Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to those of you who celebrate!
Do you love mooncakes? Honestly, I’m not a big fan of them especially the traditional ones as I don’t like lotus seed paste. Plus, most mooncakes are often too sweet so they get really sickly. If I do buy any, I’ll only get those with pure durian (preferably Mao Shan Wang) or mixed nuts filling (五仁月饼), haha. Speaking of which, I had a pretty good MSW mooncake last night. First time trying this Yong Xin brand of Mao Shan Wang Snow Skin Mooncake. Very value for money as it’s so affordably priced. And they don’t skimp on the filling as it’s all made of durian pulp so it’s really like eating a fresh durian. Intense durian aroma. Better than I expected. I even had them delivered to my doorstep – super convenient!
Some time back, I was at Ang Mo Kio MRT Station to meet up with a Carousell buyer. She was running late and since I had nothing to do while waiting, I went around the station premises to check out the food options. And I stumbled upon this Chinese eatery, Sichuan Chef a.k.a. 四川厨子.
Been wanting to try these Chinese/Sichuan-style noodles for a while so thought this would be a pretty good option to start with.
When you come out of the gantry gate at Ang Mo Kio MRT Station, turn to your left and walk towards the exit on the left hand side. You will spot Sichuan Chef instantly.
Sichuan Chef is a small, casual eatery that can accommodate 8-9 diners comfortably. In all my previous visits, I noticed most of the customers were from the Chinese community. This is probably a good place to get a familiar taste of home for the Chinese who are working and living in Singapore.
Everything here is just simple, honest and unpretentious. Lady boss is very friendly too.
Got some appetisers (凉拌菜) to share. This plate of sliced lotus root (凉拌莲藕片) and shredded potatoes (凉拌土豆丝) cost $3. Crunchy and mildly spicy. Nice. There were also other dishes to choose from such as black fungus, cucumber, tofu, meats, innards and more.
The Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian or 红烧牛肉面 ($5) was mildly sweet with a slight beefy flavour. However, it wasn’t as robust-tasting as I expected it to be even though it looked like it was going to be a really flavoursome bowl of noodles.
There was very, very little beef in this. Whatever you can see on the top, that was it. Meat was tender but quite fatty.
I liked the noodles though. Cooked perfectly and came with a nice springy bite.
Hubby thoroughly enjoyed this beef noodle bowl but I think I prefer the Taiwanese version better than this Sichuan one.
On the other hand, the Chong Qing Xiao Mian or 重庆小面 ($4) fared better as the broth had a richer flavour. Somewhat similar to a mala hotpot but in a non-spicy version. Could really taste the Sichuan peppercorns – very aromatic. And even though we could see that floating layer of oil on top, overall it wasn’t greasy at all.
Noodle portion was huge but there weren’t a lot of ingredients in it. Only had a bit of minced pork and peanuts. They made great accompaniments though as the different textures worked really well together.
After the meal, we didn’t feel thirsty at all which was good. One gripe though – they were too stingy with the baby bok choy. Could only find one miserable piece of it in each bowl of noodles, lol.
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Thank you for your review. Had pass by this place many times and hesitated to try cos everything looked oily. Will definitely try now.