Hey Hive!
Even though there are still people getting covid, it's basically being treated like a cold these days so thankfully almost everything is back to normal now! There are no more restrictions on dining these days and you don't even have to wear a mask anymore if you don't want to! It's a huge relief and this allows us to try different food places again!
We recently came across this small hawker center in our neighbourhood that we had yet to try and it seemed super popular with residents in the area so we decided to check it out! The whole establishment is actually quite small with only a few stalls, half of which were closed by the time we got there for dinner. The only two stalls that were still open at the time was a noodle stall and the biggest one there which was the economic rice/tzi char stall.
Tzi Char is a Hokkien term here in Singapore to describe an economic food stall which provides a wide selection of common and affordable dishes which approximate home-cooked meals. It's a very common in hawker centers here and I think this particular one is a hidden gem of sorts since it's so popular.
The actual stall doubles up as the economic rice stall, where you choose from a select number of dishes on display and they put it on top of rice or noodles, another common dish you'd find in hawker centers.
This particular stall is very unique in that they have a TON of different dishes! Their menu is the thickest menu I have ever seen, with so many double-sided pages!
Here's a glimpse of the sheer number of dishes they have. If I took a photo of the whole menu it would take up half this post I'm sure.
They do have a wide variety of seafood, meat, noodle and rice dishes though! We were overwhelmed just flipping through the menu, we wondered how the chefs could keep up with all these different dishes!
There were the usual tzi char dishes you'd find anywhere and some unique ones we've never seen before. They all looked and sounded really good too, we were spoilt for choice!
Ultimately, we decided on a tofu dish, a vegetable dish and I wanted to try this cheap vegetarian noodle dish they had, while Sean chose another noodle dish. We placed our order at the counter and waited patiently for our food.
The hawker center itself was quite small but had very traditional, retro vibes but was thankfully very clean and organised so there was still space to move around. It was still pretty crowded on a random weekday night with only two stalls open.
Not long after, our food arrived! You could tell Sean was excited about the tofu with crispy enoki mushrooms!
Now for the close-ups of each dish! This was the one I chose - stir fried vegetarian noodles which I think only cost around 3 dollars. It was actually quite a sizable portion for the price and we were surprised because I thought it was going to be a small portion. And it looked just like any other stir fried noodles just without prawns which we could go without anyway.
It was really tasty and savoury but not too salty! I actually enjoyed this dish a lot, and for the price it was more than worth it! If I just had this dish on my own I think it would definitely fill me up.
For vegetables, we ordered a classic tze char dish (and also one of our favourites) - Sambal Kangkong, which is a type of water spinach. It's usually stir fried in spicy sambal paste and can be quite spicy but thankfully this one was just right for us. It wasn't overly spicy but very savoury and delicious! It would've paired well with rice but since we ordered two noodles we didn't need any more carbs.
Sean chose the Mee Goreng, which is another stir-fried noodle dish originally from Indonesia but is also very common here in Singapore. There are multiple versions done by different ethnicities and this is the Chinese version which is yellower in colour.
It's a little spicy but also slightly sweet and tangy because they commonly use tomatoes in the sauce and in the dish itself. It's not my favourite version but Sean likes it a lot, and it was still pretty yummy nonetheless! The portion size was comparable to the vegetarian noodle dish we ordered but this one came with fishcake, prawns and squid.
Finally, the tofu dish which was arguably the best dish of all (even though they're all really yummy)! Unfortunately I can't remember the exact name of it from the menu but it was crispy tofu with gravy topped with fried enoki mushrooms. It looked exactly the same as in the menu and was soo good!
The enoki mushrooms were fried to crispy perfection in a seasoned batter and the tofu itself was slightly crispy but became soft after it soaked up the gravy which wasn't as salty as I thought thankfully. Inside, the tofu was light and fluffy and it paired well with the sauce and the crispy mushrooms on top. It was a nice texture contrast and overall a very delectable dish!
I think the tofu was the most expensive dish at 10 dollars, while the vegetables cost 7 and the mee goreng was 5. So in total this whole meal came to about 25 dollars which was decent for how full we were! I was so stuffed after all that but it was a very satisfying meal for sure and we'll definitely be back for more to try out their other dishes!
Thanks so much for reading!
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