I've heard about Claypot & Cooked Food Kitchen (#02-083 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) for some years now and every time I've passed by their stall they appear to be closed. In recent months, I've discovered that they don't do weekends. They're popular with a bunch of more mature discerning palates and certain circles of foodies who appreciate old school flavours coaxed from skilful mastery behind the kitchen and wok. Have been so for some time from what I gather.
Because I was alone I could only order something that was single serving, hence, their fried rice. There's only one fried rice on their menu and it's listed as Salted Fish Char Siew Shrimp Fried Rice at the front of the stall. There're also bean sprouts in it. If you peer a little closer, you'd notice the bits of scorch marks on the grains of rice that indicate high heat searing from the stir fry.
I dug out a couple of prawns and they use real char siew (as opposed to crab sticks or those lower form blobs that imitate crab sticks). Definitely infused with wok hei. Great pairing with their sambal on the side. Very solid plate of local styled fried rice with standards I haven't had in a while. For $4.50.
I came back the next day. Wanted to get ee meen (伊面) but they didn't have it so I settled for the seafood hor fun. Did not expect it to be served in a claypot. It's not bad. Notable aspects included mild smokiness from the scorched rice noodles and two large prawns. While I recognize that this was a cut above most of the seafood hor fun out there, I wouldn't say I was impressed.
Just when I was about to write the rice noodles off, a thought came to mind. The sambal for the fried rice from yesterday sounded like what was needed to awaken this claypot of hor fun. And it did.
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