Happy Birthday, dear husband! You are one year wiser today, woo hoo! 🙂 An exciting day awaits you!
Ok, back to food. The folks finally won the Big Sweep for the first time ever after ‘wasting money’ over a span of 30+ years (it’s like winning a few hundred dollars only after losing thousands beforehand but it’s all about the thrill of gambling and winning lol) with no luck so when they insisted to treat us to a tze char dinner, the husband and I readily agreed because it’s just too rare an occasion. Maybe that winning streak would rub off on us!
Dinner was at a 24-hour coffee shop in our neighbourhood. One that we have been patronising for years. Though the ambience was non-existent and the service was mediocre, the food standard was surprisingly above average. Definitely one of the better tze char stalls out there that I had tried.
Sliced Fish with Ginger and Spring Onions $12.00
One of my favourite tze char dishes would be this stir fried fish dish. I’m usually cautious when it comes to ordering fish because I cannot stand the fishy taste of certain types of fish or the muddy smell of freshwater fish so the good thing about fish done this way is that the aromatic ginger and spring onions are able to mask any unwanted stench. The fish which was sliced to an adequate thickness was fresh and perfectly cooked. Tender and flaked easily too. The sauce was salty and savoury, well balanced and not overly starchy.
Seafood Tofu $16.00
This was absolutely dynamite. A sumptuous feast in a pot filled with so many different ingredients. Crunchy big prawns, tender cuttlefish, fragrant fish maw, soft fried tofu, crispy vegetables and spongy mushrooms – all soaked in a decadent gravy broth that was so good, we had to mop up every last drop. Everything was so fresh and appetising. I’d be happy to just have this pot with a bowl of white rice!
Mongolian Pork Ribs $12.00
I’d never eaten Mongolian cuisine before so I wasn’t sure how close this was to the real thing but the folks always loved ordering this dish from tze char stalls. I couldn’t quite make out the spices that went into this but the sauce was uniquely sweet with a very slight tinge of tang, similar to the common Ku Lo Yuk (Cantonese Sweet Sour Pork). The ribs were deep fried beforehand so each piece was slightly crispy on the outside but very tender and moist on the inside. These ribs were meaty with very little fat or bone.
Claypot Vermicelli with Prawns $18.00
This took a long while to arrive. Only came when we almost finished the rest of the dishes so we had this like a soup. The prawns were huge and really fresh. Definitely not overcooked as they were still crunchy and succulent. I wished there were more vermicelli though so they could soak up the gravy as we didn’t have anything else to eat this with. The gravy had a subtle flavour of chinese herbs in it and wasn’t too starchy too. This dish was good but not extraordinary so we’d probably not order again next time.
The entire meal including 3 plates of steamed rice and hand towels ($0.30 each) for 4 persons was just $61 which wasn’t too bad. Normally when it’s only the husband and I, we would go for their claypot tofu, salted egg chicken and salted fish fried rice. All are pretty good and definitely worth a try!
Coffee Express
Blk 630 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4
#01-972
Tel: 6454 1432