Roast Pork Curry Noodles The Chinatown neighbourhood is seeing quite a bit of revamp these days; whilst the previous Chinatown Food Street is currently in the midst of a rejuvenation programme with a whole new line-up of eateries setting up shop to open progressively in the next couple of months, the area around its vicinity is also seeing some small changes as well. Taking over the former premises of the now-defunct Nic & Tom Eatery 少年食堂 along Sago Street would be Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam 丰益厨食; an establishment which we had been looking forward to their opening ever since we had seen them start renovations in the shop unit that they had occupied. It seems that the folks at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam had made quite a fair bit of changes to the space; whilst Nic & Tom Eatery was more of an open air dining establishment that sports a dark-coloured interior with the use of grey and black elements, the folks at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam had opted for a brighter interior with the use of white walls to match wooden flooring as well as wooden furniture and fittings with a faux marble accent / rattan elements that undoubtedly created a nostalgic look that is in sync with the overall concept — Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam also had installed glass windows and doors, closing up the space to make it an air-conditioned dining establishment. Other elements used in the interior decor here would include a hand-painted mural located at the rear of the entire space, while mirrors are also used to help make the space seem wider than the size it actually is. The dining tables here are set-up in a manner that caters to both smaller groups and larger groups, with a decent number of tables since it is sized around double the size of the other shophouse units along the street. As the namesake of the establishment suggests, Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam is a concept that largely centres around Malaysian-style fare; something similar to the other Nanyang Kopitiam-themed establishments around such as the likes of NAN YANG DAO 南洋岛, Great Nanyang Heritage Cafe 大南洋, Wanglee Cafe 旺利茶室, Oriental Kopi 华阳 etc.. The food menu at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam is segregated into sections dedicated to Breakfast, All Day Menu, Rice, Noodle, Side Dish, Vegetarian and Vegetables, while the beverage menu features Nanyang-style Kopi & Teh, Milo and other concoctions like Honey Winter Melon Longan, Lychee Black Tea, 100 Plus with Passion Fruit, Ambarella Sour Plum Juice and canned drinks — just to name a few.
One of the items that we were really keen to try at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam would be their variety of curry noodles that they have to offer. For those looking for the variant that allows one to try everything at one seating, the Home Feaast Giant Curry Noodles is the one to go for; this variant does seem to come with prawns, clams, scallops, Char Siew and Roast Pork based on the illustration of the item on the menu — something which does feel like it is better to be shared amongst two (2) pax considering its price point at $18.90 as compared to the other curry noodle dishes that are priced more affordably between $9.90 to $10.90. For those looking for something more manageable for a single pax, Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam does offer the Seafood Curry Noodles, Roast Pork Curry Noodles and the Char Siu Curry Noodles; our choice of curry noodles during our visit was the Roast Pork Curry Noodles. The Roast Pork Curry Noodles comes with elements such as roast pork, beansprouts, beancurd puffs, beancurd skin and mint leaves; the dish also comes default with yellow noodles; it is also the only type of noodles that Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam serves up with their curry noodles. Here, we do feel that the curry noodles is overall rather decent; whilst the curry does carry a good flavour, we did note that the curry gravy does come with a slightly saltish note that seems to have absorbed some of the notes of lye from the yellow noodles itself — there is also certainly
more flavoursome and richer rendition of curry noodles that we have experienced from other establishments as well. We also note that the slices of roast pork were more on the leaner side; the skin seemingly having lost much of its crispness having absorbed the curry gravy, while the roast pork also lacked that savouriness that we typically expect of roast pork served at Hong Kong-style roast specialty stalls. Otherwise, the addition of beansprouts do add a crunch, whilst the beancurd puffs also provides a spongey texture that oozes out the curry gravy that it has absorbed when one takes a bite into them; the yellow noodles also carrying a good bite as well.
In retrospect, the Signature Moonlight Hor Fun wasn’t quite as impressive as we thought it would be. For one, the Moonlight Hor Fun seems to be a little bit more wetter than how one would expect the dish to be; there is a significant amount of gravy that comes with the rendition of the Signature Moonlight Hor Fun as opposed to the usually dry variants that we see being served at other zichar establishments. The Signature Moonlight Hor Fun does come with the raw egg that is cracked in the middle that one can mix into the entire dish; other elements featured in the Signature Moonlight Hor Fun at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam would include slices of fish, slices of pork, as well as prawns apart from the Hor Fun. Whilst most Signature Moonlight Hor Fun tend to carry a sweet-savoury note that hints mostly of the soy sauce that it comes wok-fried with, the Signature Moonlight Hor Fun from Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam does taste like Singaporean-style Hor Fun that one would usually get out of a zichar establishment; mostly savoury whilst also void of any smokey wok-hei. We do note that the Hor Fun is slippery and slurpy, while the slices of pork were easy to chew through being sufficiently tender and moist; the slices of fish and prawns are also fresh, with the prawns carrying a subtle hint of natural sweetness typical of crustaceans.
During the same visit to Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam, we had also given their Salted Egg Stir-Fried Cauliflower from the Vegetables section of the menu a go. This was a rather interesting vegetable-based iteration of the more commonly found Salted Egg Chicken that is available elsewhere — a rather inventive take of the local favourite where it is done in a dry format. Whilst we aren’t typically fans of salted egg dishes that are executed in the dry style, the Salted Egg Stir-Fried Cauliflower at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam was done rather well; the cauliflower has been fried with a golden-brown batter before being wok-fried with salted egg yolk, curry leaves and chili padi. The end result is a dish with cauliflower that was crisp on the exterior but yet with a soft interior that carries quite a bit of bite; all that with a balanced hint of saltishness and slightly spicy kick from the chili padi — all that being well rounded with the aroma of the crisp, dehydrated curry leaves with extra crumbs of fried batter that comes coated with salted egg to crunch on. Visiting a Nanyang Kopitiam-themed establishment also means not giving their iced coffee offerings a miss; the Home Feaast Classic White Coffee does come all frothy on top like what one would expect out of such beverages served at Nanyang Kopitiam-style establishments — we liked how it is especially rich with a good caffeinated kick with a corresponding level of sweetness to match it well.
Overall, the offerings at Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam were mostly decent though does lack the extra oomph that hits the spot that some Nanyang Kopitiam-themed establishments would execute their dishes to bring them as close as how they would taste like in Malaysia — this does feel a little bit of a miss to us considering how Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam does position itself as not just a Nanyang Kopitiam-themed concept, but one that also serves up Malaysian food. With that being said, considering the small variety of items which we had tried on their menu, our experience may not be entirely conclusive of what Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam is all about — our experience with the establishment being limited by the items those that we had ordered. The items that are listed in the Breakfast, Rice and Noodle sections of the food menu are priced from $5.90 to $18.90; the lowest-priced being Traditional Chee Cheong Fun, while the priciest would be the Home Feaast Giant Curry Noodles — quite reasonably-priced given how Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam offers a comfortable, air-conditioned environment as compared to the Chinatown Complex Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and K88 Kopitiam nearby. Would probably drop by Home Feaast Nan Yang Kopitiam yet again some other time though; pretty curious on how their other dishes such as the Home Feaast Signature Nasi Lemak with Lemongrass Fried Chicken would fare against the likes of other similar offerings at other such establishments around!
