Tien Lai Rice Stall: Damn good sauce, Damn good pork

Never a big fan of pork, I'm seldom attracted to dishes starring pigs as the leading role. BBQ pork, or char siew, is a different matter altogether. That unique sweet sauce soaked into the meat and then nicely charred around the edges. Ooh, that crunchy feeling combined with the taste is to die for.

Of course, there are many preferences the way char siew is done. Some like it soft and fatty cuts while others, like me, prefer them lean and nicely charred and of course there are those in the middle who like a good crunch with a nice rim of fat. One thing is for sure though, and that is it has got to have a damn good sauce (better sweet than salty in my opinion) and it has to be charred just right.



Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to feast upon a good plate of char siew, roast duck and roast pork. This stall located at Taman Jurong Food Centre was recommended by my good buddy David and it's char siew is comparable to Fatty Cheong's. If you are doubting it's authencity, check this out, the person before us (damnit, us again) ordered 30 packets of roasted chicken rice from them. It wasn't char siew they ordered, but that has gotta hint of something good right?

Over here you have a choice of fatty or lean cuts. The char siew we ordered was nicely sweetened with a slight char around the edges while the texture is slightly harder than Fatty Cheong's. Unlike Fatty Cheong's this one is also thinly sliced to compensate for the firmer bite. The roast duck was quite well done with a nice smokey flavour trapped in the skin and both dabbed with a little he bi hiam chilli will send you over the roof. Of course, what's more orgasmic than that is the sauce they use. Splashed over a plate of white rice, the dark sauce was such a delish that I would have finished the plate of rice by itself if there were more of the sauce. Umami will be the word to describe it as the thick and richly flavoured sauce surpassed even that of Alexandra Village's duck rice sauce!



The roast pork I find average but there's something which amazed or intrigued
me more. That is, they serve skin from the pig's head. Eeeeeeeew, yeah I know exactly what you are thinking. Perhaps this is the norm in roast meat stalls but I haven't heard of it before so please spare me your reprimands alright?

There's isn't much of a vie for taste in the skin as it's only mostly salty and it's quite chewy. People who like QQ (chewy) stuff will like it for I think I'll give it a pass.

Address:
Tien Lai Rice Stall
Taman Jurong Food Centre
#02-66

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!

Duck soupie

Rocher Duck Rice is one duck rice stall I just HAVE to introduce to everyone. Now many people may slam me for this and some already did [eg. MY girlfriend, who INSISTS that their duck rice are nothing special and not even nice]. But shhhhhh, come in closer and I'll tell you a secret because the gem in this stall is not the duck rice, nor the duck meat, but the soup. [Aaaah, enlightenment!]

Frankly speaking, their duck rice is at most average and so is their duck meat and I wouldn't give a hoot about them if not for their soup, which is also coincidentally and thankfully available in a claypot duck version.



The soup is one of the best herbal soup I've ever drank; the second best coming from a damn good duck rice stall in Bukit Timah Plaza which I will cover in another post (hopefully, if I get the chance to go down there). The soup is really rich and full of herbal goodiness yet not to the point of being bitter at all. It's so concentrated with herbal essence (not the shampoo) that I think theres got to be a thousand herbs squeezed into the pot. Just kidding, I wouldn't drink it if it were a thousand.. or a hundred cause I'll probably splurt blood from my nose and die on the spot.

Back to the soup! Hey, this is soup is really good and I would gladly drink it on its own and dunk it in rice and slurp it up like porridge. Hey teochew duck porridge! Now thats an idea..



The meat though is a little on the tough side and nothing much to write about.

Oh yeah they have an assortment of side dishes too like tau kwa, kiam chye, pork intestines, pig skin, stir-fry cabbage and some other stuff.


The kiam chye was not bad but not exceptional and could be a little more sourish.



Heres a pic of the duck rice. Its funny too that their duck meat come in chunks rather than slices. The pig skin ordered by my friend is covered in a layer of fat which apparently is not very good for health.. and your waistline since it sends you into a state of jelly bellyness. Ya know.. jelly bellyness? [Just pretend that you know]

Okay! I can't believe that I wrote so much for a bowl of herbal soup from a duck rice stall, but I did. SO GO AND TRY IT NOW!



Address:

Rocher Duck Rice
[Shucks, I forgot to note the actual address but its directly opposite Concord hotel along Beach Road]

Alexandra Village II

Alright! Time for more goodies from Alexandra Village! Seriously, thinking about it, everytime I go there, I only eat from the stalls from the back row facing the carpark.

Well, because everything is there! You've got the beef stew, the mutton soup (check this out they even have mutton SPAGHETTI), the chicken rice, the avocado milkshake and the famous tze char (forgot the name but you'll surely notice it at night.).

Also on that row are two good stalls selling yummilicious food. The first stall is Roasted Duck Rice. I've seen this stall around for a long, long time when I was still a young kid but I never got down to trying it out because I'm not really a duck person (and also duck fat and skin is darn hard to remove from the meat). Okay I know, I know the good part is the crispy skin with the fat but don't go throwing tomatoes at me now! I just like it fat-free okay!



As usual, there's an array of advertisements plastered on the glass panel and many "fans" eating their duck rice. Frankly speaking, the duck is seriously good. I didn't take the skin but the meat was well roasted and tender.



The gravy, however... is distinction. Comon, how many times have you heard of a good duck rice stall, went down see check it out, watch them slop a big scoop of nice-smelling, delicious-looking thick gravy on your rice but when you try it? It tastes like... tasteless starch? This gravy is thicken to the right consistency, good portion of oil, and taste super good! It's just very tasty and flavourful, trust me.



The chilli is also another plus point. It's slightly sourish and thus freshens up the dish a little and making it less boring (wouldn't it be boring if everything was salty?)

Go try it out!



Next stall is the well known Lien Fa Shui Jing Pau which was previously at Tiong Bahru food centre. I never liked shui jing pau in the past because whenever I eat them, there are always "stones" or "sand" in the shui jing pau. I'm not really sure what they are though, but I don't like them.

So what prompted me to try it out this time? Well, my dear mother told me it's really good and plus, she told me they have red bean and yam filled ones. Must go!



I felt that the shui jing pau is nice cause the filling is TOTALLY DELICIOUS! It's very tasty with a strong yet not overwhelming dried shrimp flavour. It's also not too oily and the radish is still slightly crunchy. The chilli also has dried shrimps in it and goes well with the pau very well. And of course, no "stones"!

I don't really like the red bean and yam filled ones though cause I felt that the sticky skin prevented the flavour from fully dispersing.



So there you go! Two more nice stalls for you guys to try out. I'll definately be back there to try out the rest of the goodies soon.