Braised Pork Leg Rice Caught wind about Lu Ba Jie’s opening at Market Street Hawker Centre at CapitaSpring via a post from their own social media pages. For those whom are staying around the Farrer Road area, Lu Ba Jie 卤豝界 might not be a name that is too unfamiliar — Lu Ba Jie is a stall that had first started out at Empress Road Market — a relatively new addition to the ‘hood considering that they had only officially opened their doors in early April 2023. That being said, the stall had since made its move after its short stint in Empress Road Market — Lu Ba Jie had since made its move to Market Street Hawker Centre at CapitaSpring since early July 2023, being located at the third level of the food centre situated in between Bee Kee Wanton Noodle (i.e. the stall that serves up Truffle Wanton Noodle) as well as Spinach Soup @ Amoy St. Lu Ba Jie specialises in its braised pork offerings — after all, their name does translate into “braised world” from Chinese to English; patrons can expect a variety of braised pork dishes such as Braised Pork Leg Rice and Braised Pork Trotter Rice, though the menu offerings at Lu Ba Jie does extend further to items such as Lor Mee, a Herbal Bak Kut Teh, as well as a Fish Maw Bak Kut Teh. Interestingly, Lu Ba Jie does serve up their items in a set format — this means that patrons, especially those dining in groups, can get to order a set that consist of their braised pork leg, Bak Kut Teh, rice and YouTiao in one seating, giving all their offerings a go.
It seems that one of Lu Ba Jie’s signature offerings would be their braised pork leg — we had noticed how the sets always have a portion of their braised pork leg being included as one of the items served up in the set. Considering so, we decided to go for the Braised Pork Leg Rice when we made our visit to Lu Ba Jie at Market Street Food Centre on a weekday afternoon for lunch. While it is not described on the menu about the elements that comes with their Braised Pork Leg Rice, the illustrations on the menu does match up with what was being served on the plate — the Braised Pork Leg Rice consists of a personal portion of pork leg, served alongside rice, half a braised egg and pickled vegetables; the rice is also drenched with braised liquid from the braised pork leg as well. Giving the rice a go so that we can taste the braised liquid as it is, the braised liquid here comes rather savoury; it actually is not too thick so it did not feel particularly jelat, though it does carry quite a garlicky kick — yet, it ends with a subtle herbal note that gives it a light and somewhat refreshing finish. The braised pork leg is undoubtedly the highlight of the Braised Pork Leg Rice here; the meat comes especially tender and juicy — easy to chew and had never felt too dry at any single point of time, but it was the parts that came with the skin on that was absolutely delightful. The skin comes with a distinctive savoury note having absorbed all of that goodness from the braising liquid — it was also especially gelatinous without feeling like a sludge of fat at the same time; absolutely on-point here. Whilst there isn’t really much to shout about braised eggs in general, the addition of the pickled vegetables was a pretty thoughtful one. We had initially thought that these were braised vegetables considering its colour, but they were tangy and crunchy — a great respite from all the meats and carbs on the plate. At $5, it is needless to say that the Braised Pork Leg Rice would most certainly be a dish we will be craving for if we were to drop by Market Street Hawker Centre at CapitaSpring for lunch again!