comfort foods

Kway Chap @ Brew Cafe 171

Kway Chap @ Brew Cafe 171

I am not bragging, but this is the best kway chap stall since Xin Yun Kway Chap at Tampines Round Market closed down and also the old uncle shop at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre closed as well.

As they say, one mountain will be taller than one mountain. Never mind if you didn’t understand that, that’s fine. Just know that if you bow out of the race for the best kway chap, then the next best stall will eventually over-take you as they continually hone their craft and execute their unique flavours.

Pork as we all know, is pork, and the sauce is just sauce, but the art of combining pork and sauce just makes this stall at block 171 Yishun Ring Road a rare find and a gem in the making. The chilli that is served complimentary with the dish rocks and is totally delicious. Haven’t had something so nice in the mornings for a while now. Oh, if you wanna visit, better come earlier in the mornings because they tend to start to run out of stuff as the morning dims to start of noon.

Located at a strange coffee shop known as Brew Cafe 171, I guess the boss is probably a younger son of a coffee shop big boss? Trying to sound cool perhaps? Anyway, there is sufficient seating for a small coffee shop. Social distancing in place but really, it’s so crowded that it looks socially dangerous at some points. Dangerously delicious mostly.

Bon Appetit!

Batang Fish Porridge

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Batang Fish Porridge

Another comfort food for those that are in dire need of much comfort. Yes, fish porridge is definitely on my list of comfort foods. I dont usually do fish porridge the way my mum likes to cook it, but since I haven’t been feeling all that fantastic, I thought I should do it like how mum cooks it.

She loves to use bay-kah fish which I don’t really have at ntuc, so I guess I just have to make do with batang fish. Same same but slightly different. The texture of the meat is kind of like tuna in a way. Maybe one of these days I might experiment with tuna to make fish porridge.

Mum would skin off the fish, chop the meat into a paste and season it with light soya sauce and sesame seed oil. All the ingredients that makes it great. I don’t know what else or maybe I wasn’t really paying attention. So this is my version of my mum’s fish porridge.

Recipe

Ingredients

A cut of Batang Fish (usually the lower part is best)
Some Tong Chai (this is some kind of pickled vegetable that is for flavouring soups)
Light Soya Sauce
Sesame Seed Oil
Half a cup of Rice (this is for cooking porridge)

Method

1. De-skin the Batang Fish or remove as much meat as possible. The meat is then chopped aggressively as if to mince it.

2. Once it is suitably minced, add light soya sauce and sesame seed oil to marinate the fish paste.

3. Once the fish paste is ready, you can spoon dollops into the plain porridge and stir until it is cooked.

4. Cooking plain porridge is easy. Add rice to a pot and boil with water until the rice breaks down.

5. Add tong chai to flavour the porridge and you can eat.

Bon Appetit!