Tasty Food finds

For lovers of authentic hawker fare, do drop into the Chinatown Complex food centre @ its makeshift location (a walking distance in the open field from the Outram MRT station). Just this weekend, I had the rare chance of making a trip down and found an entire 'treasury' of hawker fare.

Spoilt for choice, I settled for a stall which sold fried hokkien prawn noodle wrapped in orh pek hiok (kinda like a big dried leaf which supposedly 'seals in the flavours'). For S$5, you get a generous serving of big fat juicy prawns (with the head intact, extremely fresh and not the 'headless' kind which is already pre-cooked and staslatehed in the fridge) --- I counted 5 prawplate. And the noodles were soaked in a flavourful broth of simmered chicken/prawn stock garnished with a big dollop of spicy sambal chilli. A very satisfying meal indeed!

I would have washed that down with Er Gu Tian Pin's (which literally translates into 'desserts from Er Gu or Second Aunt) famous sesame paste (zhi ma hu) or almond paste (xing ren hu) if the lady hadn't said "sorry, all sold out, come again lah!" Gee! That uppped my determination to die-die must try it the next time I have an opportunity.

A couple of tips from a foodie: bring along a big umbrella to 'chope' your seats whilst you place your order. Also, be prepared to spend time to queue up for the stall of your choice: I would safely estimate 20-25 minutes for popular stalls like the 'Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Foo' and the Cantonese zhi-char stall that sells Teochew steamed fish.

One big minus would be the queuing up to enter the carpark and to exit from it. The barrier is extremely autistic. But the quality of the meal would make up for this one single flaw... till the next blog, chow chow...