Has been a really long time since I've stepped into Hillman 99 (99 Pasir Panjang Road, tel : +65 6474 6835). The place is old school just like how their food is.
It's also one of few places where one can get chrysanthemum tea served in beer mugs. Each order of these is bottomless.
I almost, subconsciously, described this order of their paper wrapped chicken (纸包鸡) as obligatory. But it wasn't obligatory. I ordered it because I enjoyed it from what I remembered from their restaurant at Kitchener Road.
Sweet and savoury caramelized exterior on chunks of chicken thigh meat.
Claypot pig liver was impressive. That sauce was intense with a lot going on from the gritty texture, the sweetness and garlic infusion. Not to mention those caramelized sweet cloves of tender garlic in there. I regretted not getting white rice with this but, there'll be another time. Livers were tender and not overly cooked.
Stir fried Chinese mustard (芥菜). Sauce was pretty salty. Pretty sure that there's sugar in it as well. But I enjoyed the vegetable. A little bit of crunch in them still.
Old school tasting yang zhou fried rice (扬州炒饭) - it's greasy, has real char siew and also little shrimps. This hit of nostalgic flavour was so complete an experience that I will probably never want to order it from them again because it was a little greasy for my liking. The one unique experience was that we could even get the subtle crunch of the salt granules/crystals in the dry beady rice. Some mouthfuls were pretty salty and some a little bland.
This was noodles with omelette and prawns - pretty similar to the wong po lou meen at Quan Ji because they are just different renditions of the same dish. I like Quan Ji's rendition better. This one was more saucy and that sauce was pretty salty.
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