Source: Asian Journeys
Hey Hive!
I think I've finally finished writing about all our takeout trips! And now that it's been quite a while since Singapore has has been out of lockdown, or what our government has termed "circuit breaker", restaurants have been operating pretty much as usual aside from implementing safe distancing measures. We've also been eating out more and trying new places!
And one of these places is a new food hall that recently opened called Xin Tekka!
Source: Time Out
Located along Serangoon Road, flanked between two train stations (Little India and Rochor), Xin Tekka is a home to a repertoire of local hawker legends and a new generation of foodpreneurs. It's on the ground floor of the new shopping mall in the area called Tekka Place and spans two floors of about 10,000 square feet. (Cr: Seth Lui)
Source: Straits Times
So this new Tekka Place is actually just a 10 minute walk away from what used to be our rental place, and when we saw that a Fairprice grocery store opened there it became our go-to place for groceries.
At the time, the food hall wasn't opened yet, so when we found that it finally opened in late August, we immediately went to check it out.
The interior looked really nice and modern. The dark wood furnishings and leather seats definitely gave it a cozy, comfortable feel.
It definitely did not feel like a standard hawker centre or food court. The dark walls and neon signs definitely gave off a bar-like essence. And pretty fitting too, since there is actually a bar on the second floor. It was blocked off when we went, but I spotted quite a few stalls selling alcohol up there.
The colourful exterior of the stalls was a nice contrast to the dark walls. And the colours gave it a nostalgic, hipster quality. You know, like those rustic-looking places where instagrammers like to photograph.
This is definitely one of those instagrammable spots I think. There are also more private booths at the back where you can sit and eat without too much interruption. But they do look a little too dark imo.
Anyway, when we first visited Xin Tekka we were surprised to see that most of the stalls there were actually closed. We went there around dinnertime on a Friday so we expected some crowd but I guess not a lot of people knew about the place yet. And most of the stalls were closed for some reason.
The only stall open was this char kway teow stall:
His menu also showed fried rice which I was wanting to try but at the time he said he was sold out and only had char kway teow left, so we decided to give it a try since we were hungry.
[Sidenote: char kway teow is rice noodles with Chinese sausage, fishcake, bean sprouts stir-fried in a special blend of soy sauce.]
I guess this stall is quite famous since he was featured in quite a few articles and television shows. Apparently the owner, Dominic Neo, was an ex-offender who founded this stall in an effort to start afresh and find new lease of life as a hawker. He worked hard and honed his skills under the mentorship of celebrity chef Eric Teo and was determined to become one of the best char kway teow stalls in Singapore.
He was really nice and friendly and we chatted with him a little bit, asking why the other stalls weren't open. He said they were mostly open in the daytime, which I thought was a little strange since everyone would be busy working from home to come here during the day.
But anyway, we ordered one large char kway teow to share, and not long later, our order arrived! Personally delivered by Dominic himself, and fresh out of the wok!
What a lovely egg to top it off too! I've never really seen char kway teow topped with a sunny side egg like this before, but it was really nice and unique! The char kway teow itself tasted really good and while I wouldn't say the sunny side egg matched it, it was still pretty yummy together.
The sauce is a little sweeter than I would've liked, but overall it was still above average imo. But for 7 bucks I guess it works.
After looking up facebook, we found the opening hours for all the stalls in Xin Tekka:
Source: Facebook
Seems like a lot of them are closed by 8pm, so to be safe, we decided to go on a Saturday afternoon. And thankfully, the two stalls we wanted to try were open!
One of them was Pang's Hakka Noodles:
I think this is also a famous stall and I've never tried Hakka cuisine before so we were eager to give it a shot.
Here's the menu which I took a pic of the first time we came when they were closed:
We decided to try their Signature Hakka Noodle for $7 which came in two bowls.
One for the noodles:
And one for the soup and pig skin:
It was alright I guess. The noodles were pretty good. But the sambal was a tad too spicy for us. Still bearable but spicy. And the soup was alright; kinda bland though. I'm not sure if it's just Hakka cuisine or this stall but overall it was... meh. There was also a piece of bittergourd with fish paste that tasted funny.
The other stall I really wanted to try was this one called Da Boomz! They specialise in mee jiang kueh (fluffy pancakes with fillings folded inside them), which is one of my favourite snacks/desserts!
Here's their menu! They have quite a range of fillings you can order, and even special premium ones.
But we stuck with the usual peanut since it's my favourite.
And she made it for us fresh on the spot!
It looked and smelled so good!
After about 10 minutes or so, it was ready to eat! Crispy on the outside, fluffy and moist on the inside, and the smell of peanut was so strong! I couldn't wait to dig in!
The batter had a strong and slightly sweet milky taste to it; not something I was really used to, but it was yummy all the same. There was a hecc of a lot of peanut packed into it and the outside was slightly crisp while the inside was really dense and fluffy! For 4 bucks I'd say it definitely matched the price in terms of quantity because the piece was pretty big and it was thick too!
Overall, a really satisfying dessert! So if you're ever in the area, do give the stalls at Xin Tekka a try! Maybe you'll find something here you like too.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
