Hawkerman Crossover Project - Sedap Nasi Lemak

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 10.30 PM
• Address: SingPost Centre, B1-128, 10 Eunos Road 8, S 408600
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Hawkerman has introduced a series of new additions to their current menu and we are here again to try it out! (Check our previous blog on them)

Being a big fan of Nasi Lemak, we decided to give Hawkerman a try as they have added four new items with Nasi Lemak on the menu. 

Other than their Sedap Lemak, they have new pasta items on their menu as well! 

Hawkerma’s newest edition has also a dish with the best of both worlds —nasi lemak sambal or chicken floss with shoestring fries. Oh, Heaven!

They have many types and flavours of chicken for you to match with the Nasi Lemak. We had a hard time deciding which item to get as we were excited to try everything on their new menu!

We have decided to top up $6.90 for their Hosay Combo, which consists of French fries with 1 Coco Bandung and 1 Fake Bird’s Nest Water. It was pretty worth it!

The Tom Yum lemak came with a huge drumstick, peanuts, ikan bilis, achar with fragrant coconut rice, and of course, the sweet sambal chilli. As most of the frequent patrons might already know, Hawkerman is known for their creativity to constantly adding new ideas to the traditional dishes. The Tom Yum lemak is something you can try — a plate packed with flavours inspired by dishes of different countries! The taste of the Drumstick was not too strong, with the well marinated Tom Yum chicken skin that brought out a slight taste of sourness and spiciness. It is perfect for someone who does not take food that is too spicy. Onsen egg is also used here as the replacement of the usual fried egg we see at any regular macik stalls.

The sedap lemak fries is something that has the combination of all my favourite — French fries, sambal chilli, ikan bilis, peanuts, cheese and transparent mayonnaise. It tasted very good at first but towards the end, we had the “ge-lak” feeling even though there were two of us sharing.

We actually went back another day specially to try out the some of the other Sedap Lemak sets! We ordered the Curry Roasted Drumlet set and the Ayam Masak Merah set during our 2nd visit.

The Curry Roasted Drumlet set came with a Drumstick and two decent size potatoes. The taste of the curry was not too spicy, similar to the taste of the Indonesian curry. For the chicken, it is definitely not crispy :) but definitely cooked (pun intended)!

The Ayam Masak Merah, which translates as “red cooked chicken” in English, came with abundant of sauce covering the piece of chicken thigh given. It looked spicy and was spicy, definitely giving your tongue the punch of spiciness you need if you are a chilli fan.

We also had the fake birds nest water and coco Bandung combo at $3. The fake birds nest water, consist of pandan flavoured sugar drink with agar agar jelly has a taste of nostalgia, a slightly improvised version of how we used to a get a cup of happiness at 40 cents during our primary school days. The taste of the Coco Bundung, on the other hand, has kind of caught us off-guard. Other than using the normal evaporated milk, coconut milk was seen on the top of the drink. Though the taste of the Coco Bundung was acceptable, we would definitely prefer the Normal Bandung drink to go along with a plate of Nasi Lemak.

All in all, Hawkerman’s innovative and creativity on traditional food is one of the key factors to draw us back, patronizing their food again and again. Hawkerman is also definitely one of the most wallet-friendly restaurants around, keeping your stomach filled with decent comforting food.

Seng Kee 119 成记 119 - Steamed Fish head enough for 2 pax @ $13!

• Operating Days: Closed on Tuesdays
• Operating Time: 11.30 AM to 10.30 PM
• Address: Chinatown Complex, 335, Smith Street, #02-190, S 050335

Chinatown Complex is one of the places in Singapore that provides cheap and authentic local food. The one Michelin star hawker, Hawker Chan Soy sauce chicken is also here at Chinatown Complex.
Famous for Steam Fish Head, there are at least 5 other steam fish head stalls in this hawker centre. The price of the Steam Fish Head is therefore very competitive. Almost all the steam fish head stalls are selling S$13 for a half fish head, which is more than enough for two people.

Please do be very careful when consuming the fish, they are full of small, hardly visible sharp bones.

Established since 1983, this stall has been serving countless Steamed Fish Head in Hot and Spicy Sauce to their patrons.

Seng Kee occupied two stalls side by side in the market, selling the steam fish head and other zi char dishes.

Seng Kee emphasis a lot on the importance of steaming their fish head instead of boiling them. All the fragrance from the fish head will be retained within, as compared to boiling the fish head, where all the fresh fish taste will be retained in the water instead.

They do not have many Zi Char items on their menu as compared to other Zi Char Stall. 

After waiting for about 10 minutes, the steamed fish head was served. 

The Song Fish Head portion was BIG! The sauce, paired together with the steam fish head is a combination of preserved plum sauce, adding the slight kick of the “salty-sourness” to the fermented soybeans used, which provided the overall savouriness in the sauce. The bits of chilli peppers added gave the sauce an extra spicy note as well. It was then topped up with a generous amount of pork lard before serving. For the price of $13, our stomach and tastebud were truly satisfied.

The white meat of Song fish was fresh and soft with a slight earthy taste but was masked with the taste of the thick, tangy, sweet and spicy sauce. 

We ordered some side dishes to go along with our steam fish head as well. The sambal Kang kong here has nothing to be raved in our opinion,  to be honest.

We decided to order the prawn paste chicken after seeing the others eating them. Mid wing was used here for their prawn paste chicken. It was crispy and piping hot when served. A decent plate of fried mid wings with a mild prawn paste taste in every single one.

All in all, it was an affordable dinner with a plate of fish head drenched in sweet and spicy sauce. The sauce went very well with rice and with just the fish head, it is enough for two and there isn’t a need to order other side dishes. If you are a fan of steamed fish head, Chinatown Complex is definitely the place to visit. Do share with us your experience after you visit them!

House of Roasted Duck 劉強烤鴨店 - Restaurant by Gao Ji Food.

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 11 PM
• Address: 2 Locations - Bugis Village and Sultan Plaza
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House of Roasted duck 劉強烤鴨店 was actually a recommendation from one of the food lovers in the community and so, we decided to try it out today.

House of Roasted duck 劉強烤鴨店 is an umbrella business under Gao Ji Food 高記食品，which making Yong Tau Foo is their forte and their key business. Gao Ji has never disappoint us so far with their food and thus, we were very excited to try out House of Roasted Duck after the highly raved reviews.

We went to the Bugis village branch on a weekday evening. You will not miss out their brightly lited signboard when you walk past.

We were there at about 9pm and there were many seats available. Probably due to the late timing where everyone would have taken their dinner, the shop looked a little empty despite its small dining area. We have walked passed a few times on weekends and there were definitely long queues outside the shop. We were glad that we need not queue before we got our seats.

At House of Roasted Duck, You will get to choose the type of meat you want to go along your staple. As for how it is named, House of roasted duck is famous for their Peking Duck, and Roasted Duck. They have Soy Sauce Chicken and Crispy Roasted Pork and as well! They have named the famous 4 meat items as “Heavenly King” and it is highly recommended by the shop for their customers to try. You may choose to create your own combo with rice or noodles, or congee based on your own liking. 

It was a rainy evening and we decided to order a bowl of shrimp wanton soup (净鲜虾云吞) together with our mains (which we will be covering shortly). Priced at $7.80, the bowl of soup came with 6 shrimp wantons.

Each wanton is filled fully with prawns and minced pork that has been lightly seasoned, wrapped under the thin and clear wanton skin. The slight cloudy wanton soup was just nice to our tastebud, but it would be better if it can be served hot (instead of lukewarm).

There were not 1, but 2 prawns in each wanton dumpling!

Being a Char Siew fan, we can’t resist the temptation to order Char Siew rice, especially in an authentic Hong Kong restaurant. 

The char Siew has a good combination of 80% lean meat with 20% fats, which was something to our liking. The sauce on rice was also light yet flavourful enough to not overpower the fragrance of white rice.  The white rice used in the stall was also of a higher quality, solid yet soft with each grain not sticking to one another. 

Next came was the combination of Crispy Roasted Duck with soy sauce chicken on white rice. Each piece of the roasted duck is sliced in a way that it has more meat with tiny bone, which makes it easier to eat. The skin was roasted to a slight crisp and was extremely flavourful! Unlike many of the stalls in the market, the texture of the roasted duck meat here does not have a rough texture, and to be honest, it was beyond our expectation and the roasted duck skin totally won our hearts down. The tender soy sauce chicken was good too, easily making it one of the favourites for dinner. The chicken was also packed with flavours and the meat was also soft and juicy, giving every bite a pleasure to our mouth.

We heard that the roasted duck here was sold out on a daily basis, even before their closing hours. Any roasted duck lover should definitely give this restaurant a try. We will definitely return soon to try out their Peking duck!