Couple of years back, the husband and I often frequented Jalan Besar when we had to shop for bathroom accessories for our new house then. And this particular ‘mixed veg rice stall’ that often saw throngs of customers was one of our favourites for a quick lunch.
No one would expect decent food to be served in such a run-down shophouse, really. But this was really one of the few great finds in Singapore that proved the point that appearance wasn’t everything.
In the whole unit, there were only this food stall and a drink stall at the back. This wasn’t any ordinary mixed veg rice stall. It was a Hainanese style curry rice stall and in fact, this particular brand was one of the pioneers of this much loved Hainanese cuisine in Singapore in the early days.
Just let the stall keeper know what you want from the array of delightful ingredients or simply point to whatever catches your fancy, he or she will just scoop everything on top of fluffy white rice before dousing the whole thing in curry gravy and braising sauce like this.
An ugly sight but it was a delicious mess. I ordered fried pork cutlet, spicy ikan bilis (anchovies), cabbage and a sunny side up. And this entire plate was $4.90. Probably more expensive than most regular mixed veg rice stalls but this portion was huge. And the most appealing thing was the combination of the 2 gooey gravies that somewhat was a match made in heaven. Normally I don’t really like starchy stuffs but this made me weak in the knees. The pork cutlet was tender and I loved its crisp crust exterior which wasn’t oily. The ikan bilis had a good punch of spice. The cabbage was soft and literally melted in the mouth. The egg was a little overdone as I felt a runny yolk would probably make this concoction even more divine. It was hard to separate out individual items as it was meant to be polished off in a whole. Some people might not appreciate this as the mixture was too wet and would make the rice seem a little too soggy but I totally hearted it. This was an extremely comforting, wholesome and satisfying meal. Try it if you haven’t.
Beach Road Scissor Cut Curry Rice
229 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208905
Tel: 6292 3593
Opening hours: 11.00am to 3.30am daily