Singapore Food, Part 1: Braving Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle

When I travel,  I try to make it a point to eat the signature dish of a town, province, or country that I visit. As a Filipino, I know all too well that our signature dishes (adobo, sinigang, etc.) can be done in a variety of ways and this will be true no matter which place I visit. Still, eating Bicol Express made by a Bicolano will be a better experience than eating one made by someone from a different province. 

The first country I ever visited outside of the Philippines was Singapore, a year after my sister found a job here in 2008. From then until now, I have always wondered what "local" food Singapore offers; as a country that is home to a variety of cultures, one could easily mistake a neighboring country's signature food as Singapore's own. After visiting the country multiple times before settling down here in 2015, I have been able to at least differentiate those with a Singapore flair, even if the dish didn't originate from Singapore.

This is a multiple part blog series where I explore these "local" food for you to try when you visit.

You can't say that you've been to Singapore and not have Chicken Rice at least once. It's cheap, flavorful, and available anywhere there's food. It is considered as one of the national dishes of Singapore, if not THE national dish. It's so common that it's difficult to find the best one. 

Good thing the Michelin Guide arrived in Singapore last year. It's a reputable guide that gives ratings to some of the best restaurants around the world. While it is known to rate fine dining restaurants, they did a different approach for their Singapore guide; they included hawker centers and cze char restaurants to produce the first guide that features the cheapest Michelin-starred eats. One such hawker stall is Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken & Rice Noodle. 

Stall wasn't open yet, but there were already people lining up, including those guys seated in front of the shop.

When the guide was officially launched back in July, there was much fanfare about this stall and I was left to wonder just how one can make chicken rice so good that it deserved a Michelin star - not just a bib gourmand that's usually awarded to "exceptionally good food at moderate prices," but a Michelin star that even Gordon Ramsey cries about.

Since I was a houseband for quite a while, I thought it would be best to come by after lunchtime so that there won't be a massive queue. On my first try, I came around 2:30PM and was greeted by a queue that was about a hundred meters long. That might be an exaggeration, but it started from the escalator of the hawker center all the way to his stall that was about five aisles and five tables away. I thought if I ate elsewhere the line would get shorter, but I was wildly mistaken.

On my next attempt, I woke up early on a Wednesday to queue up even before the stall opened at 10:30AM, only to find out that Wednesday was the only day he wasn't open. On my third try, I was lucky enough to be on queue early, with only 12 people ahead of me. It still took me an hour before I got to order. 

Liao Fan's Roasted Pork Rice (SGD 2.50) and Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle (SGD 2.50)

Typically, when you order chicken rice, the rice is cooked with the chicken broth, giving it more flavor. However, when I saw that the stall is serving just plain rice, I thought I'd try a couple of dishes for variety, just to make it worth the wait. In any food, I think while ingredients may remain the same the constant variable is the technique in which the cook prepares the food. Because of this, I wanted to see if the noodles were different as well, as I assume it's also hand made. 

Rice is drizzled with the sauce from where the soya chicken was cooked in. Roast pork is then chopped and placed over the rice. A spoonful of braised peanuts complete the dish. Pickled green chili is available, as it usually is in hawker centers. For the noodle dish, the noodles is soaked in a boiling solution - not sure if there are other ingredients in it, I just know that that's what they usually do with noodles or fish cakes. The plate is then doused with an oily liquid and some of the soya sauce the chicken was cooked in. The noodles is then strained from the pot, and placed over the plate. A portion of the chicken is chopped and topped on the noodles. The dish is completed by a side of quick boiled kailan and some chili. 

The chili from the noodle dish was spicy enough, so I didn't have too much of the pickled green chili. 

The chicken is not life-changing, but it was really good. The meat was more tender and juicier than most chicken rice I've tried before, and the soya sauce was absorbed well by the skin. It's something worth the wait for an hour, but probably not for four hours, which was a possibility considering the crazy queue. I mixed the noodles with the sauce and the chili, and while I think it was good, I realized I had no idea how to discern a good noodle from something that isn't. The kailan was an excellent partner for the noodles, as it provided some crunch to every bite. 

For the roast pork, I think it was cooked well enough to be crispy, but the skin felt a bit chewy at times. I also think it was portioned and prepared well, with only a couple of inedible bones left on my plate. Their sauce was rich and distinct, and I thought it was wise for them not to put too much on the rice as they risk making the whole dish too salty. 

Come for seconds: If I have time to kill, why not. It is by far the cheapest Michelin-starred dish anywhere in the world and though some may think it's overrated because of how common the dish is, I think it was well deserved because of how he was able to create a distinct identity for his own version. He's reportedly set to open a new restaurant called Hawker Chan backed by Hersing Culinary, the company behind Tim Ho Wan, among others. The 80-person seating capacity and air-conditioned space should help ease the lines from the original hawker stall soon, which means a more acceptable waiting time to order. 

Singapore Food, Part 2: Experiencing Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

When I travel,  I try to make it a point to eat the signature dish of a town, province, or country that I visit. As a Filipino, I know all too well that our signature dishes (adobo, sinigang, etc.) can be done in a variety of ways and this will be true no matter which place I visit. Still, eating Bicol Express made by a Bicolano will be a better experience than eating one made by someone from a different province. 

The first country I ever visited outside of the Philippines was Singapore, a year after my sister found a job here in 2008. From then until now, I have always wondered what "local" food Singapore offers; as a country that is home to a variety of cultures, one could easily mistake a neighboring country's signature food as Singapore's own. After visiting the country multiple times before settling down here in 2015, I have been able to at least differentiate those with a Singapore flair, even if the dish didn't originate from Singapore.

This is a multiple part blog series where I explore these "local" food for you to try when you visit.

My friends based in Singapore usually get together to treat friends who visit. On my first trip to Singapore without my family, I met with these friends who took us out to eat at Song Fa Bak Kut Teh in Clark Quay. Back then, we had to queue for a while even if there were two branches on the same street separated by a couple of stores. I recently visited the same branch and found out that it was easier to queue when you're alone. I guess it also helped that it was 2PM on a Monday afternoon. 

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh in Clark Quay. No, I didn't ask the guy to bow, it was just weird timing. 

Song Fa is one of the more popular bak kut teh restaurants around. I learned through their website that it started out as a pushcart back in 1969, and has since grown to multiple stores across the country. Both stores on New Bridge Road (right across Clark Quay Central) have a nostalgic ambiance - something that they try to maintain to let their customers experience the classic taste of the dish as if they were eating off their original push cart in the 60's.

Bak kut teh is a Chinese soup dish that is widely popular in Singapore. My friends brought us here back then precisely because we wanted to try "local" food. It apparently directly translates to "meat bone tea" and it actually makes sense when you taste it.

Song Fa's Pork Ribs Soup (SGD 7.00) with a side of Braised Beancurd Skin (SGD 3.50) and plain rice (SGD 0.60)

I had the SGD 7.00 Pork Rib Soup that had three ribs and a disappointing amount of soup, before I remembered soup refills are unlimited. They have a SGD 9.00 version on their menu, which I assume would have five ribs. I also got the braised beancurd skin because I love beancurd roll dimsum, and I thought this would have the same taste. As a Filipino, rice was inevitable.

Service was fast, which was not surprising because they are probably cooking bak kut teh continuously throughout the day. The beancurd skin looked like it was just strained of from where it was braised.

Clean bones!

As I said earlier, the direct translation of bak kut teh makes sense when you taste it. The soup is like an herbal tea, but with the essence of a pork broth. The garlic gives it a nice character, while a strong peppery taste massages your throat when you take a generous sip. I think it has a bunch of other spices but these are the two I can easily determine. The meat did fall off easily, and I could easily finish it off using chopsticks. They have a small bucket for you to put all your bones in so that your bowl will have more space for soup refills. I didn't have water to wash down my food, but the four soup refills I had did the trick.

For Filipino friends, this dish is basically bulalo, but with pork ribs instead of beef. And you know we love us our bulalo soup.

There are a couple of sauces on every table, one of which looked like a viscous soy sauce that tasted sweet and salty. I'm not sure what it was for, but my appetite channeled the college version of me as I squeezed the sauce on my rice to add flavor. I'm sure you do that too every once in a while.

The braised beancurd skin was just as I imagined it - beancurd roll without the meat inside. I don't know if one is supposed to dip it on the sauce I put on my rice, but I liked it as it is. The beancurd skin was cut thinly, and was soft and juicy when you take a bite of

Come for seconds: Definitely. It's a place one can frequent - prices are affordable, service charge is acceptable, and the taste is just classic. It's the Singapore version of your favorite bulaluhan.