW’Some Noodles!

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photo courtesy of Chef Shen Tan

HEAR:
Click here for audio on oodles of noodles!

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Our Foodie Friend, Chef Shen Tan is partial to a bowl of Bak Chor Mee and recommends this stall run by an ex-policeman. Since quitting his crime-fighting job to pursue noodle perfection, Aw has been doing an excellent job with his signature minced pork noodles.

Great tasting and great value at only $5 or $8 for a fully loaded bowl – not only do you get minced pork, but also abalone, clam, liver, prawn, quails egg, herh keow (fish dumpling), fishball & meatball. You can tell this isn’t your typical Bak Chor Mee, but there’s a nice balance between the vinegar, soya sauce & chilli, which makes for a really delicious, flavour-packed bowl. Continue reading “AW’Some Noodles!” →

Another Contender for Best Bak Chor Mee?

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Today we have a pair of very interesting and talented studio guests who are doing their part to promote culinary & cultural exchange between Germany and Singapore! They are 1-Michelin Starred Chef Oliver Röder from Bembergs Häuschen, famous for putting a modern spin on traditional German & Eifel cuisines, as well as Singapore’s emerging hawker, Kai of Roast Paradise at Old Airport Road Food Centre. Scroll all the way down for his Bak Chor Mee recommendation!

On-air, we had a great chat about their own personal culinary backgrounds, their food philosophies, what they like to cook at home for friends and family when they aren’t cooking for work, and also more about Chef Oliver’s first-time visit to Singapore. Besides experiencing Kai’s pork roasting techniques and sampling his deliciously charred delicacies, Chef Oliver had a wet market visit and a joint cooking collaboration with Kai at the German Ambassador’s residence (see photos below).

Char Siew, dripping with marinade, being roasted over a charcoal fire
Creating sparks with roasted meats!
They actually removed the whole bespoke oven from their stall in Old Airport Road Food Centre, hired a lorry & transported it to the German Ambassador’s home!
Kai and their makeshift meat rack!
Gloriously charred pork, burnished a deep caramel.

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Kai’s roast meat stall is at the famous Old Airport Road Food Centre, so it’s only natural he gravitates towards makan places close by. Case in point, a nondescript stall in a coffee shop a little way down the road, at Block 21. But it is here that he believes he has found his personal favourite bak chor mee. It’s really the perfect place for really late-nightbirds, or really early breakfasters, since it opens only from 4-10am. What makes the noodles here good (be sure to order them dry with chilli), is the perfect balance that we look for, between the meatiness, the fishiness, the al dente noodle texture, the combination of lard (ask the uncle for lots – it’s extra crispy!), oil and sauces. This is a good, honest bowl of mee pok that really hits the spot.

TASTE:
Handmade Fishball & Minced Meat Noodles
Choon Guan Eating House
Block 21 Old Airport Road, Singapore 390021
Open Daily 4am – 10am (but may sell-out even before 10am, so get there early!)

RAW EGG Bak Chor Mee?!

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Denise & Morsels’ Chef-Owner Petrina Loh

Hello Jukeboxers and fellow Makan Kakis, we continue our month-long National Day celebrations by featuring not only uniquely Singaporean foods but also, home-grown talents making a real splash in our local culinary scene. Case in point, our newest foodie friend, Chef-Owner of Morsels, Petrina Loh!

This one-time banker has now turned her attention from finance to food with remarkable results, as seen and tasted at her progressive fusion restaurant, Morsels at Dempsey Hill. Chef Petrina is all about comforting, nourishing food that is natural, yet unusual. For example, you’ve got to check out her signature dish of steamed Venus Clams in a fig broth with homemade Kimchee and pickles Wakame (we love studio guests who surprise us with food!).

Another dish that Chef Petrina is very proud of is something off her Special Lunchtime Noodle Menu – the HERBAL DUCK TSUKEMEN, which features a slow braised duck leg that has been marinated in 12-14 nourishing herbs like tang gui & yu zhu. The duck is served with a herbal dipping sauce and dry somen noodles on the side, which you dunk as you please. At the end,  they give you a dashi sauce to thin down the sauce, which you can then drink it to finish off your noodle meal! A lovely green papaya pickle balanced out the rich, herbiness of the duck noodles.

Morsels’ Herbal Duck Tsukemen

Do check the Morsels socials for updates on this rotating menu of weekly noodle lunch specials! Look for them on FB & instagram @morselsinsingapore.

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When it comes to unique Singaporean food, Bak Chor Mee surely is high on everybody’s list, especially if it includes a raw egg! This week, Chef Petrina’s first recommendation is of her favourite noodles – soup or dry, she loves Bak Chor Mee!
Whilst everyone has their personal favourite, she loves this new-found stall for the taste and comfort factors! She used to frequent the famous Hill Street Tai Wah, but the crazy queues sent her searching for an alternative. Imagine her delight when a friend brought her to this place about 6 months ago. It tastes great, parking is convenient and it’s tucked away at the bottom of a block of flats, amongst car repair workshops. What Petrina loves about Bak Chor Mee is its versatility – you can have your pick of noodle types, from mee pok to mee kia to mee sua (which all are excellent dry with chilli), or you can have a comforting kway teow or mee tai mak soup on a cold, rainy day in Singapore.

But if asked to pick, Chef Petrina will likely choose this variation as her favourite – just the cloudy-rich soup made from tee por (dried flatfish) and pork bone stock, full of the “liao”, or ingredients. So essentially it’s everything sans noodles – minced meat, fishballs, fishcake, herh keow, meat balls, the works. But the piece-de-resistance is to ask for a raw egg to be cracked straight into the steaming hot soup (see above) – sooo good! Be sure to get there early, say before 11am to avoid the lunch rush!

TASTE:
BAK CHOR MEE @ Seng Hong Coffee Shop
Blk 58 Lengkok Bahru, Singapore 150058
Open Daily (closed alternate Sundays)

P.S. Be sure to catch Chef Petrina in her exciting new project – a collaboration with Mitzo:

The highly anticipated ‘Friends of Mitzo’ collaborative dinner series returns this September, continuing on its mission to showcase progressive Cantonese cuisine through some of Singapore’s top chefs. Taking center stage for the second instalment of the dining series is Chef Petrina Loh of local progressive small plates and award winning restaurant Morsels, who will bring her wildly creative fusion savoir faire to complement Chef Nicky Ng of Mitzo’s contemporary Cantonese cuisine.

Known to defy the boundaries of cuisine and tradition, guests will be delighted to witness a marriage of delectable modern Cantonese and progressive fusion by Chef Nicky and Chef Petrina in this specially curated six-course menu – each course is a duo interpretation of premium ingredients, brilliantly woven through contemporary techniques.

Creative and sophisticated in style, diners can look forward to highlights such as the modest yet savoury Gin-cured Red Emperor Snapper; east meets west in the form of Sakura ginseng chicken two ways; and be intrigued by the tantalising Duck duo, complete with Soy Brined Slow Poached Duck Breast and Black Truffle Crispy Roast Duck, an impeccable umami dinner that is an indulgence for both taste and sight.

Revel in this exquisite fare with a selection of artisanal cocktails, set to complete the whole Mitzo dining experience. Start off your meal with Summer spritz, a floral and fizzy aperitif cocktail shaken to perfection. Savour in Cinema sour, a deliciously smoky cocktail of slightly tart yet refreshing concoction of popcorn infused vodka shaken with lemon juice, homemade salted caramel syrup, and lapsang souchong tincture, topped with velvety egg white foam.

Friends of Mitzo: Morsels x Mitzo
Date: Friday and Saturday, 8 – 9 September 2017
Time: 6.30pm – 10.00pm
Location: Level 4 Grand Park Orchard, 270 Orchard Road Singapore 238857
Price: S$118++ for a six-course dinner (S$168++ with cocktail pairing)

For reservations and enquiries, please email rsvn@mitzo.sg or call +65 6603 8855.