Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our hawker adventures! It's been a while but one of the things we do on dates is trying out different stalls in different hawker centers to find which are our favourites!
Source: wak wak hawker
If you've never patronised a hawker center before, they are typically non-air conditioned buildings that house all kinds of food stalls specialising in one or two signature dishes. They're ubiquitous here in Singapore and Malaysia and are known for delicious and affordable food - the perfect combination! They're definitely where you can find the best food in Singapore and is our go-to place for food!
One of our neighbourhood hawker centres opened a new stall recently, and the first time we discovered it we thought it was just another regular Western stall. Since Singapore is a multicultural society, every hawker centre has at least one stall specialising in each of the 4 main ethnic groups' cuisines: Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian (or Western). They have since expanded to include other cuisines, most commonly Japanese, Korean of Mainland Chinese but the Western stalls tend to be more overlooked or less popular imo.
This Western stall seemed like any other one we've seen although it says it's from Argentina. I'm not really sure what's the difference since they basically sell the same Western dishes like Grilled Chicken Chops, Fish & Chips, etc.
But the thing that stood out to me about this shop was this insane promotion they were having where you get a Chicken Chop Set for only $5.90, and a Fish & Chips Set for only $4.90! I wasn't sure what was included in a set but typically these dishes tend to cost twice as much at regular Western stalls. I'm not sure how they could sell it so cheap but there was no way this promotion could last long so we decided to give it a try as soon as we saw it!
Turns out each set also includes three side dishes and a sauce of your choice, and these were the options available. It was quite a decent spread of choices fit for different tastes.
We decided to try one set each and brought it back home so we could enjoy our meal in comfort while watching Netflix. The short walk home was agonising since the food smelled so good!
When we got back home, we were surprised how big the portion was, for how cheap the promotion is. This was the fish and chips, and we chose butter rice, french fries and mashed potato for the sides.
This was the Grilled Chicken Chop, and we ordered aglio olio, corn and a charcoal bun for the sides. We basically chose all the different sides we wanted to try which was everything except salad and coleslaw. We had our own salad and we're not fans of coleslaw.
For the sauce, we chose black pepper sauce since it's the standard that goes well with chicken chops.
I couldn't decide which dish I liked better! Both of them were so delicious! The fish was fried to crispy perfection while still remaining moist on the inside. It was also well seasoned so it didn't really need any additional sauce. The butter rice was also quite good, with some nice flavour to it although the fries weren't as crispy as we would've liked. The mashed potato was nice and smooth and had savoury brown gravy on top.
Although this dish might look a little dry without any sauces, the mashed potato complemented the rice and fish quite well. We also had some chili sauce on hand for the fries so it was all good and very yummy!
The chicken chop was smaller compared to the fried fish but it was just as delicious if not more! It was nicely grilled with a little bit of char along the edges, while still remaining tender and moist on the inside. The aglio olio had some good flavour to it as well, and the corn provided a nice sweetness to contrast the saltiness of the sauces.
The charcoal bun was surprisingly soft and had a nice glazing of butter on it as well and also helped to balance out the sauciness from the aglio olio and chicken.
I think maybe we should've swapped the rice and aglio olio to pair with the chicken and fish respectively, but they were both very delicious dishes either way. The best part was that it was such a good bargain too!
We had to add $0.30 each since we ordered takeaway but it was well worth it! All this for just under $12? You really can't find deals like that here anymore with inflation increasing all the prices everywhere. Hopefully this promotion doesn't go away soon so we can enjoy this decent Western fare for a while longer.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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Check out my previous post in this series!
