Monday, August 28, 2006

Chinese Mutton Soup, Crispy Dumplings, Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, Singapore

Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre is actually located at 115 Bukit Merah View. Duh, the reason why I had to clarify this is that I've always called this place Henderson Hawker Centre instead because it's off Henderson Rd, the road I always use to get there.

Today I had a craving for Chinese mutton soup. This stuff is actually rarer than the Indian/Malay ones (sup kambing). Mutton like lamb, is pretty much a love-hate-relationship, you either love the stuff or don't. I've yet to come across more than 10 people so far who are indifferent to mutton. Funny thing though is people love or hate it for the same reason - its smell (or aroma as I affectionately I call it).

As far as I know, Cai Chuan Tou is the only Chinese mutton soup store in this hawker centre and they do it quite well. I think it's a lot better than the overrated one on Kitchener Rd. They mainly use ribs here but you can request for more exotic stuff like brain and stomach. I normally just go for the ribs. The meat is tender, succulent and slides off the rib smoothly. The soup is also quite tasty with some herbal undertones.

As the soup itself was only semi-filling, I decided to order a side from this store that is relatively new in this hawker centre. It claims to do Shanghainese dishes but don't expect any authenticity here, their "pulled" noodles (la mien) is not pulled but pushed! Pushed through a pasta machine that is haha. Well, some credit needs to go to them for making their own noodle dough at least.

I don't think this dish is really Shanghainese because I don't recall seeing it in Shanghai but it was crispy, greasy and meaty. The filler provided quite a hearty bite and there didn't seem to be much flour in it. I do wish they would pour the sauce on a separate sauce dish though, then I wouldn't have to sacrifice one dumpling to go soggy by creating this little dumpling-sauce-dam-like-structure as shown above.

D

1 comment:

J said...

squisito! piacevole! buon!