I LOVE 刀削面 dao xiao mian because it’s qq and not as heavy as ban mian. It’s great in steamboat too. I got mine in Sheng Siong but I think I’ve seen it around in Fairprice.

For the crispy prawn chilli, I use this brand also from SS. It’s not that spicy even though it looks fiery. You can add chilli padi if you wish if you need more heat. The shallot oil I use is also ready-made. See what I mean when I say this is a simple recipe? Hahaha. Of course, home made shallot oil is the best but for the time-strapped cook, this is not bad too.

The recipe looks long but it’s because there are so many toppings. Whatever you do, don’t skip the braised minced meat and ikan bilis (and ikan bilis oil). Prawns, spring onions and vegetables are optional but nice to have.

Cbb took a mouthful (hers was without the crispy chilli) and kept exclaiming “it’s so nice, mama!” I hope your little one and your family love it too!

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When I was a little fat girl, I had very little worries. My studies were not fantastic, but I was doing ok, above average I think, in all subjects except Maths. I had great friends, fish balls and zero point. And after school, lunch was always ready for me.

Those days, Ah mm practically made sure our lives functioned. She would drive my brothers and I, and 88 to school (she was a Chinese teacher)- and we attended different schools- then go to the market (normally Ghim Moh) and talk to all the hawkers, buy ingredients for dinner, pack us lunch, go home, and pick us up from school. Then, I had two major loves for my lunch choices- mee pok tah (fishballs noodles dry) and prawn noodle soup.

I remember her asking me all the time, ‘明天要吃什麼?’ (‘What do you wanna eat tomorrow?’), like it was the only thing that mattered to her. Sometimes, before I could answer, she would answer her own question. ‘蝦麵?’ (‘Prawn noodles?’)

I’ve always wanted to cook 蝦麵 soup, but because I didn’t (and still don’t) want to cook it from scratch, I’ve never got around to doing it. It’s not just about frying the prawn heads and shells to make the prawn stock. It’s also the dried shrimps, shallots, garlic, chillies and too much work. Too much effort, too little time, too many excuses.

So when I visited Big Box a week or two ago and saw this Malaysian Traditional Paste for Prawn Noodles, I knew I had to give it a try. They cost two for $4.90 and one pack could make six servings. I would say it is more like 4 servings though. Seriously 1.5 litres stock enough for six people meh? After you take into account the water that’s gonna be evaporated, you’re left with 200ml per bowl? If you cannot refill the soup then you might as well buy from outside.

This paste, of course, comes nothing close to my childhood prawn mee. ‘Malaysian’ style means it is spicy. I like Malaysian prawn mee though. This tastes good for a ‘packet-type’ prawn mee, but lacked body. I would boil it with some pork bones next time for a richer stock. The chilli oil was also quite over.. I scooped out quite a bit of red oil floating in the pot before serving. But overall, this tastes pretty good. Ah mm liked it, and that’s quite enough for me. =)

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I love fried chicken, but I love it even more when it is eaten with curry.

I discovered Fu Xiang Kitchen’s “Chicken Biscuit Curry Rice” when they still had an outlet at West Mall’s Koufu foodcourt. By the way, to digress a bit, does anyone else have a gripe with Koufu and its cleanliness? The trays are almost always wet (and smelly!), and the cleaners use a wet cloth to wipe the wet tray and everything stays wet. And these are the trays that we use to hold our food! I used to eat at Changi City Point’s Koufu everyday (Yong Tau Foo soup, vegetables only, no carbs! E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y!), and it drove me soo crazy that I wrote in to feedback (the marketing executive who answered my email was “Zoe Tay”, no joke). The situation improved for a few weeks but the trays went back to being wet and smelly after that. In contrast, the trays at Bagus foodcourt at the basement are always clean and dry.

I wouldn’t eat at Koufu if I had a choice.

So back to the fried chicken curry rice. Fu Xiang Kitchen’s stall at West Mall closed down after a while and it was only when Star Vista opened that I had a chance to eat this again. They started off as a hawker stall in a coffeeshop at Bishan bus interchange in the 1990s, and are pretty famous for their curry chicken. The secret to Fu Xiang Kitchen’s “award-winning” curry is in its specialty chili paste, which is made from more than eight different types of spices and takes more than five hours to prepare.

Apart from Chicken Biscuit Curry Rice, they also serve Curry Chicken (of course!), Curry Fried Fish, Sambal Fried Chicken, Sambal Sotong and even Spring Onion Black Pomfret. I have to confess I’ve never tried the other dishes. I mean, how not to eat fried chicken curry rice, right?

Fu Xiang Kitchen is also awarded the “Star Award For The Fine Culinary Skill“. This award makes me cringe everytime I see it at food stalls. What “Fine Culinary Skill”? “THE” Fine Culinary Skill la! I wonder who came up with this and who approved it.

Thankfully, the Chicken Biscuit Curry Rice ($5.90) is as good as I remember it. The fried chicken is crispy and light, and the gravy not tooo heavy to go with rice. The aunty will even ask if you want extra curry gravy (at no charge) or if you want an omelette to go along with it ($0.50). Of course I said “Yes!” to the gravy! The “set” also comes with a bowl of clear soup. Veryy satisfying if you are carbs-deprived!

Fu Xiang Kitchen
The Star Vista
1 Vista Exchange Green #02-25/26
Buona Vista, Singapore 138617

The post Food Review: Fu Xiang Kitchen, Chicken Biscuit Curry Rice appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

My favourite hotplate tofu is from a zi char stall at Blk 279 Bukit Batok East Ave 3. The signboard reads “Mei Chin Seafood” (maybe from eons ago) but the packaging and receipt all read “大食家”。The dish is just a little spicy, with onions, shallots, a bit of chilli bean paste, tofu, prawns, minced meat, vegetables and beaten egg served in a hot plate.

I was having such a craving on Tuesday that I just had to cook it.. and I did, with Prima Taste’s Sweet and Spicy Seafood Sauce, which is recommended for cooking hotplate tofu:

*For crispier tofu with more bite, you can coat it with a light dusting of corn flour and let it fry in the Happy Call before adding it back to the dish. I skipped that step. I also added more ingredients because this was a one-dish meal for us that night.

Ok technically for hotplate tofu, you’re supposed to dish up the ingredients in step 4 first and set it aside. Then in a clean pan, pour in the beaten egg and let it set just a bit. Return the sauce and arrange the ingredients back into the pan when the egg is still a bit a tad runny. This way, you will have an barely-set omelette at the bottom with ingredients and gravy on top. I chose to combine the egg into the gravy for an egg-y gravy over rice. It’s your choice!

Thank you Prima Taste, for sending me your Authentic Asia Cooking Sauces!

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The meat section of my refrigerator is kinda bare this week but I was determined to cook. I was also determined to cook something which hasn’t been posted on the blog. And so.. I determinedly went poking my nose into the refrigerator (literally) and spied Ah-mm’s tray of minced meat in the freezer. Hahaha.. that meat is now mine to do whatever I want with it! It is going into her tummy anyway!

While I was spying on the minced meat, I also saw some lonely french fries sitting in the freezer screaming to be airfried. There were also tomatoes in the vegetable chiller. I also had some frozen vegetables and of course there was onion. I had an idea in my head.. HAINANESE PORK CHOPS! Only those were minced meat, not pork loin, so HAINANESE MEAT PATTY PORK “CHOPS” it’s gonna be!

My mom, who is Hainanese, told me that Hainanese Pork Chops came about as an invention by Hainanese chefs working for British families in early Singapore. Because they were working for British families, they were exposed to various foreign sauces like Worcestershire sauce which is not usually used in Chinese cooking. This dish was eventually adapted to include tomato ketchup to suit local taste buds.

In other news, just look at how crispy the pork patties came out. No oil, no mess- that’s the Philips Airfryer for you! Remember to check out my other airfryer recipes by clicking “Airfryer (Philips Airfryer)” under the category list on my right sidebar. You’ll be amazed at what an airfryer can do :) If you’re thinking of getting one though, I’d recommend the Airfryer XL which can cook 50% more food than my old model. I don’t think I will be getting my hands on one unless prices really drop.. this older model is super enough for me although I *do* wish it can cook more at a go :)

For this dish, you could of course use pork shoulder butt or tenderised pork loin instead of minced meat. Serve with lots of rice!

And there you have it! Hainanese Pork Chops! This pork in this dish is traditionally deep fried, so the airfryer really comes in handy here! No oily stove and no additional fat. If you don’t have an airfryer, you can pan fry the pork patties in a little oil and maybe use hand-cut fresh potatoes instead of french fries to escape the deep frying. If using potatoes, panfry them as well in as little oil as possible.

p/s- Apart from OG, I also fondly remember having this dish at Wishbone Restaurant, Bukit Timah Plaza, almost 20 years ago. Ah-mm and 88 would bring us to do grocery shopping at NTUC and we would sometimes dine at Wishbone when it was 88’s payday? LOL. Sadly, the standard of food there is no longer as before. I was 10. I am now 32. All the good chefs had probably retired.

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