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Char Kway Teow…and Other Stories

By Changmoh • Monday, 15 April 2013 • Competitions, Food & Drink, More Dash than Cash

I love hawker food and can regularly be heard extolling the virtues of char kway teow (there aren’t any…except for the fact it tastes delicious). However, my confidence in ordering this dish of fried noodles has been well and truly shattered recently after I failed to pronounced teow with a clear enough ‘t’ sound. What I said sounded (according to my friend Mae) like a mixture of ‘char kway chee-aw/char kway gee-aw’. This meant that what I was actually asking for was roast penis.

Nice. Thank goodness it wasn’t for sale and my plate of noodles arrived with only a raised eyebrow.

So when Food Republic asked me to come and check out their huge, sparkling new food court that’s just opened in Sun Tec City’s Tower 5, I jumped at the chance (especially as they’d put together a special tasting menu of 20 dishes, meaning I didn’t even need to be able to pronounce any of them correctly…ideal).

My favourites included piping hot soya milk (not too sweet) accompanied by sinfully good ‘you tiao,’ the equivilent of Spanish churros that I defy anyone not to like (well, except maybe the health conscious; they are not waistline-friendly)

There was succulent chicken rice

Chicken rice

As well as delicious southern Indian masala dosa which came in a neat crisp triangle and signature, long, cigar shaped cone:

Dosa

Food courts should try to serve the same authentic food that you find in hawker centres (albeit in an environment that’s had a bit of design intervention: the roof is no longer corregated iron, the chair are sleek(er) and, joy or joys, there is air con) but nine times out of ten the food just isn’t as good as what you sweat and queue for at, say, Tiong Bahru or Ghim Moh.

Food Republic really do make an effort here and in their on-going quest for authenticity – and ultimately I suppose to engender their food courts with the same sense of community that you find in hawker centres – they’re running their Hawker King competition for the second year in a row.

A lovely idea, it will glorify and pay tribute to the top three hawkers through out the Food Republic empire who have consistently provided the best quality dishes with the best service.

The competition is open to the public vote too in early May; mine will be going to Saravanaa Bhavan for their dosa – it was delicious and better than I’ve had in restaurants in Little India.

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  • Katie S Monday, 15 April 2013 at 4:38 PM

    Ha ha, love this! Not quite the same situation I know, but at school, when asked in my spanish lesson what my favourite food was, I told the class I loved roast penis instead of roast chicken. So you are not alone!

    You have a good friend to be the one to actually tell you what you were saying is wrong. May I suggest you don’t play poker with any of your other friends as if they were able to keep a straight face in your vicinity when you were ordering fried penis, they obviously have excellent poker faces!

    K xx

    PS Those masala dosas look AMAZING! Yum!

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The Chinese Angmoh

The Chinese Angmoh
Why the strange name? Changmoh is an amalgamation of the words Chinese & 'Angmoh' (local speak for Caucasian should you be reading this in a country other than SG) // I'm an English girl living in Singapore and love the local way of life so much that I actually think I’m half Chinese. Maybe even three-quarters // Freelancer writer, author and editor ... you read it here first.

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