Hey Hive!
Now that a lot of people here have already gotten vaccinated, I'm very happy to hear that Singapore is now allowing in-house dining again, but up to 2 people and obviously you have to be vaccinated. However, we're still trying to stay safe and limiting our time out, at least around peak hour timings since I hate being around crowds anyway.
So back in December 2021 when Spiderman: No Way Home came out, we made sure to book our tickets for it ahead of time on the very first day it was available to the public so that we wouldn't get spoiled since we're both huge MCU fans.
We made a date of it and went to have a nice lunch beforehand and decided to try out this restaurant called Chen's Mapo Tofu! We've cooked mapo tofu a bunch of times at home but we've never had mapo tofu in an actual restaurant before, much less in a restaurant specialising in it!
If you're unfamiliar, Mapo Tofu is a popular Chinese dish from Sichuan Province, where spicy food is king and the signature spice of the region––the Sichuan Peppercorn––gives dishes a special “numbing” effect. It’s almost like the Sichuan peppercorns are there to not only add their fragrance and flavor, but also to numb your tongue so it can take more heat! (Source: The Woks of Life)
Turns out Chen's Mapo Tofu is a sister concept started by Chef Chen Kentaro, 3rd Generation owner of Shisen Hanten (四川饭店) which originated and boasted 14 outlets across Japan. His restaurant Shisen Hanten by Chef Kentaro was also awarded 2 Michelin stars in the Singapore Michelin Guide!
There are currently 3 Chen's Mapo Tofu outlets and the one we went to is located in the basement of the mall which looked like this! The exterior had a pretty simple design and even had a small little pick-up counter for takeaway and food delivery orders.
So the restaurant actually operated like a fast-food place where you order at the counter before taking a seat. This was what the counter:
And this was the menu:
You could really see the Japanese-inspired dihses from here with different type of Dons/rice bowls and also Dan Dan Mien and Kaisen Katayaki (stir-fried seafood, vegetables with rich umami gravy on crispy fried noodles)!
Since this was our first time eating here we went for one of the Signature Combos, which includes half a Mapo Don (Chen's Signature Mapo Tofu and Savoury Minced Meat Rice/Noodles) and half a Dan Dan Mien (Soup/Dry). We also ordered a Shoyu Buta Don as it sounded pretty interesting! That's Chen's Signature Szechuan Spiced Pork on Rice with Onsen Egg.
We could choose a spice level for the Mapo Don and decided on level 1 since we wanted to be able to taste the mapo tofu and not burn/numb our tongues to the taste.
After ordering, we went in to take a seat and there's actually a variety of seating to choose from!
There were these cozy-looking booths near the counter:
And down the hall there were more chairs and tables. We decided on the corner table with the couch!
The overall design of the place was really aesthetically pleasing and felt nice and modern, with the traditionally auspicious Chinese colours.
After we ordered we were given a beeper to signify when our food was ready to be collected.
We also made our Signature Combo a set which came with a side dish and drink and we chose Calamansi Juice! The juice was a little sour but very refreshing and was good to cleanse our palates.
It's funny since Sean's surname is also Chen in Chinese so we were joking that this was also his restaurant, especially since he likes mapo tofu a lot and would eat it whenever we go to Japan!
Less than 10 minutes later, our Signature Combo arrived! The staff actually brought it to our table since there weren't that many customers around at the time.
This was the one with half a Mapo Don and half a Dan Dan Mien! We decided on rice for the Mapo Don and Dry for the noodles. I thought this combo was so perfect for people who wanted to try both the rice and noodles but couldn't finish if they ordered 2. It actually did look quite substantial despite being only half!
Here's a closeup of the famous Mapo Tofu Don!
And the Dan Dan Mien and minced meat which came with a small bowl of broth since we ordered the Dry version.
A little later, our Shoyu Buta Don arrived! It looked just like a classic Chinese stir-fry dish but with an onsen egg.
This was our full main course! Everything looked and smelled so delicious! You could really smell the mala from the mapo tofu so it was a little intimidating but I couldn't wait to dig in!
Curiously, our side dish was the one that arrived last, but not by much! This was Szechuan popcorn chicken that kinda looked like salted egg fried chicken:
I think it actually did have a salted egg taste so they must've mixed the Szechuan peppercorn with salted egg batter before frying the chicken! And it actually tasted really good! Savoury, juicy, with the perfect amount of spice.
But back to the main event - the Mapo Tofu Don!
It was absolutely delicious! Very savoury, and the spice was definitely there. It also puts the ma in Mala because I could feel the numbing effect just from the first bite! I personally am not too big a fan of the Ma taste but it was just too tasty! And even though my tongue could feel the spice and I had to take quite a few sips of Calamansi Juice, it was definitely worth it!
Onto the Dan Dan Mien! If you've never heard of Dan dan noodles before, or as Wiki says "carrying-pole noodles", it is a noodle dish from Chinese Szechuan cuisine and is originally served with no soup in a small bowl covered in a mala meat sauce and pickled vegetables, with peanuts and spring onions served on top. The soup variant is from Hong Kong and is more widespread across the rest of China but it is uncommon in Sichuan itself where the authentic style dominates. (Source: Wiki)
I've never tried Mapo Dan Dan Mien before, so this was pretty interesting. The mapo taste wasn't as strong in the noodles and the texture was nice and chewy, but I felt like it was only okay. I'm not a big fan of Dan Dan Mian normally though compared to the myriad of noodle dishes we have here.
The last dish was of course the Shoyu Buta Don, which came with an onsen egg! And the most important part is of course popping the onsen egg! Unfortunately it didn't really pop that spectacularly, so this was the best we could do:
It did smell really good though so we were eager to try it!
And it was absolutely yummy! The pork was nicely marinated and seasoned with the slightly sweet shoyu sauce and the onsen egg provided the perfect pairing with the liquid yolk. It definitely helped to ease the spice from the Mapo Tofu and was Sean's favourite dish out of all since he wasn't a fan of the strong Ma taste.
The pork was also lean and tender, and very tasty! Only slightly sweet from the shoyu sauce so just the right balance of sweet and savoury for me! But since I like spice, the mapo tofu was definitely my favourite despite the numbing being a little too much.
Overall though, it was a very delicious meal! And while I did finish most of the Calanmasi juice and my water it was well worth the burning because I was soo stuffed! We ended up buying another drink from a bubble tea shop for the movie and also to extinguish the flames in my mouth. If you're a fan of spice and mala in general, definitely give Chen's Mapo Tofu a try!
Thanks so much for reading!
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Posted via foodiesunite.net