This time we ordered their Hakka style noodle. The noodle is Al dente, not too oily or too sweet, good match to other dishes.
💰$10 (small)
📍Plum Village Restaurant.
16 Jalan Leban
Plum Village’s Salt Baked Chicken definitely didn’t miss, even though I eventually found out that the chicken isn’t actually baked in salt anymore. To be fair to Plum Village, baking every chicken in salt just isn’t practical considering how many of these birds fly out of their kitchen on the daily.⠀
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Instead, it’s generously seasoned with sand ginger powder and salt before being steamed, and this simple yet strangely sapid dish is superbly satisfying. The chicken is acceptably moist even at the breasts, and the sand ginger powder and salt have penetrated so deeply that every last meaty morsel is remarkably flavoursome. Heck, even the drippings rendered from the chicken are so savoury that it functions as a sauce of sorts.⠀
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Sand ginger is actually dried & ground Kaempferia galangal, and it has a distinctly peppery flavour with only a mild note of ginger. This makes Plum Village’s (not) Salt Baked Chicken even more unique, as the sand ginger infuses the poultry with a distinct & unforgettably ambrosial flavour. It’s a simple dish, but it’s quite unbeatable especially with lots of rice on standby.
Unlike other red rice wine chicken, Plum Village’s rendition is a broth containing chicken chunks in a claypot as opposed to chicken chunks in sauce. The broth is basically just rice wine boiled with some herbs, and it’s a strangely sweet & mildly herbal concoction.⠀
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As we all know, chicken is bland by default, so it assuming the sweet flavour of the broth is rather odd. As expected, the poached breast meat was dry, but you’re supposed to eat it with the broth so it isn’t really an issue.⠀
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What really gets my goat here is just how incomplete this dish seems to be. They need to add something else to accompany the chicken, like carrots or radishes, and to give the sweet broth some weightiness. Right now, it feels like you’re eating sweet chicken that’s submerged in sweet and vaguely alcoholic water. Yes, Hakka food tends to be simple, but this one was far, far too simple.
My experience with Hakka cuisine is limited to yong tau foo & thunder tea rice, so when I got an opportunity to sample authentic & traditional Hakka cuisine I couldn’t pass it up. Plum Village is reputed to be the oldest Hakka restaurant in Singapore, so they must be doing the cuisine justice. And if this plate of 算盘仔 (abacus seeds) is anything to go by, justice has been served.⠀
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Of course, ‘abacus seeds’ are NOT the seeds of an abacus (bruh), but they are balls of rice flour & yam kneaded & rolled into the shape of one of those moving thingies on an abacus, which are known as seeds. These are rather rare in Singapore, and as such I will readily admit to this being the first time in my life that I’ve eaten abacus seeds. The most accurate way to describe this Hakka delicacy is to liken it to mochi but less gummy and slightly more dense.⠀
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It’s steamed, so it’s healthy but on the bland side by itself. However, Plum Village take the steamed 算盘仔 and stir-fries it with garlic, seasoned minced pork, chunks of yam and what seem to be dried shrimp. The mince adds a satisfying bulkiness to the dish with the meatiness, and the seasoning rubs off excellently on the abacus seeds. The garlic adds its mustard-y, almost nutty & subtly sweet qualities, while the dried shrimp are there for that final touch of deep umami. The yam adds even more sweetness and a slight textural variance to the dish.⠀
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For $9++, this deceptively simple sounding dish is dazzlingly delicious, and is ludicrously easy to eat too much of. No, eating these won’t improve your math, but they will multiply your happiness.
Very nice gesture, it's not v sweet and it's somewhat different from the normal red bean soups in hawkers
Overall, really homely cooking so manage your expectations. Given the location(it's super ulu) it's really not something I'll travel for. Only the mustard leaf pork was a stunner
It's alright, the savoury bits were fine and what's special is their abacus beads are basically just yam balls, extremely soft instead of the usual chewy stuff. Decent but raveworthy, more homely than anything
Absolutely tasteless and quite oily too. Even if you're ordering the set ask to remove this. There's no point wasting calories on this
A really good version here. Unfortunately the preserved mustard leaf wasn't too strong but I guess most people would prefer that, and the pork belly was impeccably tender and bursting with flavour.
The set is great in the sense that it basically has everything you want to try. However the portions are not necessarily what you would expect. I'd say go ala carte and get a bigger portion of pork, and skip the noodles
One of the best dishes, the dipping ckn oil was extremely salty(befitting the name), so go easy. Otherwise the ckn was quite tender, breast was slightly dry which was understandable
Honestly the ckn oil doesn't have much taste not seasoning, but it's interesting at least
First time trying Hakka restaurant I believe
Got the set meal for 4pax at $48 which includes abacus 算盘子, braised preserved veggie and pork 梅菜扣肉, hakka yong tau foo 客家酿豆腐 and salted chicken 盐鸡, with a plate of free noodles.
We loved the simplicity of all the dishes and the taste were all en pointe, nothing that's too bland nor overly heavy. Reminded us of simple homecooked dishes.
Would love to go back and try other dishes.
Looking for some Hakka cuisine? This is a place that worth a try. Located at Jln Leban for more than 30 years, rustic wooden furniture, hanging red lantern and painting hanged on the walls give the place a cozy homely feel. They don’t have an extensive menu but every single dish in the menu looks appealing.
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For first timer, I would recommend you try their set menu for 4 pax at ($48.00) which include their signature dishes such as:
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▪️Yong Tau Foo (客家酿豆腐)
▪️Abacus Seed (算盤子)
▪️Mei Cai Kou Rou (梅菜扣肉)
▪️Salt Baked Chicken (客家盐鸡)
▪️Minced Meat Noodles (道肉碎面)
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Location: 梅村酒家 Plum Village Restaurant, 16 Jln Leban, Singapore 577554
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#plumvillage #burpple #burpplesg #hakkafood #hakkacuisine
I ordered :
💕 abacus seeds.
Soft on the outside while chewy inside, quite fragrant, cooked with minced meat, mushroom and hae bi.
💰$9
💕 Hakka Yong Tau Fu.
Fried tofu stuffed with tasty minced meat and served with savoury gravy.
I ate 3 😅.
💰$6
💕Salted vegetables with pork.
slices pork belly served with preserved vegetables.
💰$13.8
* might be wrong on pricing, coz its on mandarin 😅.
📍Plum Village.
16 Jalan Leban
Pass by this restaurant many times before but did not entry as it seems to be rather rustic. Recently a famous blogger visited and rave about the food here. Decided to visit since we are in the area. So glad we did! The food is simple but tasty. They serve classic Hakka food and such reasonable prices! Ordered the lunch set which included minced port noodle, preserved vegetable with pork belly, abacus seed, stuffed tofu and salted chicken. We added the pig stomach soup. Unfortunately we were so stuffed we did not realize the chicken was not served.
First time here. A little nostalgic. It brought us back to the 80s! food was good except that portions are too little. Medium portions probably good for 3 pax max.
Set Meal for 4pax (S$48)
Salted Chicken 东江盐鸡
Salted Vegetables with Pork 梅菜扣肉
Stuffed Bean Curd 客家酿豆腐
Fried Yam Ball 大埔算盘子
Noodle Hakka Style 客家炒面
Felt that the servings for the carbohydrate dishes were more on the small side.
Plum Village Restaurant 梅村酒家
Address 🏡 : 16 Jalan Leban, Singapore 🇸🇬 577 554
Tel ☎️ : 6458 9005
Open ⏰ : 10am - 2pm, 4pm - 8.30pm
WhatsApp : 9677 4431
Un-countable number of visits, tried almost all the dishes BUT one dish will always be there. THIS!
A home-y feel tothis traditional hakka dish, the fillings have this unforgettable umami flavour that witnout fail bring me back to this outlet. Also try the yam abacus ball (算盘子）braised pork with sauteed vegetable (梅菜扣肉）
The yam abacus and the salt chicken are amazing. Superb and tasty. We also like the yong tau hoo with mince meat.
Fairly cheap too. dishes here for 2 persons less than $40. We rate this 9/10. Excellent.
Abacus seeds is made from yam and flour, cut into abacus-bead shapes, and cooked till soft and chewy. Here's a photo of Village’s Abacus Beads. Read more: http://www.misstamchiak.com/plum-village-restaurant/
