Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Hong Kong Street Restaurant, Ang Mo Kio, Singapore

Hong Kong Street Restaurants seem to be constantly popping up everywhere and I'm not sure if they're all part of some franchise or there's just some blatant copyright/trademark infringements going on but they seem to all serve the same types of food and have uncannily similar decors. This one resides at Block 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 and I decided to stop by for lunch that day.

We ordered the typical Hong Kong Street Restaurant staples and the first dish to be served was the flat rice noodles with sliced fish. This is pretty tasty despite the lack of presence of much sauces hence retaining its whitish appearance. The fish tasted fresh and firm and the beansprouts weren't overfried so they were still quite crunchy.

Fried morning glory with preserved cuttlefish in local chilli gravy was next. It seemed as though the morning glory wasn't really fried but quick-boiled and the sauce tossed on top. Although I would have preferred the morning glory to be fried instead of boiled, the grease and taste from the gravy made up for it.

The milky fish soup was tasty but man were the fish slices thick. They seem to be getting thicker everytime I patronize this place, I won't be surprised if they'll eventually give up on fillets and chuck in a whole fish the next time. The veggies in it were also not the freshest and tasted slightly "woody".

Their fried prawn-paste chicken was still as good as I remembered. Not only were these marinated through and through but they were also fried well with no hints of blood, which I tend to get at many other branches. Blood is good in some things, but not in others; blood in the blood bank - good, a bloody steak - good, a bloody piece of fried chicken - bad.

I actually ordered this dish because I saw it on another table. I didn't even know they had battered shrimp here. These things are like a blast from the past, the almost quintessential dish in any B-grade '80s catering menu haha. Although I remembered most catering versions to be greasy and soggy these were actually crispy (but still greasy yay!). They use pretty large shrimp here and they maintained a sound crunchy bite, even the tails are crisp enough to chomp through. The batter could be a bit lighter though but at least it was flavored well, so if I had to contend with a thick batter, at least it was a tasty thick batter.

This place delivers a rather consistent meal if you have that craving for a slightly heartier lunch. Most dishes here start at below 10SGD except for the shrimp which starts at 15SGD.

D

p.s: If anyone wondered why there are discrepencies in my picture qualities, the reason for it being so, is that I alternate between my digital camera and my mobilephone camera. My mobilephone is normally my backup.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always go to Ariel Cafe in Perth for supper! Hehehe love their oily finger lickin food!

Anonymous said...

YUM! These pictures totally made me drool. AMK is a bit out of my travel zone, I still haven't gone to Melben/ Uncle Leong for that reason. We usually set off for dinner late and are starving already..lol

D said...

Michie: When I first read your comment it was in haste and I thought you said Oriel Cafe in Subi and i almost started to swear (hate that place) but Ariel's in Northbridge is alright. A dodgier place to hang out would be the Moon (I like the clock that goes backwards), "weird" people there sometimes haha.

Cindy: Really? I actually thought these pictures were rather poor since they were from my mobilephone. I'm lucky to live quite centralized so going to most places is about the same to me.

Gallen: I've actually tried the one at Liang Court but didn't find it spectacular. Any good flavors to recommend? Are these from Hokkaido by the way?

Anonymous said...

*mmm Battered shrimp... :D

-grace

Sammy said...

I've tried Haato before at Liang Court and I think it's one of the better gelato ice cream in singapore. the hazelnut is nice! :)