black bean sauced fish head with bitter gourd

Update = we went to two chefs at commonwealth crescent on 26.11.2013, but that was just average. kok sen was a lot better. 🙂

for hawker tour, see hawker tour @ BTFC on 19.7.2103.

this the 2nd edition of our hawker & zi char tour. 🙂

i had never been to kok sen at keong siak street. however i have seen FB friends posting photos & good comments, & hungrygowhere reviews were mostly good, so i did not doubt that it would be a great outing on 7.8.2013. we have also among us some expert who had been to kok sen & dong ya (东亚), and knew all the right dishes to order. 🙂

claypot chicken flavoured with tangerine

deep-fried tofu drizzled with minced pork

beancurd paste romaine lettuce

we were early at 6.30pm before the crowd. the first 3 dishes came quickly. all were good. i don’t care much about claypot chicken dishes, but this 砂煲甘香鸡 came with a touch of tangerine, was quite unique & tasty. liked it! 🙂 the 家香豆腐 (deep-fried tofu drizzled with minced pork) was very good – the tofu skin was very crisp & the inside was tasty. excellent dish! the 腐乳油麦(romaine lettuce with fermented beancurd) was super too. in my opinion better than 强记鸡粥 at Tai Wai in HK. 🙂

for me the best had to be the black bean sauced fish head with bitter gourd (top photo). it came with good serving of fish meat & fish head. liked this dish a lot & will be back for more! 🙂

horfun with egg （滑蛋河粉）

alas, the last was not the best. in fact, the horfun (滑蛋河粉) was just mediocre, not even good. any coffee shop zi char stall would do same or better.  this was strange really. any good zi char stall must be able to fry up dish out “wok hae”, and it was odd that this was not so for a common basic dish like horfun?

the entire dinner was S$71 including 1 drink + chinese tea for 5 of us. good food + great company = enjoyable evening.

after that we went to have coffee at dong ya (东亚). they now occupy the previous pasta inc shop & just started business so had not replaced the pasta inc shop name signboard & did not have many customers..anyway will be back to try dong ya (东亚) also.

c.h.e.f andy