Some time ago, a friend introduced me to the food of this eating place in Bedok Mall called Hainan Second Street.
Uneducated me at first thought it was (something like) another Hainanese place that I, on several occasions, had patronized when I happened to be near the Lavender area, but no, the vibe- completely different.
Let's just say that if one place felt more touristy, more formal- as some might call it-the other one felt more casual, more comfortable, more homely.
Hainan Second Street felt like the downstairs coffee shop the family trooped to for dinner should the chef of the family decided to close kitchen that day.
It might have been the ambience, the furniture, the staff (all of whom spoke Hainanese, by the way) or maybe just the atmosphere in general, but the Cantonese me didn't feel uncomfortable one bit at all, and happily looked through the menu.
There're a fair bit of dishes to be had here at Hainan Second Street.
Popular ones include the Hainanese Chicken Rice, the Paper Cut Curry Rice, the Curry Noodles and the Classics.
My friend went for one of the classics- the Sweet and Sour Pork Chop, which, for some reason I don't have a picture of, but is a signature dish in and amongst Hainanese food places. There's a bit of a story to it, I know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that many Hainanese used to work as chefs and cooks for the British and the Europeans (or so the story goes) and so they know how to make a good breaded pork chop.
Me, on the other hand, decided to go for the Curry Chicken Chop, which, when it came, got me incredibly surprised by the ocean of curry the dish was swimming around in.
I don't think I have ever had that huge a amount of curry when at coffee shops or food courts I order chap chye png.
What I liked most about this dish wasn't just the very well breaded chicken chop, but also the lettuce vegetables, the two pieces of black fungus, and the single piece of pork belly that at first I couldn't tell, hidden as it was under the curry-soaked heap of rice.
The curry had more curry powder than chili, which I liked, and was creamier, sweeter than I thought it would be.
How is it that a simple plate of rice, vegetables, and two kinds of meat can turn into something so heartwarming, I don't know, but it was just so comforting, so lovely to dig one's spoon into.
You might have thought we would have more than enough, but we weren't to go off without trying at least a piece of their signature toasts, so a crisp two-piece toast with butter and kaya we decided to have.
The butter was thick, making it a great complement to the toast already layered with a thick, creamy splat of fragrant, pandan-infused kaya making each bite taste both salty and sweet.
Let's just say it was kind of fun trying to balance the brick of butter on top of the toast without it sliding around.
What made this bread lovelier was the cup of hot milk tea that we'd ordered together with it.
it's funny; in my head toast and curry rice don't always seem like a balanced combination- like is the kaya on the bread considered dessert, but then there's the salty butter and the bread itself, so it's technically also considered a main?
But all that doesn't matter once you have the toast.
Everything just naturally falls into place.
And thats' when you realize you could, in fact, have had a toast set, even a French toast one, or with eggs, and made a main out of it.
But that's how it went for lunch this afternoon at Bedok Mall.
I spent a bit of time observing the plates of the slightly senior diners around me. Some of them had ordered just the toast and drinks. Others, however, had chicken rice and beef noodles in front of them. A few tables away, a group of four were happily relishing the steamboat set, slowly sipping their soup whilst the vegetables and meats bubbled around in the steamboat pot.
I pretty much like the food here at Hainan Second Street.
Think I'll come here for the curry rice again next time.
Or maybe the chye poh hor fun.
I like hor fun, I don't mind chye poh, and it's a distinctive combination that I don't think I have had before.