Satay (Pork, Chicken & Mutton) Yet another one of the newer stalls that had recently moved into Maxwell Food Centre, Maxwell Satay is probably one of the earlier tenants which had moved into the food centre as opposed to the latest wave of stalls that had opened there, which includes that of 蛋佬 Dan Lao (which we had previously written about), 福来成潮州鱼圆肉脞面, and SweeT.Rex — just to name a few. Located in the same aisle as where one would be able to find 蛋佬 Dan Lao, Maxwell Satay is situated in the same spot which Nian Nian You Yu 年年有鱼 used to occupy before it shifted to yet another stall situated in the same food centre. Being a stall that serves up satay, the menu at Maxwell Satay is pretty straightforward — Maxwell Satay offers their satay in three (3) different types of meat; Chicken, Pork and Mutton, while the only side dish available here would be the Ketupat. Those looking to sample the three different meat varieties of satay at Maxwell Satay can go for the Mixture of 3 Flavours; this means that patrons can go for 12 sticks of satay with any combination of variety of meats at $10, or 30 sticks of the same at $25. It is noted that Maxwell Satay does impose a rule where all orders must be made minimally for 10 pcs of satay — this would be regardless of the type of meat being opted.
Given how our agenda whilst at Maxwell Satay is to give as many meat varieties a try as possible, we found ourselves going for the Mixture of 3 Flavours at 12 pieces for $10 — we opted for 4 sticks of each meat variety that they have to offer. Maxwell Satay also serves up the usual peanut sauce dip that would be served together with satay at any other stall, whilst also coming with chunks of diced raw cucumber and raw onions as well. Amongst all of the meat options they have to offer, our meat variety of choice here would be the Pork satay — the Pork satay here comes with a good ratio of lean to fat meat. As opposed to placing the chunk of fatty meat in the middle, the folks at Maxwell Satay placed it at the end of the stick — each bite comes with a good chew that did not felt too dry or stiff; once one reaches the end of the stick, the soft, melt-in-the-mouth pork belly takes over which we found to be really satiating. The Chicken satay would be our next favourite — the chunks of chicken being juicy and tender; quite the one out of the three to go for if one would prefer something on the safer side. The Mutton satay, whilst mentioned in the Instagram post to be “well marinated and rid of all the lamb’s gamey taste”, it does come with a noticeable hint of gaminess in the finishing notes. All being said, all three types of satay were actually well-executed; there was a prominent hint of turmeric and a pretty noticeable note of sweetness coming from the satay — all of the pieces being well-grilled with a good char and came with a nice, smoky note. The peanut dip provided would do well with purists who prefer their peanut dip as-is (i.e. without the addition of pineapple); it was sufficiently chunky with chopped bits of peanut, while suitably nutty without being too wet — also a great accompaniment to the cucumber and onions which were each refreshing in their own way.
Maxwell Satay is probably one of the more underrated stalls within Maxwell Food Centre — new satay stalls around are usually pretty much of a hit-and-miss, but Maxwell Satay does seem to dish out pretty well-executed satays that definitely work well with both locals and tourists alike. Priced rather suitably, the satay from Maxwell Satay does exude good quality — the meats being pretty juicy and tender; all that coupled with great marination and execution on the grill, while the accompaniments are fresh and done well, which makes it a pretty good package in entirety. Some may lament on how the stall serves up peanut dip without the pineapple purée; something that most Hainanese-owned satay stalls would usually include in their rendition — we would say that this is probably a direction that the folks here at Maxwell Satay decided to go for and hence should be one that is to be respected. We would most certainly say that Maxwell Satay is probably one spot which we would consider going for when it comes to good satay at a spot just right outside the Central Business District — definitely somewhere which we would most probably hit again if craving for some nicely-marinated meat with a smokiness from the grill for a light dinner!
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