Quick Muthu (Hong Lim)

Came to know about the newly-opened Quick Muthu whilst going around Hong Lim Complex Food Centre to grab our cuppa at Generation Coffee the other day. Located at the second level of Hong Lim Complex Food Centre, Quick Muthu is a stall that is located The Noodle Memories 古月面 — it is quite difficult to miss seeing Quick Muthu whilst going through the area that it is in, especially since the stall does come decked with a rather prominent dark green signage with a display case where one can have a peek of the various meat options that they have to carry. Quite an interesting concept on its own, Quick Muthu jumps on the bandwagon of places serving up curry rice that had been sprouting up across the island — that being said, the curry rice that Quick Muthu serves up is unlike that of the usual Hainanese-style curry rice that we are starting to get used to seeing around various neighbourhoods in Singapore; what makes Quick Muthu unique is its offering of Indian Curry Rice Sets instead which is also something that they loudly proclaim on the signboard. Visiting Quick Muthu in their early stages of its opening, Quick Muthu serves up only three variants of their Indian Curry Rice Sets during the visit that we had made on a weekday afternoon — the offerings being a Fried Chicken Rice Set, Meatball Rice Set and the Mixed Set (which comprises of both the fried chicken and the meatballs together).

Considering the rather lean menu of curry rice sets that Quick Muthu serves up, it did not take us much time to decide to go for the Fried Chicken Rice Set. Quick Muthu does not describe on its menu on the elements that come with their Indian Curry Rice Sets — that being said, one can observe items such as the chunks of Fried Chicken, curry gravy with potatoes and scraps of meat, lady finger, slices of cucumber and a pappadum that came with our order of the Fried Chicken Rice Set. It is interesting to note that Quick Muthu does offer its patrons two different options when it comes to the egg that comes on the side — we were being recommended to go for the hard-boiled egg option, though we definitely cannot resist ourselves from going with the salted egg variant instead after we have heard about it.

Digging into the rice bowl, it is interesting to see how Quick Muthu has went with using Basmati Rice as their choice of rice to serve their Indian Curry Rice with — perhaps to bring it closer to the flavours and textures that it is inspired by. The rice was light and fluffy, carefully drenched with two different types of curry gravy — one that was more of just being simply a gravy, while the other one coming with the meat and potatoes. We could not detect a distinction between the two; perhaps both having been incorporated into one another when we had started to dig in — that being said, there were strong notes of Indian spices in the curry here for sure which we found it close to the links of the fish curry that we are accustomed to when enjoying Roti Prata, which we found to be really comforting and familiar. The addition of salted egg gave it that slight saltishness that the dish needs especially for those who crave for stronger flavours, though we are also able to see why they have also offered the hard-boiled egg option at the same time. The folks at Quick Muthu seemed to have chosen chicken breast as the chicken part for the fried chicken to be served with the dish — don’t get us wrong; we did like how there was a slight sweetness and a slight note of turmeric amidst while feels rather identical to Ayam Goreng Berempah here, though the thoughtfulness of serving up boneless chicken parts also meant that despite the meat itself being rather juicy and moist, it did feel a little tougher than we would have liked. The pappadum on the meanwhile was satisfying; crisp without being limp from being aired out for too long — we have a hunch that the pappadum seems to be made in-house / specifically for them considering how it does look slightly different from that of commercially-made ones often sold as tidbits around supermarkets. At $4.90, the Fried Chicken Rice Set is undeniably value-for-money; the portion is particularly substantial considering the amount of rice and size of the fried chicken chunks it comes with — a pretty interesting and wallet-friendly option worth checking out if one happens to be in the area!