Breakfast at Jo Kwon’s
Seriously I can’t bring myself to call this bus interchange breakfast place it’s proper name, I have always called it Jo Kwon and the name kind of stuck. And my friends know instinctively the quality of the foods there and if they want to spend their precious money there.
I love Jo Kwon’s for various reasons. The family operating the business, the no nonsense home-cooked food that they prepare and the aloof friendliness of the people working there. It’s cordial and not over the top friendliness. They serve an army of bus drivers who ply Singapore’s busy roads to move people, these guys are always on the go, cooking, serving, feeding, and then it’s back to cooking again.
The little kitchen behind is always alive with a hustle of activity and busyness, Jo himself is always whacking the wok with his old school soup ladle, working out those biceps and forearm curls with each hurl of sauce and toss of bitter gourd. It’s like a free gym right where he stood. Left hand lifting up the cast iron wok and continually tossing the greens over high heat. It’s a sauna in there.
Who needs the gym?! Seriously.
And occasionally you have the stray magpie wandering into the little eatery and picking off bits of chicken meat and noodle leftovers. These birds also know how to enjoy good home-cooked food.
I usually would eat their Yong Tau Foo Chilli and bitter gourd stir fry and sunny side up with a mixture of Bee Hoon and Egg Noodles. Not filling but very fulfilling. Like coming home feeling. Definitely Ho Jiaks!