Monday, April 8, 2013

Friend's Favourites: From the Pek Kio Market

I started a series of friend's recommendations...this is the second installment. This post features chee cheong fun, horfun and ohr neng, a recommendation by Elgin Yap.

Pek Kio...also known as Cambridge Road Market is a veritable treasurehouse of good eats. I have already blogged about Wah Kee Prawn Noodles, and the carrot cake. I have also written about the wonderful chwee kway, which alas is no more. But in its place, has sprung a Hong Kong style Chee Cheong Fun...made in-situ...something not common these days of high convenience.

The flat noodles are made from ground rice gruel, steamed delicately...they were very smooth, clean tasting. The light soy sauce which accompanies does not steal the limelight from the smoothness of the noodles. One can add prawns, or char siew. I tried also the prawn version...not bad, the prawns were reasonalby fresh, crunchy.

Just a few stores away, is a curious horfun place...the name of the stall is smaller than the advertisement which proudly proclaims "$2.50"! Cheap, but any good?

Quite interesting. My reference for this is the one at Hui Wei at French Road, powerful wok hei, beautifully crisp beehoon in the ying yang version. Magnificently fresh and sweet seafood. This one is different. No wok hei, no ultra fresh seafood too. And at first taste, very mild, and perhaps even a bit plain. But the lightly flavoured gravy grows on one. Subtle, engaging. The hor fun is just the flat rice noodles, no ying yang to provide textural contrast. But were smooth and ok. For me, does not unseat the throne occupied by Hui Wei, but offers a different interpretation.

From the same stall, is this magnificent ohr neng

Ohr neng is the Teochew version of just a plain oyster omlette. As compared to the perhaps more popular ohr chien aka ohr luak...which uses a tapioca flour to provide some goey filling between the oyster and eggs. I vacillate between either, sometimes preferring one over the other.

This ohr neng is one of the better ones I have eaten. Not greasy at all, and does not leave one with the impression of a pending heart attack after consuming the plate. But a pleasant oyster after taste, rich, full bodied, melded almost seamlessly with the beautifully fried egg. Superb. Worth the calories and cholesterol/saturated fat...if only to be indulged no more than once a quarter...

Thanks to Elgin, I found a wonderful ohr neng. And two other eminently edible dishes. More Friend's Favourites soon.

Hong Kong Style Chee Cheong Fun
Tong Siew Fried Horfun and Ohr Neng
Pek Kio Market (Cambridge Road Market)
41A Cambridge Road

1 comment:

Melvin Chong said...

The only place I find a $2.50 hor-fun.