Redhill Lor Duck Rice and Noodles 红山卤鸭饭面 - Michelin Guide Hawker Retiring soon...

• Operating Hours: 9 AM - 2.30 PM
• Operating Days: Closed on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays
• Address: Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane, #01-79, S 150085

The stall owner will be retiring by this year with no one to pass their skills to, so came here to enjoy them while I still can. This couple has been running this stall since the 70s.

Be prepared to queue and be patient as the owner has to do the cooking of rice, noodles and chopping up the braised duck by himself. 

As you can see queues are forming even before the lunch hour, and even longer after the stall was awarded Michelin Guide. As you notice their operating hours, they are now working for 4 days a week and shortened their hours, closing at 2.30 PM but they usually sold out before 2pm.

Got a bowl of duck dry kway teow noodle, it was not oily and the meat was generous for a bowl for $3 (they do sell a smaller portion at $2.50). The sauce used was just nice to make the bowl of noodle moist.  The caramelized sauce goes so well with the dry kway teow noodles. The breast meat although it looked dry,  tastewise it was tender and not tough at all.

Ordered a combination of kway teow and yellow noodle. Their sauce was a mixture of chili and homemade sauce which taste very similar to those what we had for fishball noodle with chili sauce, not very heavy on the braised sauce like any other stalls selling. What's impressive is their soup, it does have a very good herbally taste, and does not make you crave for water after that. 

So whoever is around the area, do try them out before it's gone forever...

Keng Eng Kee Seafood 瓊榮記海鮮 - Michelin Guide Zi Char Restaurant

Operating Hours: 

12 PM - 2.30 PM and 5 PM - 10 PM

Operating Days: Daily

Address: 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-136, S 150124

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Reservation Number: 6272 1038

Keng Eng Kee Seafood 瓊榮記海鮮 pronounced as qióng róng jì, also known as KEK, is one of the Michelin starred restaurant that is located in a quiet Bukit Merah area, beside Alexandra Village Hawker Centre. KEK has started their family business since 1970, from a Hainanese Chicken Rice stall to the current 3rd generation Zi Char operation. KEK has an interesting family love story between the eldest daughter of the 1st gen owner and their employed full-time chef, which more information can be found on their menu. 

We were there at 6pm on a Sunday, and many tables outside the coffee shop were already occupied with a big crowd. 

Some of the KEK's signature dishes are Coffee Pork Ribs, Salted Egg Yolk Crab and of course the Chilli Crab.

Interesting history of KEK can be found on the menu.

The first dish served to us was KEK's signature Coffee Pork Ribs. This is definitely a must order dish for all coffee lovers. Rich and strong aroma Coffee scent, mixed with sugar and oyster sauce - the Coffee Pork Ribs is really a good dish to mix with white rice. Some of the zi char stalls tend to overcook their sauce, which would make the Coffee Pork Ribs tough and bitter. However, the Coffee Pork Ribs served here was exactly the opposite. Tender and boneless, the meat from the Pork Ribs was soft and chewy with the coffee aroma.

The next dish that came up was KEK's signature salted egg crab. Creamy sauce with the combination of salted egg yolk and the right amount of evaporated milk used, the sauce itself is already the star of the dish. We were told that at KEK, the owner will ensure that all the crabs used are fresh and up to a certain standard. The crab meat was fresh and thick, and the sauce served was enough for you to scoop and eat it on its own.

Next came was the stir-fried brinjal. This dish has good wok hei taste, which makes me went for a few more pieces. 

Next came was the "Choy Hiang" tofu, which the staff recommended. Deep fried homemade tofu with stir-fried minced pork & canned vegetable, this dish is good to mix with white rice! The tofu was smooth on the inside and crispy on the outside, it is definitely a good try.

Up next is their homemade Hay Chor (prawn roll)! The beancurd skin was filled with minced pork, prawns, carrots and water chestnut. It was then deep fried until golden crispy. For the price ($2 each piece) and the amount of good stuff inside, it is really worth it though it is still a little more pricey as compared to other zi char stalls. I prefer to eat my hay chor without any sweet sauce as it is flavorful enough.

A whole load of good stuff in a piece of Hay Chor.

The last dish that came was their signature Chilli Crab. By then, we were all having high expectation on this last dish, especially after we have tasted the salted egg crab. The Chilli crab, of course, did not disappoint us as well. The gravy is da bomb! The best method of eating the sauce is, of course, to eat it together with fried mantou. It is such a pity that at KEK, they don't serve fried mantou, but served Chinese steam pau instead. For those who would like to have an extra serving of the chili crab sauce, you will have to pay an extra $4.

All in all, KEK Seafood is definitely up to the Michelin star standard. All the dishes that we ordered are suitable for our liking. It is definitely one of the zi char places I would keep returning.

What I like about KEK is their fast service. The first dish was served just 5 minutes after we order. All the dishes were also subsequently served within 30 minutes. Despite our indecisiveness on what to order (due to a big group with 8 of us), the staff at KEK did not stress us to order, which to us, they are very customer friendly. Most importantly, despite their constant good business with many patrons, the food quality at KEK is up to standard as they have their own system in place to prepare the food. I would definitely recommend KEK to anyone who wants quality and affordable food. 

Wow Wow West - Western Food really worth mentioning, Generous portion!

Operating Hours: 10.30 AM - 7.30 PM

Operating Days: Closed on Tuesdays and Sundays

Address: ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, #01-133, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah

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I have been visiting Wow Wow West since years ago and I must say, their quality has not dropped at all. So as a blogger, it's about time to feature them! When I tried visiting them weeks before, it's either their western food gets sold out before I reached, or they have yet to start their operation. 
A warning to you, make sure you are really starving when you visit, their portion can be quite huge!

Curious about why people queue for this? 

For those who have visited them before will know they would usually deliver the food to your table. But they don't do that now. Probably due to the good business, they have since changed to a self-service system. After you have placed your order and make payment, you will be given a number. Just wait around the stall for your number to be called to collect your food. The average waiting time is about 20 minutes.

The food served to us really covered up the whole plate. We ordered their chicken chop and fish n chips. At $7 each, we were given a generous portion of food on both plates. The sides, consisting of fries, coleslaw, and baked beans were generous too! The coleslaw was fantastic. I don’t usually like coleslaw, but I finished this without realizing it. It is a very generous portion that tastes slightly sweeter, unlike other similar stalls. The fries were, however, slightly over-fried as they were hard on the outside. 

Here's their signature big piece of chicken chop. The Chicken chop had bits of black pepper flavor. 

The chicken is fried such that the skin layer is crispy, while the meat is still tender.

The fish and chips portion was huge!!! Every plate of the chicken cutlet or fish n chips will be paired with their mayonnaise sauce, which was actually not to my liking. Their sauce was a little too sour which tasted like a mixture of lemon with orange. I prefer to eat the fish with chili sauce.

The fish was fried to a crisp golden-brown on the outside, but still soft and tender on the inside. Honestly, I, an adult male could not finish this whole plate by myself.

Added a Chicken Cheese Sausage for $2. It tasted like a normal chicken cheese sausage, a bit towards the saltier side.

There is no doubt that the food here is good but I think what really attracts the crowd is the generous portion given. For the price that you are paying, I guess that it's pretty worth it.

Havelock Road Blk50 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee 鳥橋頭大牌50炒福建蝦麵 in Bukit Merah

• Operating Hours: 9 AM - 8 PM
• Operating Days: Close on Tuesdays
• Address: ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-100, S 150006

If you are looking for a plate of fried Hokkien mee at ABC Brickworks Food Centre, my recommendation would be Havelock Road Blk 50 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at a corner of the food centre. Owned by an old couple, they have many years of experience frying plate after plate of delicious fried Hokkien mee.

It was near the lunch hour when we visited but it doesn’t look like a popular stall initially as there were only short queue seen.

This medium portion priced at $5 came with slices of squid, two fresh prawns, and slices of pork. The plate of noodle is well balanced and it's neither too wet nor too dry. 

The fried Hokkien mee is fried in a mixture of pork bone and prawn head stock for the flavor, which is well absorbed by the noodles.

I don’t usually take my Hokkien mee with sambal chili, but for this stall, I ate the noodle together with the chili to enhance the overall experience! If you are someone who need to pair your Hokkien mee with sambal chili, I am sure you will like it.

The fried Hokkien mee may not be the best but definitely one of the better ones. 

P.S. The stall owner has appeared in a Tiger Beer's advertisement previously. It was part of a campaign launched by Tiger Beer to preserve local street food culture.If you would like to watch the commercial, here it is.

Jin Jin Dessert 津津甜品 - Power desserts Gangster Ice and chendol!

• Operating Hours: 12 PM - 10.30 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-20, Singapore 150006
• Facebook Page
• Jin Jin Dessert Website

Scorching heat and wanting to have some 'power' desserts? 

Jin Jin Desserts have been a resident of ABC Food Centre and Market. For some reason, the previous owner gave up the shop and was later revived by two people - Calvin Ho and Ewan Tang. One is a DJ and the other an insurance agent, interesting how both would venture into dessert business.

Never did I expect to see a long queue of customers waiting patiently to place their orders at a dessert stall in a hawker centre. Especially on a rainy day! 

As from the sign board, you could see what is their famous dessert - Gangster Ice and Power Chendol. Gangster Ice came from the name in Chinese 榴莲芒果冰 which shorten it 榴芒冰 which have the same pronunciation as Gangster Ice. 

We decided to order both even on a cold rainy day! We waited about 10min before we are able to place our order. 

It is served with a scoop of pure durian and fresh mango cubes. At first, I thought it was durian ice cream, but it was pure durian flesh! It was sweet with a bit of bitter taste. 

Mango cubes are sweet and soft, but some interesting effect it left on my tongue, it does have soft spike feeling to the tongue. The crushed ice was filled with evaporated milk. I don't personally recommend to mix the durian with the ice, it's good enough to be eaten by itself! Overall a must try for durian lovers!

Next, Power Chendol. It is not Power for nothing. Most of the dessert stalls give too much coconut milk and little to none Gula Melaka. Which makes this stall very generous with the Gula Melaka

If you enjoy Gula Melaka, you are going to love this because the Gula Melaka here has a thick syrupy honey like texture. It's worth queueing up for Jin Jin Dessert and I doubt any chendol fans would be disappointed. 

While they serve a variety of other hot and cold dessert, I have yet to try others as I will sure to return for their cendol again!

Shan Braised Duck Noodles And Rice - Chinese it's just a word 山

• Operating Hours: 10.30 AM to 5.30 PM
• Operating Days: Everyday except Sundays
• Address: Bgain 22 Old Street Coffee House, 22 Havelock Road, S160022
• Food I Had: $4 Duck Kway Tiao 卤鸭粿条

It was a rainy afternoon and we chanced upon this small coffee shop along old Havelock Road while we were waiting for the rain to stop. "Shan" duck rice and noodle stall is just located at the corner of the coffeeshop, and you will definitely not miss it when you walk pass.

There were many customers eating duck rice when we were there. Wanting a hearty meal (and needed to wait for the rain to stop), we decided to try this stall after seeing the number of patrons eating their food from this stall.

We ordered the braised duck kway tiao (卤鸭粿条) dried version at $4.00 each. We were actually very amazed by the taste of the braised sauce. Slightly sweet and infused with a slight herb taste, this bowl of duck kway tiao can definitely win any heart over. It was also topped up with a generous amount of fried onion and spring onion which even further enhance the overall taste without overpowering the original taste of the duck and the kway tiao. It was in fact just nice to be a good decent bowl of duck noodle - great portion of braised duck meat given, the amount of sauce given was just nice, and the amount of kway tiao given was also definitely enough for one person . The stall owner also placed the home made Samba chilli at the side of the bowl - you can mix it together as a whole to bring up the spicy level.

Other than duck kway tiao (or duck noodle), "Shan" duck rice and noodle also serve duck rice and duck congee. The rice they serve at this stall is yam rice (black rice), which is also definitely worth a try should you visit the stall. However, do keep in mind that the duck get sold out pretty fast (usually by 5pm), so be sure to visit them early if you want to try!

All in all, "Shan" duck rice and noodle stall is a pretty decent stall that is not unfamiliar to the people staying along Havelock Road area. It is definitely a stall that you may want to visit if you want to have a no frill and a satisfying meal.

Ye Shang Hai Teochew Porridge (夜上海潮州粥) - 2 pax less than $10?!

• Operating Hours: 10.00 AM to 5 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: #01-387, 55 Lengkok Bahru, Singapore 151055
• How to get there: From Redhill MRT walk up the "hill" for 10mins.
• Food I had: Teochew Porridge for 2 pax ($7.90) 

When it is lunch, dinner or supper time, taxi drivers have to stop somewhere to eat. And when they have their meals outside so often, they would have a list of not only cheap but worthy places. Ye Shang Hai happens to be one of these places taxi uncle introduced me years ago. I have visited them lots of times, and they recently shifted to a new location near Redhill MRT station at Lengkok Bahru. So those who search for their address online, please take note they are no longer located at Bukit Merah View. 

They owned the whole coffee shop this time! 3 thing why I highly recommend this place. First, the food is really really good. Second, the food is cheap to the point you don't expect to be this price. And finally, it’s opened till 5 am in the morning! Now, you might not believe it, and I don’t believe it either, but the owner is 94 years old this year. Ye Shang Hai is one of those places where most of the dishes seem to have something that makes it better.

Their porridge is well-liked by young and old, just look at the queue! We were there at 2 PM and there a constant queue for it and it's really a nonstop queue, so don't bother to sit down and wait for the queue to die off, it won't.

This is only a fraction of the dishes they offered, so it was my turn. The process of ordering food here is you tell them how many porridge/rice, and how many people, now they were asking for how many people not to know your personal life but to know how much of the quantity of food to give you and the prices varies from the quantity.

The food is good. Almost every dish we ordered was good. And look at this amount, do you believe this cost $7.90?! It's less than $10! and I thought the lady boss calculate wrongly, she said it is correct. Really reasonable price. And next is their drinks stall, ordered a Kopi Peng and Milo Peng, and it was priced $2!! So all in with food and drinks cost $9.90! Less than $10 for 2 pax!

People always say - good is never cheap, and cheap are never good. This porridge is one of the top porridge I love, it's not boiled till you do not see the rice, and the porridge water does have the taste which I always ordered it with more water. I can literally eat it with just the porridge alone.

The cai pok omelet looks like a cake slice, it was decently pleasant.

Fresh off the wok, the minced pork stewed with black bean and ginger was punchy, we felt it's too little to share around cause it's really flavorful while not have that too "porky" taste.

This is one of the must order dish in here, cooked cabbage. The softness of cabbage yet preserved a bit of crunchiness, the taste was filled with the sweetness of the natural cabbage, mixed with red carrot slice, Jew's ear (黑木耳), fried anchovies and Cellophane noodles (冬粉).

Lastly, this spicy stingray with salted veg, the sauce used was always a bit of salted vegetable taste with bits of spiciness. But disappointing is the meat was a bit tough today which usually was not the case on previous few visits.

Of the dishes I tried, cabbage and minced pork really stood out. Ye Shang Hai has become one of my top picks for economical Teochew porridge.  Best of all, it is opened till the wee hours of the morning!

Redhill Porridge (红山粥) - Best Porridge I had at a wallet friendly price

• Operating Hours: 5.30AM to 8.30AM
• Operating Days: Monday to Friday
• Address: 85 Redhill Lane, #01-90, S(150085)
• How to get there: Alight at Redhill MRT (East West Line) and walk towards Redhill Close road. Estimated walking time about 5 mins.
• Food I had: Pork and Fish porridge.

Fancy for some porridge early in the morning on weekdays?

It was 7 am on a Tuesday and here I am queueing up at an old school porridge stall. It is not an uncommon scene at the Redhill market, for people to queue up to 45 minutes waiting for their pork or fish porridge. The price was very reasonable and affordable. While I was queuing, I realized many of them in the queue brought along their containers as well (it will save you 20 cents for takeaway).

Look how affordable the price can be? Nowadays, you can't get much at $2.50. We ordered their Pork and Fish Porridge takeaway. A total of $5.40.

Both the fish and pork porridge tasted slightly different as the different seasoning was used. The fish porridge was added with ginger slice and the taste of the sesame oil was much stronger; whereas for the pork porridge, fried onion (bawang goreng) was used to enhance the porridge taste.

We were pleasantly surprised by the generous amount of pork slices that the stall owner gave for the price of $2.50. Each spoonful was filled with pork slices and basically, every bite you take, you can savor the smooth and tasty porridge together and the pork slices together, in just one mouth. The texture of the porridge is definitely something worth commenting. It was smooth, thick and hot.

Many of the porridge places I have tried in Singapore or Malaysia are just mixture of cooked rice and a soup, with visible rice grains, and many times I felt like I'm eating "rice soup" instead. At this place, rice grains were smashed and cooked, not forgetting the art of stirring continuously using low fire - this is what it takes for an excellent porridge to be served.