Cze Char: Exercising the wok

Cze Char is a staple standard in Singapore cuisine...food, cooked a la minute to order. Featuring fresh ingredients, some with great innovation. There are many around, most reasonably good.

Today, I feature one which was quite good. Situated just around the corner from my former office, this is a favourite in the area. This Cze Char is situated in the S11 Coffee Shop at Killiney Road, with a sitting area al fresco style behind the shop, under the shade of trees and tarpaulin. Rustic.

But most interesting is the food. Quite a standard menu, so I tried some staples. First off, Fried Beehoon with a spicy chilli sambal sauce by the side.

This is quite a standard dish offered by most cze char stalls. Apparently simple, but as with most simple dishes may be the most difficult to prepare well. This one is pretty good by most standards. Nice wok hei, beautifully cooked bee hoon...a bit al dente, but yet soft and rather soft. The crunchy taugeh and balance of salty and slight sour from the lime, and spicyness from the sambal is quite addictive.

Another standard for cze char is fried rice

Yet another deceptively simple dish. This one with beautiful wok hei, crunchy bits of deep fried salted fish, fresh prawns, and taugeh. Very nice.

Yet another standard...the har cheong kai...or prawn paste deep fried chicken

The cook/chef demonstrated excellent control of his wok and fire skills. Magnificently cooked...crispy, but yet not greasy outside. Even though this is a deep fried dish. And wonderfully moist and juicy within. Beautiful flavours.

Sambal kangkong

Rather de rigeur, but nicely cooked. Nice, young kangkong, cooked just right, crunchy. With a beautiful paste, with bits of dried shrimps. Very nice.

And an innovative dish

Pork chop slices with a sauce of salted egg yolk. Salted egg yolk is often used as a sauce ingredient for crabs and the ever popular prawns. But this is the first time I have seen it with pork. Creamy, almost milky, the flavours of the salted egg yolk blend beautifully with the tender pork slices. With a bit of chopped chilli padi...quite magnificent.

Quite a nice cze char stall, in the middle of the city. Great cooking.

Cze Char Stall, S11 Coffee Shop
117 Killiney Road