Part 2 Background - Soup Master at Food Junction, Sembawang Shopping Centre

Managed to conduct a phone interview with Moses Chong, one of the 3 shareholders of 牛车水老火汤 (Chinatown Lao Huo Tang )

Moses loves to cook at a very young age. When he was as little as Primary Three he had already learnt to cook for himself and his 3 brothers as his parents were busy working. Being the number three in a family of four boys, Moses is the only one to venture into the F&B Business.

At age 31, he started a food business selling desserts & Chinese Snacks ( Chinese Buns, Chee Cheong Fun, etc)  at a Toa Payoh Industrial Estate Canteen which eventually closed after the tenants moved out due to slowdown in business.

Moses then ventured into Interior Design Contractor business for about 10 years.  During this period his penchant for cooking did not wane but instead grew. He participated actively in cooking classes organised by the Community Centres  and picked up tips on cooking Western Cuisine & Chinese Cuisine particularly dishes like 一品锅 (Yi Ping Guo = a claypot dish with superior grade ingredients), 三杯鸡 (San Bei Ji = Chicken cooked in three different types of wine).

Elegant, Brilliant, Industrious & Amicable Amy (Mrs Chong) with Enterprising, Business-minded, Humble & Magnanimous Moses Chong seen here at their fifth outlet opening at Food Junction, , Level 2, Sembawang Shopping Centre. 

  

Part 1 Background - Soup Master at Food Junction, Sembawang Shopping Centre

The Food Junction at Sembawang Shopping Centre finally opened after have closed for a while whilst undergoing renovation. Food Junction & Kopitiam sort of did a musical chair to each other, with Kopitiam ending their lease at Sembawang Shopping Centre and moving over to North Point, and Food Junction ending theirs at North Point and moving on to Sembawang Shopping Centre.  

With the nearby Canberra Condo Development and One Nautical Condo Units coming up in the near future, Food Junction looks set to welcome these new residents to a tasteful meal at Sembawang Shopping Centre. 

Bob & I went to explore Food Junction @ Sembawang Shopping Centre Level 2 this past week and come upon SOUP MASTER that serves up really great soup ! Will explore about its humble beginnings in my future postings. 

Meanwhile check out SOUP MASTER's soup fare ...................

Old Cucumber Pork Rib Soup 

老黄瓜八爪鱼西施骨

Ten Tonic Ginseng Chicken Soup 
十全大補人參雞湯

Buddha Jumps Over The Wall  佛跳墙

Generous servings of Superior Quality Fish Maw, Red Dates, giant size dried Mushroom of Super Grade,  Wolfberries, large dried Scallops, Dried Oysters, Abalone are the key ingredients to making this <<Buddha Jumps Over the Wall>> a Signature Best Seller at SOUP MASTER !

Fried Kway Teow at The Garden Authentic Thai Food at ABC Brickworks Food Centre

Authentic Thai Food serves up a delicious stir fried Kway Teow and is not too oily nor salty and tastes smooth with a tinge of sweetness. Mr Chua employs a Thai native Chef to helm the stall and uses authentic Thai ingredients & spices to give it that real Thai flavour to his cooking.

Fried Kway Teow 

Authentic Thai Food 
ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 
Block 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 150006 

Ma Bo Lor Mee at ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre

Never before have I seen such a generous serving of plenty of ingredients in a bowl of Lor Mee. This Ma Po Lor Mee really bowls me over. Together with the chili, garlic, dark vinegar, this bowl of Lor Mee taste deliciously rich. 

Ma Bo Lor Mee  

ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 

Block 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 150006 

Part 2 - Roti Prata at Alexandra Village Food Centre

Here is my favourite Prata Boy Nassim doing what he does best : Making Roti Prata of course !

Alexandra Village Food Centre 
Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 
S ( 150120)

Coin Prata at Yishun Block 418

Many of us Singaporeans are pretty used to consuming the good old Roti Prata with the size - diameter of  7 inch. However not many has really tried the bite-size Coin Prata with diameters of a mere 1.5 inch. They are so cute & tiny and are very suitable for parents with young toddlers.

They are the clear invention of this operator here at Yishun Block 418, and are served with their special chicken curry. There are those who loved eating them with just plain sugar.

Coin Prata 

The Red Curry Chicken to go with the Coin Prata 

The Menu 

The Prata Boy behind the Coin Prata 

Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre

This Stall at ABC Food Centre serves a mean Hokkien Prawn Noodle, rich in lard & comes with generous delicious unforgetable sambal Chilli concocted with a top secret recipe - its goes really well with  the Hokkien Prawn Noodle.  

By far among the Hokkien Prawn Noodle I have tasted, this stall taste the best ! Likely the noodles are fried with a soup stock rich in flavour. Being sensitive to MSG, I find no obvious taste of MSG in this dish. To cook really great Hokkien Noodle you need to practice, practice, and more practice, and to manage  the heat & fire really well to give the Hokkien that extra zest & Wok Hei (burnt) flavour. My utmost respect for our Chef here ! 

Hokkien Prawn Noodle 

Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee  

ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 

Block 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 150006 

Korean Food at ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre

Most of the Saba Fish I have eaten so far at a lot of 

food stalls the meat are usually tough, dry and bland. The Saba Fish that Bob ordered taste really absolutely fantastic ! 

Somehow this China cook has mastered the art of cooking the Saba Fish to the perfect consistency and texture such that the meat literally melts in your mouth with a flavour that is sweet to the palate. There is this Mum's flavour that gives the patrons a feel good feeling that I'd definitely come back for more !

BBQ Saba Fish Set 

The unassuming talented but camera shy Chef who has mastered the art of cooking tender juicy Saba Fish 

Korean Food   

ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 

Block 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 150006 

Wow Wow West at ABC Brickworks Market and Food Centre

Bob & I visited ABC Brickworks Food Centre in Blk 6 Jalan Bukit Merah for dinner on 3 May 2012. Bob ordered Black Pepper Chicken Chop from Wow Wow West. The serving is rather substantial, but I find the Black Pepper sauce rather salty to my taste.  Had I been the one ordering it, I'd request always to separate the Black Pepper sauce form the chicken. 

Bob finds the chicken rather hard, we guess because it might have been over-cooked that evening. Nonetheless the stall boasts quite a strong following during lunch & dinner. 

Black Pepper Chicken Chop 

Wow Wow West   

ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre, 

Block 6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-133, 
Singapore 150006 

Part 2 - Turtle And Co at Old Airport Road Food Centre

The popular soups over at TURTLE & CO are the Turtle Soup & the Shi Chuan Black Chicken Soup. On on average 26 days working month, Eelicia & Hari can dish out about 80 - 100 bowls of soup a day, quite a mean feat, considering they only started their venture barely more than a year since last 9 Feb 2011. To date there were some TV Celebrities like Fiona Xie who are their customers. 

About 90 % of the soups here are placed in steamers, with exception of the Turtle soup which is double boiled. 

The meat (Turtle, Chicken, Pork ) are ordered fresh from the abbattoirs & suppliers. The herbs used are fresh herbs, and used whole in the cooking process, not in the powdered form like in some stalls.  Every day Eelicia & Hari starts to prepare the ingredients as early as 8 am in the morning, and by lunch time the soups are ready to be served. 

Please note they rest on Mondays, so if you are keen to stock up on your Genki, do drop by their stall from Tuesdays to Sundays. 

Below is the full menu for your choosing before you placed your order. 

They do serve takeaways and have containers specially for the soups. 

Take note they prepare the soup in two batches fresh daily, first batch for the lunch crowd, and second batch for the dinner crowd. The soups are sold out every day, so be sure to get there early in order not to be disappointed. 

Currently  there is 10 different types of soups available and there are plans to expand the menu to cater to patrons with a broader palate. So look out for my posting updates on their menu. 

One thing to note their servings are pretty generous, my order for the Shi Chuan Black Chicken soup comes with half a chicken, tenderly cooked yet still juicy & sweet. 

For the environmentally conscientious patrons, the turtles are fresh water turtles from farms in Indonesia & China that are breed for consumption and not caught in the wild, as such there is no disruption to the turtle population in the wild. 

Here are the business owners of TURTLE & CO 

Charming & Intelligent Hari

                                 Beautiful, Smart & Hospitable Eelicia

Part 1 - Turtle And Co at Old Airport Road Food Centre

Bob told me there was this young lady & gentleman who operates a food stall at Old Airport Road Food Centre called :"TURTLE & CO". He said the couple looked like those Office Executive you find at Shenton Way, and really seem out of place at Old Airport Road, they looked like the educated Stall Owner. 

These days you hardly find young people willing to strike out on their own and making a living through sheer hard work in the F&B industry. Out of curiosity I approached  the stall on 30April 2012 ( the day I went to Old Airport Road after collecting my newly minted NRIC from the ICA) and collected the TURTLE & CO Business Card from Eelicia Huang the lady owner of the stall. 

I made to make an appointment to do a write up feature for TURTLE & CO. So Sat I visited Eelicia's TURTLE & CO. 

Eelicia, Hari & one other partner started this stall TURTLE & CO. Eelicia & Hari were colleagues at Maybank , the former clocked in 5 years in Credit Loan Department whilst the latter clocked in 3.5 years in Business Development. 

They decided to be their own bosses and were deliberating on starting F&B Business or Fashion Apparel Business, and eventually decided on a niche F&B Business. They paid an undisclosed sum to learn the business from a veteran in the trade, and really take pains to master the art of making delicious tonic soup. 

Here are some samples of their hard labour. 

Pork Ribs Soup 

This is what I ordered :

Shi Chuan Black Chicken Soup(S$5.00per serving)

Each serving comes with a bowl of white rice. The rice used is of good quality and are not broken rice bit but comes in whole grains. The soup stock taste sweet due to the generous use of red dates & wolfberries. Eelicia & Hari does not use MSG in their cooking.