Boon's Goreng Pisang

So I had my plate of mouth-watering duck rice in front of me and was partly successful trying to savor every bite of it. Why then, did my eyes kept darting to my left and my taste buds simply couldn't focus on the meal? The answer is pretty simple actually, since I was seated beside Boon's Goreng Pisang, a widely popular stall located in Long House Food Centre and situated just beside Soon Kee's duck rice stall.

Densely decorated with an abundance bananas as any acclaimed goreng pisang stall would, Boon's Goreng Pisang churns out the crispiest batter and the softest insides you can ever get.

For starters, get the oh-so-crispy fried banana which comes in three different sizes which makes it a little more convenient for those who place a little more emphasis on calories. The caramelized insides are simply gorgeous.



Other items worth mentioning are the green bean and tapioca fritters; both of which contain mashed-up goodness inside of them. Aptly sweetened at the right level, the way the crispy batter gives way to the slightly powdery insides makes the added calories simply worthwhile.

Or why not grab a cempedak fritter, which my girlfriend insists is a must try no matter the circumstances. I could just imagine the creamy paste enveloped by the awfully good batter.

What about the other items then? It's not that they ain't good, it just that I simply haven't tried them yet.

Soon Kee Duck Rice: Umami!

Located just beside the fish soup stall in Long House Food Centre is Soon Kee Duck Rice, the best duck rice I've eaten to date. I remember I onced declared Alexandra Village's duck rice the best ever. Well, cancel that out because this one rocks even more!

Actually the duck rice from both stalls fall into different categories and so, they can't really be compared side-by-side. Alexandra's duck rice belongs to the type with white rice and super umami dark sauce and thinly sliced roast duck. Mmmm, good I'd say.

Soon Kee's duck rice ($3.50 including an egg) belong to the category with the dark coloured yam rice with peanuts and lu dan(braised egg). Except that its not yam rice and thats where its speciality lies.



By far the tastiest (duck) rice I've ever eaten, the rice is so well flavoured that it seems like its been boiled and cooked with the braised sauce. On top of that, the rice tastes like its been fried or cooked with animal fat. Aaaah [enlightened], I seriously think its a watered down version of chicken rice, using chicken or duck fat to fry the rice before cooking. This method really incorporates the fragrance of the duck and the sweetness of the braised sauce together. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?! Brilliante! Genius! The rice has absorbed all the goodiness which is..... good.

The sauce is equally good. It is really at the right thickness and sooo concentrated and well braised with just the right amount of sweetness. This combined with the rice is like, er.. pancakes with maple syrup! ..or a land filled with pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and kaya. [I'm weird]



Their duck meat is not bad either. There's braised duck and roasted duck and I took the braised one which is quite average. The duck rice is accompanied by damn good peanuts though. The peanuts has equally absorbed all the sauces and its super soft!

How could I have forgotten the chilli?! Fried sambal kind of duck rice chilli and the sourish watered kind combined together is really "power" man [sorry couldn't find any other words] Just make an effort to try the chilli because my friend [and me as well] was so ingrossed in the rice that we forgotten about the chilli!

Fish soup for the soul

The sound of fish soup usually yield responses like "ewwwww", or "yuuuck", or "boooooooring!". I understand what you mean, because paying $3 for a bowl of plain MSG-laden soup with a few slices of fish and decorated with a few pieces of lettuce and tomatoes just looks downright well, not worthy of my money. When did lettuce and tomatoes make their way into fish soup anyway? They weren't there in the past and they certainly don't complement the soup in any way.



This fish soup I found at Long House Food Centre though, is different. Its soup is rich! Clear but rich. Slurping down the soup is like drinking some really tasty broth and they have added deep fried egg whites which give the soup extra richness with a very slight, subtle hint of eggi-ness. The bowl soup also contains blocks of tofu, a generous serving of chye sim and bitter gourd, a few pieces of tomatoes and seaweed which enhances the rich taste even further. I still don't stand by tomatoes but the chye sim and bitter gourd gives a nice side to the dish. Plus, they give a very generous portion of fish slices! All these for a reasonable $3.50.

They also have three kinds of chilli. The first is hei bi (dried shrimps) chilli for their handmade noodles, second is simply cut chilli padi in soy sauce and the third is blended chilli which I tried and is haaaaaaaute. The taste is good but don't dip too much because it is super hot!



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