Best eats: This chye poh-packed carrot cake in Yishun deserves a standing ovation
I was told it was the best carrot cake in the globe past my Makan Kaki, The Salted Plum founder Shawn Kishore.
Growing up in Yishun, a breakfast of chai tow kway (or carrot cake) became such a cherished weekend ritual for him and his brothers that he fifty-fifty invited the stall auntie to his hymeneals!
With such a glowing recommendation, I knew I was in for a very special carrot cake experience.
However, I was not expecting to be treated to a complete symphony of the senses on my showtime visit. Ladles clanging on a metal wok harmonised with food sizzling on high heat. My sense of taste buds sang in anticipation, every bit fragrance free-styled with flavour.
Please excuse the musical metaphors, only 2nd generation carrot cake hawker Stanley Sim started it. He's a music teacher by profession and juggles classes with cooking chai tow kway alongside his parents at their pop Yishun Ring Route stall.
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After two years of just helping out on weekends and with the looming possibility that the senior Sims might retire, Stanley was motivated to leave his nineteen-year career as a professional person clarinetist to give running the family business organisation a go.
Taking that leap from culinary theory to functioning, he threw all his efforts into learning the craft of frying carrot block from his parents.
Simply continuing the legacy hasn't been like shooting fish in a barrel. "I'grand still learning! My mother nonetheless tastes my cooking for quality control." Stanley said, with a laugh.
Back in 2001, Stanley'south mother Madam Wye Lai Cheng originally sold bak chor mee, laksa, prawn noodles, lor mee and wan tan mee at the stall. Rather a lot to handle, but she is a truly formidable lady and the driving force behind their culinary enterprise.
She didn't want their business to stagnate then she switched to selling chai tow kway in 2003, when the owner closed the coffee shop for renovations.
Banking on her 25 years of experience, desire for change and constant flow of brilliant ideas, Madam Wye and her husband Sim Kwee Hock improved on a basic chai tow kway recipe, tweaking it till they were confident of their new product. When the coffeeshop re-opened, 618 Sim Carrot Cake was born.
The number stands for the block of flats where the stall is located, Sim for their family proper noun and carrot cake for their signature dish, of course. "Information technology's a very effective name to retrieve, correct?" Stanley asked, in-between serving customers.
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Indeed, but even more than memorable is the taste of their carrot cake, which actually, is a widely-used local misnomer for a dish that'south nothing like the broiled Western confection of the same proper noun.
The carrot block here refers to steamed cakes fabricated from rice flour, h2o and daikon (white radish, which in Chinese, is besides referred to every bit carrot), wok-fried with eggs, garlic, chye poh (preserved radish) and other seasonings to create a hot, savoury snack.
Normally plant in hawker centres across Singapore, both black (fried with sweet night sauce) and white (without the dark sauce) versions are frequently enjoyed for breakfast. Example in indicate: The long line of customers that had formed at seven.fifteen am in front of 618 Sim Carrot Cake.
Frying up heaped portions of their sought-later breakfast dish with his parents, Stanley revealed: "Really we now just serve the white version. But even customers who adopt the blackness version will come up to eat our chai tow kway."
Thankfully, I prefer mine without the sweet nighttime sauce and my start impression was a lasting one. I was served a plump pile of egg-crusted deliciousness with a pervasive smoky, garlicky odor, almost obliterated past a mountain of chye poh.
This is what 618 Sim Carrot Cake is famous for – their ridiculously lavish garnish of preserved radish bits. Actually, garnish is an understatement. The blizzard of extra chye poh on the side made it look more like the principal course.
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Whatever pupil of music theory will recognise the Italian musical term "troppo" and I recollect this best describes their chai tow kway – excessive, but in the best mode possible. Almost generous to a fault, this is ane concern that doesn't believe in skimping on ingredients.
Abundance of chye poh aside, masses of minced garlic, lashings of aromatic fish sauce, forests of spring onion and Chinese celery (qin cai), diced prawns a-plenty and iv sizeable slabs of steamed radish cake expertly ladle-cubed, were tossed up in sizzling oil then served piping hot with a large spoonful of undercover-recipe chilli paste.
All for simply South$4.50. After tucking in for a good 15 minutes, I was barely able to make a dent in the unstinting portion.
Simply I tried valiantly, flavours and textures setting off that full-diddled symphony in my mouth. Beautifully seasoned, tender radish cake hid, waiting to exist liberated from under a crispy crust of fried egg, which was like the glue to holding everything together. Chinese celery bejwelled the chai tow kway with fiery, pungent freshness.
Merely just like a soprano, three fundamental ingredients really striking the high notes for me. Every forkful brought a morsel of sugariness and juicy diced prawns, perfectly balanced by their kicky chili paste and signature chye poh that was both fried in the carrot block and also loaded on as an over-the-summit condiment.
The brainchild of Madam Wye, it occurred to me that she was a melt who really understood flavours. Taking customers deep into radish territory, 618 Sim Carrot Block'south amped-upwardly version was a coming together of radish cake and preserved radish, which made the dish twice as overnice. Radish, in itself, has a lot of umami, which too activates the gustatory modality buds and stimulates the ambition.
Some might think less is more, but in this case, the sheer amount of chye poh decorating the chai tow kway wasn't overkill.
Stanley and his parents painstakingly wash a lot of the salt off the preserved radish they order from a supplier. They and so brand information technology their ain by adding a piddling sugar to create its signature taste, before frying it upward with oil in their wok. The juicy, salty-sweet crunch of chye poh, eaten with the lightly-seasoned, soft and eggy radish cake cubes, struck a surprisingly delicate balance between tastes and textures.
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The abundance of fresh prawns lent a natural sweetness and brininess that played melodiously with the flavours of the chye poh. "That was likewise my mother'southward idea, to dice upwardly prawns, mix information technology with egg and add together it to our chai tow kway," Stanley informed me. Judging from the queues, Madam Wye's inventiveness has paid off handsomely.
Equally for their super-fragrant chilli paste, I detected fresh chilli, maybe a little dried shrimp and lots of garlic, only otherwise I was stumped. I tried grilling the maestro for the recipe, simply it's i the Sims guard closely.
His glee evident, Stanley apologised: "Distressing, information technology's our hush-hush conception, made from fresh ingredients, not from a factory." He did concede past revealing that they simply choice really fresh, skillful-quality garlic, because the older it is, the drier it gets.
The same chilli paste is mixed straight with steamed radish block for their spicy version. "So that when it touches the wok, information technology'due south fifty-fifty more than fragrant," Stanley explained.
He also advised me to heave the taste of their carrot cake by mixing the chilli paste with the chye poh. Obediently, I did, slathering information technology on thick. Tchaikovsky'southward 1812 overture, cannons and all, exploded in my mouth.
But when I asked Stanley to describe his carrot cake in musical terms, he said without missing a beat, "Cypher classical – that's as well tame. The tango, considering it's a trip the light fantastic toe with fire. Making chai tow kway is as exciting and passionate as the tango and also, the fire is real!"
The mode the Sim family cooked together was indeed like orchestral manoeuvres with a spark. Pardon the pun, but they were equally entertaining as watching a dance performance. Inside the confines of their tiny floor space, male parent, mother and son weaved dorsum and forth with practised ease to their well-apposite choreography, creating their signature dish in perfect unison.
Whatever hawker will as well tell you mastering the roaring burn of an industrial stove is key to perfectly cooked nutrient. Stanley explained that the fire can flare inconsistently and learning to control the heat has been the almost difficult step in his learning process. Drawing from his experience as a musician, he said he needed to exist continually observant and react quickly "live".
In fact, Stanley fifty-fifty counts the beats for the right cooking time, adjusting the corporeality of oil used and sometimes fifty-fifty shutting the fire off and on again to ensure crisp, browned, just non burnt carrot cake.
Coming to experience this "live show" isn't without costs, though. And not in the monetary sense. Stanley warned that sometimes on weekends, customers might wait for two hours to become their chai tow kway fix (simply this was pre-COVID-19). They often have to cease service before their 2pm closing time because of high demand, so be sure to get there as early on as possible.
As I pondered the reasons why I might return to queue for another gustation of their exceptional chai tow kway, Stanley answered my unspoken question.
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"We're not the best, but I think information technology's considering we serve comfort food. It'southward not too greasy and the sense of taste is non too overpowering. The more you consume, the more you enjoy." I had to agree with him.
Ever the music instructor, Stanley gave me 1 last chip of advice to double the pleasure of my delicious duet with their chai tow kway.
"Takeaway, freeze it and when yous want to eat, simply re-fry till it'due south toasty and crispy again." He was right – theirs is a dish that holds upwardly well to travel.
Dine-in or takeaway, eaten fresh or reheated at home, 618 Sim Carrot Cake definitely needs to tango with your taste buds. This is i unique, carefully choreographed number that truly deserves a standing ovation.
618 Sim Carrot Cake is located at 618 Yishun Ring Rd, Singapore 760618. It's open from 7am to 2pm (closed on Tuesdays). Take hold of Makan Kakis with Denise Tan every Th from 11am on Golden 905.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/best-local-food-singapore-carrot-cake-yishun-258931
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