Friday, March 19, 2021

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), Upper Cross Street

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), Upper Cross Street

Have seen Dong Bei Xiao Chu (12 Upper Cross Street, tel : +65 6220 6876) a number of times while passing Upper Cross Street. Finally got curious enough to come by to try their food. Not to be confused with the popular Dong Bei Ren Jia (东北人家) less than a minute's walk away.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), xue hua

I think this might have been my first Xue Hua (雪花). It's a light lager for easy drinking which works for the food that we were going to have. Not as light as a particular Yanjing beer I've had previously though.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), sour spicy potato strips

Nice sour and spicy potato strips (尖椒土豆丝). Had a good heat (more than the one from Tian Fu I have easier access too), prerequisite crunch and tanginess to make the dish.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), grilled skewers

Their skewered grills were competent as well. These platter had quail eggs, lamb and chicken hearts. Will come back for them because they were delicious.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), cold noodles

There's cold noodles (冷面) on the menu. These were buckwheat noodles which looked and tasted like the Korean naengmyeon - broth was sweet/tangy and the noodles were slurpiliciously smooth.  

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), salted egg yolk corn

Corn kernels with savoury and sweet salted yolk. Each order needs to be shared with a few people or will be surfeited easily. Otherwise quite addictive.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), pig skin jelly

That's their home made pig skin jelly. Their rendition of pork aspic in a mildly spicy, tangy and garlic-ky sauce. Nice.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), egg bean curd

This was called egg tofu in English on the menu. Chinese name's 风味鸡蛋干. Tasted like tau kwa with a firmer and smoother texture.  

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), mung bean noodle salad

We had 东北拉皮 - a chilled noodle salad with black fungus and julienned cucumbers. Don't know if these flat transparent noodles were made with mung beans or potatoes. Flavour was mildly spicy, sweet, nutty and tangy at the same time.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), mutton winter melon soup

Mutton and winter melon soup. They managed to coax the mutton flavour into the soup. Also the clearest mutton soup I've had that hasn't been heavily spiced or herbed. Not bad.

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), pickled cabbage pig intestines

Stir fried pickled cabbage with pig intestines (酸菜炒肥肠). Tangly, slightly spicy, savoury and offal-ly. We couldn't finish this and packed the remainder home. Mixed those with some of the leftover cubes of mutton from the soup above and scissored up cumin-ed grilled squids from them - made a super good dinner with instant noodles. The best you've never eaten!

Dong Bei Xiao Chu (东北小厨), shishamo

Love their grilled shishamo too. An order of eight for $8.

Will definitely come back.

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