Taste of Home

They upgraded to a standalone aircon space and what they got were fewer tables and fewer customers. This is what I call a true Malaysian dish. The ingredients are familiar but taste like nothing in Singapore. It's also too rich, with dark sauce, curry and lard competing for attention. Beware, the type of cooking in a small aircon space destroys your clothes' smell.

They upgraded to a standalone aircon space and what they got were fewer tables and fewer customers. This is what I call a true Malaysian dish. The ingredients are familiar but taste like nothing in Singapore. Rich, like much of Malaysian cuisine, especially the superb lard, but the pork wasn't executed well. Beware, the type of cooking in a small aircon space destroys your clothes' smell.

There seems to have been a number of establishments serving up Malaysian cuisine that had opened all across the island — one such establishment would be that of Taste of Home 家乡味. These folks aren’t exactly new to the F&B scene; previously located within a stall unit in Jin Hong Coffeeshop at Blk 137 Potong Pasir Avenue 3, Taste of Home was an establishment that had made its rounds all over social media back then and was one spot that we had longed to try before they had closed down in March 2024. They had made a recent comeback after taking a short hiatus, with the brand now being an independently-run establishment situated within its own shop space at Tai Seng — Taste of Home being now situated at The Commerze @ Irving right next to The Boneless Kitchen there with a shop unit that faces out to Playfair Road. Despite having its own space, the establishment is still one that is pretty down-to-earth without flashy decor — the store features an open-concept kitchen area to the right, while the dining area features the use of simple wooden tables and stools; few caricatures of its food offerings hang on the walls, though the shop retains the white walls and cement floors without much else done to the space. Being a brand that is known to be established by one whom hails from Seremban, Taste of Home is perhaps most notable for its Lai Fun offerings — apart from Lai Fun, the menu also seems to have an emphasis on Malaysian-style noodles; think items like the Seremban Cuttlefish Bee Hoon and Ipoh Shredded Chicken Hor Fun as well. Beverages offered at Taste of Home includes a variety of canned drinks.

Having previously wanted to make our way down to Taste of Home to try out their Lai Fun, it was needless to say that the Lai Fun was the item that we had long decided to order even before we made our trip to their new space at Tai Seng. Taste of Home offers their Lai Fun in three (3) different forms — the Curry Pork Lai Fun, the Fragrant Nan Ru Pork Lai Fun and the Braised Pork Hor Fun; the version that is most commonly seen on social media would be the Fragrant Nan Ru Pork Lai Fun which was the one we settled for. We were also asked if we would like to add the Curry Pork which we also went for. For those whom hadn’t heard of Lai Fun, this would be a type of noodle dish that features noodles that can be described as something similar to Silver Needle Noodles (i.e. Lao Shu Fen) but with longer strands of noodles, and being just a a teensy bit less broad with a noodle-like texture that is less grainy than that of the Silver Needle Noodles. Taste of Home does not describe on the elements that come with their dishes on the menu, though it can be observed that the Fragrant Nan Ru Pork Lai Fun comes with the Lai Fun being tossed in dark sauce, crispy pork lard, minced pork and spring onions. Digging into the bowl of noodles, the Lai Fun here seemed to have absorbed all the dark sauce for a savoury note; very slippery and slurpy whilst being giving a bit of a bouncy bite and also being quite flavourful on its own. The Nan Ru Pork is pretty much the same as what one would sometimes also call the Hakka Fried Pork Belly With Red Fermented Beancurd; the slices of pork being a good balance of fatty and lean meat, while the fried batter is crisp on the exterior with the Nan Ru (i.e. Red Fermented Beancurd) giving an umami note — the pork also void of any undesirable porky stench. The same could also be said about the minced meat, which also gives somewhat of a meaty bite with every spoonful of noodles, while the crispy pork lard adds yet another dimension of textures to the dish. We liked how the curry pork is done in a way that is similar to that of the dry curry style that is typically found in Malaysia as well; one that caries a good hint of curry fragrance with slight richness from coconut milk; the cubes of pork delivering a good meaty bite.

During our visit, we had also given the Ipoh Shredded Chicken Hor Fun — whilst there is no further description of the elements that came with the dish, it can be observed that the Ipoh Shredded Chicken Hor Fun here comes in the soup format, and features the standard style of Hor Fun that is less broad that typically comes with Ipoh-style Hor Fun; all that coming with shredded chicken, prawns and soup coming with a bit of prawn stock as well. A dish that would suit those with lighter palates, the Hor Fun is slippery and slurpy, while the shredded chicken was of a suitable texture which didn’t feel particularly dry; the addition of the prawn broth also gave the dish a slight umami note as well that was fairly appetising for those whom are not into heavy flavours in general. Overall, the items that we had tried at Taste of Home does suggest some truly authentic Malaysian flavours being served up by them; Lai Fun is quite a rare dish to find around the island here, and the rendition that is being served up at Taste of Home is one that is not only comforting but also quite well-made — definitely a spot to head to if one is genuinely curious about the dish but not quite wanting to make the effort to cross the border to check out. Prices of the individually-sized noodle dishes here are also pretty decently-priced when matched around establishments serving up local fare here — the various dishes being listed from $5.80 to $6.30 which does seem to suit the working crowd here. We do wish that things would work out for them now that they are independently-run; wishing them all the best in what is to come!