King Garoupa as candidate for the best Char Siew in Singapore

Char Siew is a food of which dreams are made of. There are broadly two versions of this delicacy. One which is the Malaysian, KL style, featuring sweet, caramalised, often slightly burnt flavours. And the Hong Kong style, where the taste is led by saltiness of the soy sauce rather than the sweetness of the other.

I love both, but if put to the test, would give the nod to the Malaysian sweet style. I wrote about my adventures to seek out the best, and found Meng Kee and Oversea in KL which feature what I think is where the state of the art lies. Oversea did open a branch in Singapore, and here is my review. But unfortunately, they closed within a rather short period. And the restaurant space taken by Garoupa King, a seafood restaurant famous for their giant garoupa offerings.

A foodie friend of mine told me that they managed to keep the char siew chef from Oversea, who had been trained in the HQ in Jalan Imbi, KL. And that the char siew was still rather good, perhaps still the best in town.

I went for a couple of tastings, and letting the cat out of the bag, I do confirm this is the best of this style of char siew in town. Other candidates being Alex Eating House, just across the road from the Shaw Towers building housing Garoupa King, the famous, or rather infamous Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint, and Sally Roast Meats.

And boy was it gorgeous! Wonderful, caramel flavours, sweet, sticky, slightly burnt and crisp.

The meat was fat, glistening, and truly melts in your mouth. Very good, and in my opinion, for now, equal to when Oversea was here, and the best in Singapore. One of my friends in my tasting panel was rather less sure, and she thought it was rather not as good, perhaps a bit sweeter than the original Oversea Singapore one.

This dish alone is sufficient to have me back every once in a while. BTW, for some reason, the char siew is not on the menu. But they do have other fabulous dishes too.

The salted egg yolk prawns are fabulous as well

The prawns were rather large, very succulent, very sweet. The richness of the salted egg yolk, smothering the prawns provided a wonderful mouthfeel and aroma. Very nice.

As many regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for tofu...and they do a great tofu dish...with brocolli and pork floss

The tofu is soft, fragrant, and goes very well with the brown sauce and the pork floss. Very nice.

Of course, being in a restaurant famous for their giant garoupa, we had the giant garoupa sliced with hor fun..

Needless to say, superb. The fish, was particularly nice. Very firm flesh, sweet, but in a savoury way...if that makes sense. Very nice, fresh, aromatic. Just magnificent. The horfun is fried with good wok hei.

Definitely well recommended. Excellent, excellent char siew, and the other dishes are very good too.

King Grouper Seafood Restaurant
100 Beach Road
#01-27 Shaw Leisure Gallery

KL Hokkien mee in Singapore: Found in Food r us?

The KL style of hokkien mee is a potent varient of the fried noodles. Black, beguilling. Salty, but also with the faintest tinge of sweetness, coupled with the powerful wok hei and the bite of a good belachan chilli. Intoxicating! Finding one in KL is difficult enough, but to find this style of cooking in Singapore...well...let's not ask for too much. But what are the best fascimilles of this intrepid style?

Many cze char stalls in town serve up some variant. The Singapore style is less black, less wok hei, less powerful sambal. I have grown to love the local variant as well. The best for me, being the one in Beng Hiang. Thick yellow noodles, nestled...drizzled with a brown sauce. Fragrant and wonderful. There is a stall somewhere in Geylang, which I have yet to try...Kong Kee...which is reputed to serve authentic KL style. But as I live in Farrer Road, just across the MRT station is one which I hear (from Makansutra Forum) that is equally as good...so we went to try.

Certainly nothing much to look at. But the powerful whiff of the wok hei is present and accounted for. The crispy bits of pork lard is present. The beautiful, nearly black sauce shows its beauty...not quite as black as some of the famous ones in KL, but good enough for Singapore. Taste? Very good. After months of not eating the real KL stuff, this one is a good approximation. So far, in my view, probably the closest and most authentic in Singapore. High praise indeed...but try it for yourself.

Somewhat less successful in authencity...perhaps they were not aiming to be authentic...but still rather tasty is the KL style ying yang

Fragrance of the wok hei is apparent. The noodles were expertly fried. The bee hoon crisp. The hor fun could be fried a bit longer...but I found this dish satisfying. Nice...ticks all the right boxes. Kin found it to be only adequate.

We also ordered a plate of Penang Char Kway Teow...fergedaboutit....nothing like the real thing. Too greasy. Kway teow was too thick...more like hor fun. Urg.
Blk 3 Queens Road, #02-171 Singapore

+65 6473 3822
Daily: 11am–2.30pm, 5pm–11pm

Nam Seng Noodles: Venison Hor Fun

This episode: also known as Cheap Eats in CBD. Nam Seng is one of the oldest noodle houses in Singapore...still helmed by Madam Leong, aka Grandma has been the center of this Cantonese styled restaurant for the last 50 years. And still continues to do so.

Famous for their wantan mee, but for today's lunch, I want to talk about their venison hor fun. Beef Horfun is quite a staple for Singapore. So the twist of using tender slices of venison instead of beef in the black bean and pepper sauce is interesting, to say the least.

The taste was superb. Mostly thanks to the delicious, savoury gravy. But also the tender, and great tasting venison. The hor fun was more Ipoh style where it was not really fried till fragrant with wok hei, but looked like it was steamed, and then the beautiful black, rich gravy poured over for a very satisfying meal.

The large serving shown above is only S$5 a plate, so we added a small bowl of shrimp dumpling in soup.

The soup was a bit oily, but the broth wonderfully tasty and the dumplings floating within was very nice. Each with a shrimp and some pork wrapped around a crunchy vegetable.

Long queues form at lunch times with the office crowd, but the queue moves rather quickly. Satisfying meal.
25 China Street
#01-01 Far East Square
ph: +65 6438 5669
hp: +65 9689 6288

em: info@namsengnoodles.com
http://www.namsengnoodles.com/namsengnoodlehouse-home
Mon - Fri: 8.00am to 9:00pm (last order 8:15pm)
Sat: 8.00am to 5:00pm (last order 4.15pm)