You know, I had not thought I would grow to like the food from this zichar stall when we first started eating here.
I mean, eating food at hawker centers and coffee shops is sometimes a sort of gamble. You think the stall might be good, the food turns out to be otherwise. Or, you think the food from this stall is good, but it turns out that only (some) dishes are good, and the rest are mediocre.
The latter had been my expectation when coming here to the zichar stall of Blk 80 Marine Parade Central.
But, to my surprise, as so far as I've eaten, the food has been quite good.
Now, I don't take pictures of every dish every time I eat there, but here be a few.
You know what's funny?l
What's funny is that the cheapest item in particular collection is actually one of the best.
it's not that they aren't good with the fried.
But I think they're better with the stir fried.
In any case, for a most pleasant price of $4.80 for (Sup Kum) Hor Fun, or Hor Fun with Gravy, I am not complaining. To being with, there aren't many places that will grant you such and such a dish at such a price. What's more, the quality is quite good.
First time I had the dish I had worried that the sauce be too starchy, or the portion of hor fun be too small. I had also worried that the extras be either too hard or too discolored or not fresh at all.
To my surprise, it turned out otherwise.
So there is a bit of starch inside the gravy but, really, it's not that bad. As in, I don't get the over stuffed feel after I eat the hor fun noodle with the gravy. On the other hand, it tastes just nice.
Is there wok hei?
Not alot.
An occasional section or two, maybe, but not more.
I don't mind.
I mean, yes, I'd love it if there were more chewy chewy pieces stuck together but that's not something to be bargained for and, really, it isn't so high up on the criteria list anyway.
The interesting part, I have to say, is probably the vegetables and the prawn and the meat. See, most of the time these are additional ingredients that no one really cares about, so more often than not, these are the ingredients that get hard, difficult to eat, and can literally be placed at the side.
But the vegetable leaves are surprisingly soft (not chewy as I thought they would be), the stems are also soft, and whilst the pork slices are a wee bit ends and a wee bit small, they aren't dry nor inedible. The surprise is the prawn. Frozen, yes, but actually quite good.
When it comes to the fried, their fried bee hoon is better than their fried hor fun.
Why, exactly, I don't know.
It's just that the fried bee hoon is drier and less oily as compared to the fried hor fun, and so my stomach takes it better. I've had more fun eating the bee hoon than the flat rice noodle, and I don't think it's because the hor fun has more sauce. I think it's because the nature of the noodle absorbs more sauce or oil compared to how the bee hoon does, and so the threshold is narrow.
In any case I'm glad for the bee hoon.
It doesn't have a lot of ingredients, but they've got little tiny bits of char siew and prawn and shredded fried omelet egg and taugey. I like the way it feels in my mouth, slightly savory, but not greasy nor oily.
Better yet I get to ask them for more limes these days which they generously do give.
As of date, I haven't tried the rice dishes.
I will- I've got my eye on the salted egg one- but not yet.
The only rice dish in this collection had been chosen by my friend, and according to him, his choice of lemon chicken- a well fried fillet, a generous serving of sour-sweet sauce, was pretty satisfying too.