Restaurant customary zi char dishes served at Haig Road Food Centre

Chef Chik is a hawker stall serving up zi char dishes at Haig Road Market and Food Centre. Before I visited them, I did a Google search to seek out out extra about their menu. I’ll be trustworthy with you, I used to be barely intimidated once I noticed that a lot of the objects on their menu had the phrases ‘seasonal price’ subsequent to them. How a lot was I going to finish up spending right here?

I discovered that Chef Chik was once an government chef for Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant, which is an award-winning Cantonese restaurant situated inside Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel.

Upon arriving on the stall at 11.30am, there was already a brief queue shaped in entrance. Besides a curated record of zi char dishes, in addition they supply quite a lot of double-boiled soups. While ready for my flip to get my order taken, I observed that they’d indicators stating that they shut each Sunday to Tuesday, and open for less than 4 hours a day. “Wow, they must be doing well to have such short operating hours,” I believed to myself.

What I attempted at Chef Chik

I kick-started my mini consuming voyage with Steamed Threadfin Belly (Seasonal Price), which ended up costing me S$22— fairly steep for a hawker centre for my part. It got here with 12 slices of fish stomach served with a darkish sauce.

My eating associate (and ex-colleague), Adam, is an Asian delicacies chef. He informed me that the gravy is made up of a concoction involving gentle soya sauce and rock sugar flavoured with coriander, thereafter including fish sauce and Maggi seasoning with a final touch of sesame oil.

There have been purple chilli bits, finely minced garlic, coriander leaves and spring onions garnished on high of the fish dish. I took my very first mouthful of the Steamed Threadfin Belly and all the pieces round me grew silent for a break up second. I used to be amazed at how tender the fish stomach was, and the way in which it melted in my mouth simply enhanced the entire consuming expertise.

The garnish supplied an extra dimension to the general style of this dish. That spicy kick from the small bits of chilli, the earthiness and warmth coming from the minced garlic, and the refreshing tastes of the spring onions and cilantro, all got here collectively in excellent concord. The wonderful sauce on the backside solely enhanced issues even additional— I used to be beginning to assume that the general style justified the steep value.

The Oyster Sauce Veg (S$4 for small, S$8 for giant) was, nonetheless, slightly underwhelming in comparison with the outstanding dish earlier than it. It felt just like the child kailan was simply blanched or steamed, with the oyster sauce poured over it. Although the newborn kailan was cooked completely, it will have been higher if the greens have been sauteed along with the oyster sauce, leading to a extra aromatic dish— maybe some wok hei even?

The dish to finish the voyage was Chef Chik’s Garlic Chee Cheong Fun With Prawn (Seasonal Price), which turned out to price S$24. Lying on high the mattress of white pillowy Chee Cheong Fun have been six enormous halved prawns with their shells nonetheless intact. The sauce under was the identical sauce that was served earlier on with the fish stomach.

The halved prawns have been nearly as huge as my palms (I’ve small fingers by the way in which, so this isn’t an exaggeration). The meat was agency and recent, and paired very well with the minced garlic and chilli garnish atop.

I’d normally skip sucking the prawn heads however for Chef Chik’s prawns, the heads have been nonetheless shiny purple and regarded tempting sufficient to have a go. Alas, I succumbed to temptation, and was rewarded with a wealthy umami deal with that was so scrumptious.

The silky mushy pillows of chee cheong enjoyable had already absorbed the flavourful inventory fairly a bit as I used to be attacking the prawns first. They slided tremendous easily into my mouth, and the robustness of the gravy permeated my style buds. It was actually among the finest chee cheong funs I’ve had, by way of texture. The complete mixture of this dish actually labored for me.

Final ideas

The costs at Chef Chik could also be on the upper facet of the spectrum when you’re speaking about hawker centre requirements, however the high quality and style of its foremost dishes are of restaurant high quality.

If you’d transported an enormous air cooler in entrance of me, and supplied me with noise cancelling headphones enjoying soothing classical music, I may simply shut my eyes for a second and picture that I’m at a advantageous eating Chinese restaurant having an excellent meal.

Head right down to Haig Road Market and Food Centre to expertise this for your self.

Expected injury: S$11 – S$26 per pax

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