Category Archives: hawker fare

Lovesick for Ipoh Hor Fun

08 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in hawker fare, Lovesick for Ipoh Hor Fun

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Ipoh Hor Fun with Soya Braised Chicken

For a number of years through my late teens to early adulthood, one of my comfort foods had been the Shredded Chicken and Mushroom Ipoh Hor Fun from the coffee shop at the corner of River Valley Road and Kellock Road. To me, that was how Ipoh Hor Fun was supposed to taste, and I could never satisfy a craving for the dish until I got my fix of it there. Sadly, the elderly man who used to cook at the stall eventually stopped doing so, and now the coffee shop premises itself has been taken over by some other F&B establishment.

So for some years now, I feel like I’ve not had a proper plate of Ipoh Hor Fun. I hardly even order it these days as chances are I’d just be disappointed.  Finally I figured I should try to make my own version of Ipoh Hor Fun.

Today I took my first stab at it. The dish is really about the hor fun gravy at the end of the day. And the flavour I was trying to achieve for it was something akin to the gravy which comes with the soya braised chicken from Lee Fun Nam Kee at Block 94 Toa Payoh Lorong 4 (which I get a craving for every once in awhile – it’s so good!). Basically I cooked a braised soya chicken (garlic, ginger, spring onion, dark soya sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil, five spice), then used the sauce as a base for the gravy, adding to it kecap manis, more sugar, salt, pepper and corn starch to thicken it. Taste-wise, I dare say it wasn’t too far off, but there is much room for improvement since it was a first attempt. As this recipe is a work-in-progress, I shan’t post it for now.

Now come to think of it, when I was a little girl living at Marine Parade, there used to be a stall at the hawker centre close to the building which housed Metro Department Store and Yamaha Music School, from which I would order Shredded Chicken Ipoh Hor Fun as well. It was the only thing I would eat at that hawker centre. But now I don’t even remember how it tasted.  Speaking of this reminds me that recently, the idea came to me that I should try to recreate all the dishes I used to enjoy in my childhood. After all it would mean all of 3 dishes or something, including Chicken Maryland from the then Cappuccino Coffee House at Plaza Singapura and Open-faced Roast Beef Sandwich from Silver Spoon at Supreme House. I used to be a scrawny little creature with huge teeth, and my mom constantly agonised over how I was so hard to please when it came to food.

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Chicken Rice: For the Culinarily-Homesick Singaporean

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in chicken, Chicken Rice, hawker fare, recipe

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We were originally intending to have dinner this evening at some cze char place nearby, but after lunch I decided I would cook instead.  So I ended up making Chicken Rice, Spinach Soup, Sambal Eggplant, and Tau Yew Bak, which helped beat the Sunday Evening Blues.  (Look out for my post on Tau Yew Bak!)

Chicken Rice is probably our national dish.  And it’s often one of the first dishes which a Singaporean living abroad will miss. So this post is dedicated to all my culinarily-homesick Singaporean friends abroad.

The Chicken Rice we cook at home is based on a fairly simple recipe.  The chicken is boiled, and there’s none of the hassle of frying uncooked rice in sesame oil before cooking it. As a consequence, the rice is actually less oily, and feels a lot healthier.  I don’t think much is lost from omitting the frying, and in fact, I prefer this less-oily version of the rice.  Even without that step, you end up with very fragrant steamed rice, thanks to lots of garlic and pandan leaves.  Try it and let us know what you think!Ingredients1 whole chicken (about 1.6-1.8kg)
2 cups uncooked white rice
1 whole garlic, with last layer of skin left on and top sliced off
25 cloves garlic (segments), cracked, last layer of skin left on
2 pcs of fresh ginger, each approx 2 x 2 inches in size, peeled and cracked
7 pandan leaves, tied together into 2 knots

8 cups water
4 tbs sesame oil
3 tbs soya sauce
SaltMethodClean chicken, pat dry and rub with 1 tbs salt.
Boil water in a pot big enough to fit the chicken.
Put ginger, pandan leaves and 1 whole garlic inside cavity and place chicken into the pot, add 1 tsp salt, and cook chicken for 45 minutes.  Remove chicken from pot and set aside on a platter. Remove pandan leaves and set aside.  Remove ginger and garlic and discard. (If using a smaller chicken, reduce the cooking time, as overcooking will cause it to lose flavour).
Put rice into rice-cooker. Add 3 cups of the chicken stock into the rice-cooker.  Also add into the rice-cooker the pandan leaves, and 25 cloves garlic.  Turn on rice-cooker to cook.
Mix 2 tbs sesame oil with 3 tbs soya sauce into a bowl, and then drizzle mixture over the chicken, and inside cavity. Turn chicken over after 10 minutes and again after another 5 minutes to allow the mixture to coat the chicken thoroughly.
Once rice-cooker indicates rice is cooked, open the lid. The liquid would have dried up by now.  Toss rice with a spoon, sprinkle 1-2 tbs sesame oil and 1-2 tsp salt over it, and toss it again. (Add sesame oil and salt 1 tbs/tsp at a time, toss, then taste rice and add more if necessary, and toss again).  Ensure pandan leaves are buried in the rice and garlic segments are evenly distributed under the rice as well. If rice looks too dry, add a little more stock.  Replace lid of rice-cooker and set to cook again.  Once it is done, toss rice to fluff it, and cover rice-cooker for 15 minutes or until ready to serve.
Chop chicken into pieces, arrange over a bed of sliced cucumber on a platter, then garnish with fresh Chinese parsley (cilantro).
Serve chicken and rice with garlic chilli, or minced ginger and spring onion seasoned with salt and sesame oil.
The rest of the chicken stock can be used as a base for a wanton dumpling soup or vegetable soup. We usually add Chinese Spinach (round leaves) to make a healthy and delicious soup.

Serves 5.