When you think of a zhichar (煮炒) stall, what comes to mind? Would it be a plate of delicious silky 滑蛋何 (flat noodles) that has been infused with the fiery hot wok's breath topped with savoury smooth eggy sauce? Or, a simple tasty yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭)? How about the Singapore noodles ( 新洲米粉) that's popular in neighbouring country?
A zhichar place to me, is about communal dining. When parents are too tired to cook, then zhichar would be a good choice to feed the family. My family of 5 would usually order steamed assam fish, another meat (either chicken or pork), vegetables and claypot tofu.
Went cafe hopping around Bedok area, and when it was time for dinner, we trooped over to Wee's Family Coffee Shop. The uncle and aunty at the shop were friendly and got us seated at a table that was reserved but the guests won't be here for another hour or so.
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| signboard at the coffeeshop |
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| chalkboard specials |
We ordered handmade hae zhor 虾枣, prawn paste chicken wings
虾酱鸡, salted egg prawns 咸蛋虾 (de-shelled), stir-fried sweet potato leaves 番薯叶 with belachan and the shop specialty of mushroom tofu. Heehee, five dishes for the five of us. That's akin to one person eating up the whole plate of sweet potato leaves. Wahaha! Ordered all small portions, but still quite substantial for us to finish.
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| 虾枣 hae zhor, served with sweet sauce @$8 |
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| mushroom beancurd 松菇豆腐 @$12 |
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| salted egg yolk prawns @$16 |
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| stir fried sweet potato leaves with belachan @$6 |
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| har jiong gai aka prawn paste chicken wings 虾酱鸡 @$8 |
The deep fried dishes, were all done very well. Crisp skin, golden brown and moist inside. Loved the tangy pickles that came with the deep fried dishes. The hae zhor was about two bites size, and tasted more of the minced pork. Homely dish.
The mushroom beancurd was delightful and the taste was well balanced. Loved the deep fried enoki and the sauce that went so well with the rice. Was impressed by the size of the salted egg yolk prawns. Evenly coated, well fried and it was simply a joy to bite into them.
Prawn paste chicken was good as its inside was still juicy. The prawn paste taste was rather mild though. Pair it with the fiery sambal sauce, equates to yums!
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| must-have for the prawn paste chicken |
Lovely dinner, reasonably priced. Best to make reservations or turn up early before 630pm for a table on a weekend.
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Food is really overrated and expensive. My family and I are always loyal patrons of this not very humble coffeeshop but sucky service from the boss himself makes it worse! Waited close to 40 mins for a takeaway but ended up with THE WRONG ORDER. As the boss of the stall, you would at least expect decent if not exceptional service from a successful ex-business man. Amazingly Milton Wee was totally unapologetic about his blunder in making us wait 40 mins with a wrong order.
ReplyDeleteRead many bad reviews on Facebook with other customers facing the same issue too. The least he could do is to be humble, APOLOGISE and learn to beef up his service recovery skills. No apology was issued yet he unabashedly requested for a top up for the price difference in the wrong order he took. Zero EQ from a successful business man turned coffee shop owner. We have always been patronising at least 4 times a month and would spend close to $150-200/mth. Sorry to say that this is the last time we're patronising.