A Gem in Golden Mile FC : Yew Chuan Claypot Rice

    For all Claypot Rice lovers, this place will not be unknown to you. But if you are looking for a damn good claypot rice, look no further than Golden Mile Food Centre.

    Golden Mile Food Centre or more commonly know to Singaporean men as Army market. This was the place where the NS(National Service) men used to come to to get their army supplies before reporting for NS. But that was before the introduction of eMart by the SAF. Now a days, the 2rd floor of the Army market is a shadow of its former self, with many shops and none of the crowds.

There was also a scare last year (2015), where the lease for the food centre was going to expire and ownership was to be returned back to the government (NEA). Two things usually happens. Firstly, the store owners will have to start paying rent again and secondly major renovations.

When the government takes back ownership of a food centre, they will usually do major renovations on the location and alot of the hawker stores will not come back since these major renovations will take 6mths to 1 year  to complete. How else can they justify charging you higher rent except by giving you a new and improved environment. At the moment, I have searched the internet and no news of any renovations. Furthermore this food centre was recently renovated afew years ago.
Afew store have decided to close but luckily, B1 and 1st floor of the Golden Mile FC (Army market) still have many good hawker food stores and lets hope they remain. I will be covering more stores but first, we will start with this gem.

Yew Chuan Claypot Rice

It was originally on B1 but has not moved to the 1st level

Address : -

Golden Mile Food Center 
505  Beach Rd  #01-73


Timing : -

12pm-10pm, Monday to Friday
4pm-10pm Saturday and Sunday
Close on Thurdays

How to get there : -

One of the tallest landmark in the area is The Concourse.

The nearest MRT station is Nicoll Highway. Use Exit A and take the escalator to the overhead bridge. Cross the highway using the overhead bridge and walk until you reach Beach Road (The Concourse is along Beach Road). Turn right on Beach Road and walk along the road until you can see Golden Mile complex on your right. Directly opposite from Golden Mile Complex, you will see Golden Mile FC.


How to Order : -

1. Find a seat and take note of the table no.
2. Go to the store and place your order
3.  Price/ size ($5 / $10 / $15 / $20 / $25 )
4. Give table no.
5. Make payment for the claypot rice
6. Go back to seat and wait

The waiting time will be around 15 to 30mins. But this will also depend on the how many order were place before yours. It may take longer.


   There is a longer waiting time as compared to other types of hawker food is because they are actually cooking the rice in these claypots. And these claypots are not used as decorations, they are all well seasoned and essential utensils of the trade. It is with experience and skill that they are able to use a slow fire/s to cook the rice and later put in the ingredients. All the while, making sure that all the ingredients are well cooked and the meat juices and smell from the chicken, salted fish and chinese pork/liver sausages infuse into the rice. The most important part, have a "burnt" or charred bottom layer of rice that is not burnt black and this rice also gives back a earthy fragrance to the rice.

   When it arrived at your table, the claypot will be sitting on a tinfoil nest at the bottom. This is to protect the tables from the heat of the claypot that is just taken off the fire. There will be chicken chunks (seasoned with soy and oyster sauce), green vegetables, chinese pork sausage, liver sausages and chunks of salted fish. You will also be given a bottle of seasoned oil and dark soy sauce.

   First step is to take the bottle of seasoned oil and pour it in circles into the claypot. Second step is to repeat step 1 but with the dark soy sauce. You will be able to hear the sizzling of the oil touching the claypot. Third step is to mix everything together. The repeat step 1 and 2 again if necessary. At the bottom of the article, there is a YouTube link to how this is done. Clink on it to see how it is done. Also don't forget to scrape the charred bottom layer of rice and mixed it into your mixture.

We ordered the $15 claypot, which is suppose to be for 3 people.


   When you take a bite, you are hit by all the ingredients in this dish. The chicken chunks were well seasoned and savory. The chinese sausage and liver sausage adds a sweet and salty meaty taste. It also adds the smell of sweet chinese pork sausage. But the most fragrance part that actually hits you, even before you start eating, it hits you while you were mixing it is the smell of salted fish.
But the star of the show, the most amazing part is the rice. Firstly, the rice is fluffy and slightly al dente and the fragrance of all the ingredients infused into it. Then the charred or "burnt" rice gives it a crunch and different texture profile. Then in some bites, you bite into a chunk of salted fish and it melts into your mouth and releases a kick of saltiness and salted fish fragrance. 
So in your mouth, it is like a roller coaster of tastes and textures and fragrances. One bite is abit different from the next and the one before it.

   I am also amazed how they are able to cook the rice without burning the bottom. I have eaten at other places where it was good but the rice at the bottom was burned black and it added a bitter and burned smell. Somehow their control of fire is so masterful that it did not happen. I am shocked and amazed.


Overall, a damn good claypot rice. A very damn good claypot rice. If you are in the area, try it and you will not regret it. Rating 4/6





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Ah Hoe Mee Pok

  Ah Hoe Mee Pok. It is located in the same coffeeshop as the Bukit Purmei Lor Mee. Actually it is just beside it. And when you go and eat this noodles, you will have to queue up too. The name of the shop, you are saying to yourself. Doesn't it sound familiar somehow. Like I have heard it before. Well, you many definitely have heard it before, especially if you have been hearing about the Japanese girl who cooks mee pok. This is not that shop, but, the owner of this shop is actually the man who taught the japanese man who is the father of that Japanese girl how to cook mee pok. Doesn't this sound abit like one of those old Hong Kong Kung Fu movies.


Anyway, I digress. so how to get there?

Address : Food Loft @ 501,
                Blk 501 West Coast Drive
Timing : Open from 6am to 2pm,
               except on Mondays

 

The nearest landmark is the Ayer Rajah Food Centre. The coffee shop is located in one of the shop houses that surrounds Ayer Rajah Food Centre.

Suggestion : - Come early, as in come for breakfast if you want to have a wider selection of dishes. I was there before noon and most of the selections were sold out. What I mean is that beside the store, there is a huge board with the selection of dishes they sell, once they sell out of a dish, they will come out and put "sold-out" sticker on the dish. There are like 8 items on the board and by noon, only 2 selections were left.
How to order :

1. Once you get to the front of the line, one of the workers will ask for your order
2. Price/size : $4/$5/$6
3. Select the type of noodle Mee Kia (thin egg noodles), Mee Pok ( flat egg noodles) or kway teow (flat rice noodles)
4. Dry or with soup
5. Chili or not

   After you place the order, you just observe the owner, behind the counter, cook the dish for you. And if you see someone who has been doing this for a long time, you can see that they are skilled by their movements. There is no wasted movements. They instinctively know how long to cook the noodles, and how long to let the water drain. How long to cook the other ingredients and when to add them together to the dish. They then slide the dish to you.
So bring you dish to your seat and enjoy.

First look at it. I ordered $5 dry mee pok noodles. It comes with 1 bowl of noodles (dry) with a bowl of soup. If you ordered soup. There will be one bowl, with the noodles added to the soup.

Comment :- Portion of noodles is not that large. Well,... I ordered the middle pricing, so I guess it is medium but you do get alot of "quality" ingredients. Especially the prawn. You actually get 2 big prawns and "abalone" slices are quite generous. But I must say that the name of the shop is Ah Hoe Mee Pok. So with Mee Pok in the name, you,.... or at least, me,... I expect the noodles quantity to be slightly more. Maybe next time I should get the higher priced one.

 Eventhough, the noodles was mixed by the owner, but you should still mix again. You want to get all the sauce to coat all the noodles, completely and well. There is chili and vinegar and pork lard in oil. After the first taste, the noodles was not firm and that is expected with this type of noodles. The taste, well,... to be honest, there was nothing missing from it. It was spicy from the chili, sour from the vinegar and "unhealthy" from the pork lard. But there was no kick. No umphmmm..... Just ordinary and expected.


But then........

 I notice the chili sauce given together with the noodles. Well, this is not usual. This is extremely unusual. Not the bright red or the cut chili with soy sauce. I tasted it and it was garlicky, vinegary and chili-y..... And so I took some of it and put it on my noodles. And POW..... WHAM..... this was the kick and umphmmm that I was looking for. This chili brought the flavours, that was ordinary, the exactly flavours that I was expecting,.... and brought it out of the realm of ordinariness and kick it into the goal...... It might not be unexpected to mention that i actually poured all the chili into my noodles and wolf down the rest of the noodles like a starving man.... let me just say,... it was like magic.... one second it was there and the next few..... gone

The soup was also good. You could just eat it all by itself. Like mentioned earlier, there was 2 huge prawns. Also lean meat and mince meat. Cabbage and some kind of slippery dumplings. Soup was filled with porky goodness and fine mist of mince meat in the soup.


Overall, if you are not hungry and don't mind to queue. It is a very satisfying dish that I would recommend. I have not tried his Japanese disciple cooking yet, but we should always go and try the teacher's version first.  Rating 3/6 (without the chili sauce), 4/6 (with chili sauce)



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LOR MEE from Bukit Purmei moved to West Coast Drive

      The Lor Mee that used to be at Bukit Purmei has moved to West Coast Drive. I know it is old news but for those of us who did not want to wait in line for hours, we waited for alittle while before we rushed down to find it. It helps with to inflate our expectation and appetite for it, until the expectation is so high, you do not know if the actual meal can satisfy it. We shall see,... won't we.

 Yes. I went and finally got my fix of this local Singapore delicacy. It has been over 1 1/2 years since I last got to taste it. So one morning, I packed my stuff and headed out to look for this elusive beast. Well, actualy, I used google maps but I think the action of hunting for it speaks volumes.

Abit of back story, here, When I first tasted this noodles, it has already moved to the shop in Bukit Purmei. This was maybe 7 years ago. And during lunch time, there has always been a queue for the noodles. Bukit Purmei is a sleepy neighbourhood on top of a hill. But during lunch time, people come form all around to eat this dish. So from time to time, when I had the urge, I would head there for my fix. And after that, satisfied, I would sit in one corner, having a food coma, satisfied and fuifilled. Then one day, I went there and there was no queue. And another shop was there. Basically the owner, had to close down his Bukit Purmei shop due to health reason. But I am extremely happy that he is well enough to re-open his shop again. But under doctor's orders, he has cut down on his working hours

Lor mee, this local dish is not well know with many tourist and you rarely see it being featured in many none local food program is because it is not visually striking...... basically it is just a bowl of brown. But to many, like me,... it is like a comfort food. It is not liked by all Singaporean but a majority of us do and those that do, are willing to line up in long queues just to eat it. Especially for this one. 

Where it is ?

Address : Food Loft @ 501
                Blk 501, West Coast Drive
Timing :    7.30am - 1.30pm
                  Closed on Monday, Tuesday & Friday

Advice : Go for breakfast or early lunch (before noon) on a weekday. If you go other timings, please be prepared for a longer waiting time in the queue.


For me, I arrived at West Coast Drive and started looking around. The nearest landmark is the Ayer Rajah Food Centre. The coffee shop is located in one of the shop houses that surrounds Ayer Rajah Food Centre. 

I arrived at the coffee shop before 11am on a weekday and there was already a queue. Maybe 10 to 12 people. But the queue actually moved fast and within 10mins, I was up next. And the person infront of me, ordered 5 noodles take away. And the 2 ladies behind the counter, spring into action, like a well-oiled machine, stepped away, from their usual positions,  in a flurry of hands moving here and there, putting ingredients in the takeaway containers, in a very short time, prepared the order, without fuss and effortlessly. And then it was my turn.

 To Order you need to decide :-
1) Size / Price
    - $3,
    - $3.50
    - $4.50
2) Type of noodles
    - egg noodles,
    - flat yellow noodles,
    - bee hoon (thin rice noodles) or
    - kway teow(flat rice noodles)
3) chili or not
4) vinegar or not
5) garlic or not

 I find the flat yellow noodles goes best for Lor Mee. That is because it has the highest surface area and so the sticky, gooey and starchy sauce can coat it the most and when you eat it, you get the highest ratio of sauce per bite of noodles.

 And for Lor Mee, the main focus will have to be the sauce. This starchy, gooey and sticky sauce, is flavoured by pork ribs, egg white, five spice powder and starch. I heard the owner still prepares it every morning. And this sauce is very good. It is flavourful and rich. It is a gooey, sticky and starchy goodness that coats everything. And when it goes down your throat, it is like someone is giving you a hug form the inside. Besides the noodles, there is also small slices of pork belly and deep fried battered stuff and deep fried crispy bits.

Another feature of this dish is it's contrasting textures. The deep fried crispy bits of batter actually gives you a loud crunch when you eat your noodles. It gives an enjoyable contrast in texture to the noodles and pork belly (which are soft), and the sauce (which is sticky and gooey) and crispy bits (which is crunchiness depends on the size of the bits). So each bite will different in texture. And the crunchy bits are also seasoned and so are quite flavourful by itself.

The condiments are also an important part of this dish. It brings the flavour to a whole other level. There is raw chopped garlic and black vinegar. This 2 condiments are a must. If you like your noodles more vinegary, you can add more vinegar. There is also a sambal chili and cilantro. These are all important ingredients and must all be mixed well together before you eat. And on the counter, there is cut raw chili. I would advice you be abit gentler on this since these small chili pack a big punch.

 
After giving it a good mix. Then enjoy. Nothing else to say, except, enjoy your food coma. Rating 5/6



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Getting Loss is a youtube channel and blog about food and places of interest in Singapore.  It is about not being too distracted by life and learn to take some time for getting loss and explore new things. Learn about yourself and others.

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Follow me

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