Welcome to Toa Payoh. Looking for Zi Char places?

From Hong Yun Seafood
Satisfying seafood horfun with fresh ingredients, decent wok hei.
Generous portions at a local coffeeshop price point.
Good flavor balance, not bad for a quick meal.

Har Cheong Gai (or shrimp paste chicken) is a standard dish in the local tzichar scene.

My usual qualm is that most stalls merely pay lip service and do not bring out the shrimp paste taste in the dish. There is no such complaint at HK Star though as the savoury rich and pungent shrimp paste literally permeates the entire dish. The distinctive fermented notes of the shrimp paste is prominent in both the batter and meat without being overwhelming.

This is a delectable dish that is good as a starter, main or as a side dish with alcohol.

The humble minced pork is one of the most common and yet grossly underrated ingredients in Chinese cuisine. Paired with other ingredients, it has a subtly sweet and rich flavour from the pork fat.

Roughly minced pork with pieces of salted fish is steamed in a metal plate. It reminds me of a hand smashed burger patty with a good firm bite but yet remains juicy. The salted fish adds to a savoury and umami laden touch to this dish. I am not too sure but I thought there was a touch fermented beancurd or prawn paste in the dish as well but that may be the salted fish at work!

For a "balanced" diet, I highly recommend their fried bitter gourd with sliced fish.

The bitter gourd is crunchy and subtly sweet. Lightly battered sliced fish belly is added and the dish is finished with a fermented black bean sauce.

I like that you can taste the distinct flavours of each ingredient - the bitter sweetness of the bitter gourd, the rich creamy fish belly and the savoury fermented black bean. Yet, the flavours are well balanced and meld harmoniously.

For someone who hates bitter gourd, I must say that this dish was surprisingly good!

Hong Kong Style Kitchen (港式小炒) is a stall in the Toa Payoh Lorong 4 market run by a Hong Kong Cantonese couple serving da pai dang style dishes.

There is no menu per se but the stall helpfully lists some of their signature dishes on the signboard. They ran out of their signature steamed fish that night so we tried their sweet & sour fish. For slightly over $20, you get an entire deep fried grouper fish. The fish skin was shattering crisp and we were surprised to find the fish meat moist, flaky and steamy hot. The sweet and sour sauce also also well balanced and excellent with both the fish and over rice.

We definitely enjoyed the meal and have been back several times since! The food is always great and affordable.

I had forgotten how good these chicken wings were! Tbh it’s been years since I ate at Hong Sheng, because I always had memories of waiting in queue until faint from hunger 🤣. So heads-up that the quiet June holidays (while many are out of town) may be a perfect opportunity to revisit …hardly any wait! We also had the infamous hor fun etc etc. Within tpy, for har jeong gai, I also really like Xiang Man Yuan and the now defunct Mei Chin, but the styles are different.

Everyone comes for the curry fish head, but what’s really rare to find is their sambal cockles, and it’s cooked just right! Basically a mixed rice stall with lots of great dishes. I also love the mutton, popcorn chicken, oyster mushroom and more. Can be a tad pricey depending on what you order though

It's hard to pick out a place for family dinners when you have a mixture of seafood lovers and haters amongst the family. @uncleleongseafood is a wonderful find with LIVE CRABS🦀, as the seafood lovers sing praise of its Signature Shimmering Sand Crab Delight while the seafood haters indulge in their other zichar dishes!

Here's what we enjoyed that night…
👉SGD218 SET MEAL
金沙蟹 Shimmering Sand Crab Delight
蟹皇豆腐羹 Crab Roe Bean Curd Thick Soup
三味石斑 Special Sauce Deep Fried Style Garoupa
金瓜奶油虾 Creamy Butter Pumpkin Prawn
咖啡排骨 Nescafe Pork Rib
白果菜筋 Gingko Nuts with Broccoli

Add-ons:
👉芙蓉蛋 Egg Combination
👉砂煲豆腐 Claypot Beancurd

Needless to say, my family and I walked out with our bellies full and satisfied. Head on down to @uncleleongseafood for your next family gathering before 31 Mar 2023 to enjoy 15% OFF when you spend above SGD150 on weekdays!
❗️Simply quote at their Toa Payoh outlet when you dine-in or do takeaways

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📍Uncle Leong Seafood (TPY)
Braddell Tech
15 Lorong 8 Toa Payoh 01-01, S319262

Wok hey meehoon with seafood at Toa Payoh, comes with lots of seafood ingredients like the prawn, sliced fish and lala.

The gravy was tasty, while the meehoon itself remain wok hey.

From Hongyun Seafood Enterprise
滑蛋河粉
Classic horfun with egg, prawns, sliced fish cakes, sliced pork & vegetables.
$5 a plate.
Not bad!

Established in 1983 by Mr Tay Cheng Siong, this chain blends economy rice and zi char styles, offering a sort of Modern Chinese Peranakan cuisine that commands a premium. And a philosophy of - 'If the food is good, they will come'.
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The menu changes depending on what ingredients they get fresh from market, but there is typically a range of about 20 dishes or so.
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The crunchy Stir-Fried Napa Cabbage is clean-tasting, with fresh vegetal sweet flavour. Their signature Oyster Sauce Squid has large bouncy pieces with herbal salty sweet flavour.
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The signature Chicken Curry has tender potatoes and bone-in chicken chunks, with a pleasant savoury spicy flavour that has a good fiery kick, but fades quickly. The Soy Braised Egg has a springy texture with eggy salty sweet notes.
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Economy Rice And Economy Porridge
Ocean Curry Fish Head
@ 92 Toa Payoh Lorong 4 #01-264
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2022/11/best-of-singapore-hawkers-economy-rice-p.html

Seldom find Chinese satay and seldom buy from Chinese also but honestly, this is good! 👍