Saturday Morning Food Hunt @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Chinatown Food Complex is located at Smith Street, and about 5 minutes walk from Chinatown MRT Station. It was Saturday morning and we were there for brunch. The food area is huge! It was rows after rows of food stalls, at the front, back, centre and if you're hunting for the famous ones, do lookout for the stall number where each row will have an 'index' indicator placed at the start of the row.

Chinatown Food Complex

Ivan bought us drinks from the popular 1950s Coffee 五十年代咖啡 that was Michelin recommended. Thankfully, the queue was not that long and the serving pace was quick. Thank you Ivan for the treat!

queuing for our turn

After you've placed order for your drinks (siew dai and whatever not combination), the lady at the counter would ask "几个面包？" Which translates to, "How many breads?" She'd also ask if you'd want any eggs as per any traditional breakfast set. We opted for just one traditional bread to try.

hot coffee

toasted bread

The toasted bread was thin and crispy (similar to another popular establishment but uses white bread), with the slab of butter in between the kaya (coconut jam).

I had the iced coffee and it was likeable. Thick, not too acidic, and not overly sweet. Am liking coffee from the 50s!

iced coffee (kopi-peng) 

Next up, to fuel our tummies, we had decided on Maria Virgin Chicken, chee cheong fun (because Shermaine wants this) and Hill Street Char Kway Teow. There were only 4 of us, so this will suffice because Tiara wanted pancakes from Hong Lim Food Centre. My task was to find Stall #32 for the char kway teow while Tiara queues for the chicken and Shermaine was off to find chee cheong fun and Kris was on table duty.

short queue

瑪莉亞處女雞 Maria Virgin Chicken - Soy Sauce Chicken Rice @$6

Served on disposable styrofoam plate, the portion of meat was generous and we opted for the dark meat. Served with blanched cai xin, the secret of the plate lies within the delicious soy sauce drizzled all over the rice. That, and those gelatinous flavourful skin. So yummy.

couldn't be happier munching on skin, rice with soy sauce

Not sure which stall Shermaine bought the chee cheong fun from, but it was interesting. When she mentioned that she wanted those with fillings like char siew, I'd thought she'd come back with the Hong Kong chee cheong fun version of thin smooth flour, wrapping the char siew bits and topped with fried shallots and drizzled with the light soy sauce. I was wrong.

chee cheong fun (min. order of 2 pieces) @$2.40

This version of chee cheong fun with the char siew filings, had quick thick skin much like our local chee cheong fun and the suace is the thick hoisin sauce. And because we had this much later, it was cold and the sauce had thickened a bit.

Next, was the char kway teow. Went around looking for it for about 5 minutes before I discovered that I had walked one whole big round when it was not too far away from our table. The queue starts at the side of the stall and there were about 6 pax in front of me. Each pax would take the uncle about 3 minutes to fry, so the waiting time was 21 minutes.

I opted for the $4 option and I overheard the aunty behind placing an order for $5 plate which the stall could accommodate. Pretty flexible.

almost there

uncle busy working the wok

Uncle would fry each order individually with a small spatula. Saw that he uses lard oil to fry the noodles. The aunty taking the order is friendly.

Everyone would just shuffle patiently in line and it was pretty exciting when the someone gets their plate. I overheard the tourist asking the person infront of him (presumably a local) about what's the difference of this char kway teow and the others in the food centre. The guy replied that he liked Hill Street version as it was less sweet compared to others.

aunty hands the order to you

Finally, it was my turn and I excitedly hurried over to our table with the plate of piping hot char kway teow.

Hill Street char kway teow 禧街炒粿條 @$4

On first bite, I nodded my head in agreement with the guy who said that this version was less sweet. Indeed! The noodles were tasty, with adequate lap cheong to up the notch. Cockles nowadays are smallish and these were no exception. A sprinkle of kuchai and sprouts so that these enhanced rather than overwhelmed the plate. I enjoyed this plate of char kway teow.

Thank you Kris, Tiara, Shermaine and Ivan for the Saturdate!

we were here

nice murals

Chinatown Saturdate

The 1950s Coffee 五十年代咖啡

Address: Block 335, Smith Street, Stall #02-048, Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, Singapore 050335
Contact: +65 8439 0434
Business Hours:
Daily: Mon to Sun - 7:00am to 8:30pm

Maria Virgin Chicken 瑪莉亞處女雞

Address: 335 Smith Street, Stall #02-189, Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, Singapore 050335
Business Hours:
Tue to Sun: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Closed on Mon & Fri

Hill Street Fried Kway Teow 禧街炒粿條

Address: 335 Smith St, Stall #02-32, Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, Singapore 050335
Business Hours:
Tues, Thurs, Sat: 11:00am - 6:30pm
Closed on Sun, Mon, Fri

[Tasting] Clementi Tze Char 金文泰煮炒 @ Clementi Tastebud Eating House

Located smack right in the middle of the newer residential blocks, Tastebud Eating House at Blk 208C would likely be the go-to place when hunger pang strikes for those who stays near Clementi Ave 6. There is a bus stop near the coffeeshop and one could get there via bus #188 or #51. Have you noticed the new tzechar (zichar) stall nestled amongst the other familiar ones? Clementi Tze Char 金文泰煮炒 has been in operation for over a month now and we were invited to have a taste. My interest was piqued by its claim of authentic traditional KL Hokkien Mee. Suddenly, there was a need to try!

the stall, and the people

First item to arrive on our table? The Hokkien Mee (yasssss!) nonetheless. Served in a steel pot, the portion looked pretty generous for one pax worth. There were lots of deep fried pork lard, fishcake slices, cai xin, prawns and pork slices. The noodles were on point but the colour was lighter than the actual ones.

Authentic Traditional KL Hokkien Mee  真宗KL福建面@$4 (U.P $4.50)

"Do you have the sambal belachan?" I asked. No, they don't have that. Whaaat! Now, that was an immediate minus-ing of points (imo only).

"Why don't you try it with this chili sauce instead? Not the one that you were looking for, but Chef's homemade version."

Ohhh, the taste was legit on first bite! Noodles done right, sauce and flavour were on-point! The chili sauce was nicely tangy and spicy and complements the noodles. Yes, finally! A place that serves up the taste of legit KL Hokkien Mee.

Chef's homemade chili

tai lok meen

Satisfaction was pumped up with the authentic traditional KL Hokkien Mee. We sampled another noodles dish and that's the sang meen (生面) which is done up ala Penang 江南生面, which I'm not that familiar with.

Penang 江南生面 (Jiang Nan Crispy Noodles) @$6 

The noodles were well fried and crispy without being oily. The sauce was lovely and not too overpowering. Loved the mix of ingredients on the plate. Plus, it has broccoli and black fungus! Now, that I don't see from the zichar stall at my workplace.

side profile

Now, if you're with family and would like to dine out, what would be the dishes to order from this stall? Let's get started with the rice dishes or what I'd call 吃饭叫菜 (in Cantonese).

First up was Marmite Chicken but the non-deep fried version. Served with chicken thigh meat (much like gong bao chicken) and the sauce was sweet and salty. Eaten together with the rest of the ingredients; julienned cucumber, sliced onions and sprinkled with sesame seeds, I was reminded of rojak somehow.

Marmite Chicken (S/M/L) @$10/$14/$18

We had the signature curry fish head and wow, the curry fragrance was so enticing when it was brought out. I could feel my saliva glands activated. The sauce was lemak yet not too over, flavour was awesome and rightly balanced. Doused the piping hot curry onto the white rice and scooped up some into the mouth. This dish earned a resounding yes from me, just by its sauce alone. It was that yummy.

Curry Fish Head 咖喱鱼头 @$20

The vegetables retained its crunch for a refreshing bite but I do prefer them slightly more cooked through. The fish was red snapper and its quality was superb. Meaty, firm and sweet. And very filling!

plenty of meat

For the finale, we had a preview of an upcoming dish (not in the menu yet) called 帝王富贵鸡 or Imperial Prosperity Chicken. Sounded like a CNY dish!

Half a kampong chicken (free range chicken) was wrapped up nicely with a loads of herbs such as 当归，杞子，玉竹，泡参，当参，维山，北其，川弓 before steamed for hours, resulting in slightly viscous soup and a very tender chicken in which the goodness from the herbs had seeped right into the meat.

Imperial Prosperity Chicken 帝王富贵鸡 

Depending on the size of the chicken, the soup could get oily. Indeed the essence from the chicken but preferably with lesser oil, ya.

Thank you Hence for the introduction and Royston for the invite and hosting the dinner. Compliments to the Chef and the service crew for the delicious food and friendly demeanour.

Tastebud Eating House and Clementi Tze Char

promotion

Watch out for upcoming dishes next month, and one of it I heard is the fish steamboat 鱼头炉. Happy eating!

Clementi Tze Char @ Tastebud Eating House

Address: Blk 208C Clementi Avenue 6 #01-01 Singapore 123208
Website: https://www.tastebud.com.sg/tastebud-eating-house-clementi
Business Hours:
Mon to Fri:11am to 2:30pm and 4:30pm to 11pm
Sat to Sun: 11am to 11pm