Tze Char | Ziggy

Tze Char is a Fujian term in Singapore meaning "cook and fry". This term is used to describe what is usually a big scale stall that sells fried rice and noodles, plus individual meat and fish items like sweet and sour pork, fish etc. Essentially it is like a mini Chinese restaurant.

More ambitious tze char stalls would offer a variety of seafood including crab, steamed fish, and clams. Quite a few big Chinese restaurant names here started out as a tze char stall. Like the listed No Signboard which used to operate at the now defunct Farrer Park hawker centre, and the Paradise Group of companies.

Tze Char

Review: Dec 2020

Excellent food, have yet to come across an item that is not up to standard...

One of the few places that is still open late at night, it is a good place to come should you need a late night snack or dinner after being over worked, or having over napped….

I have always liked the food here, and a few months back suggested to my futsal kakis to eat here after a game, since then, we have been coming back every week! We even shifted our regular day for football from Tuesday as Mellvin has changed to closing on alternate Tuesdays! Now, every says that football is secondary, dinner is the main reason they play football....

What brings us back here? Their long list of individual dishes for a tze char stall. Our first visit, the 4 of us had different dishes and were all impressed, so we decided to do the rounds and try every dish they have, except for Mr. Fried Rice who I have to say, has once tried the fried beef hor fun…, just once.

Speaking of fried rice, they have quite a few options, the ubiquitous Yangzhou, salted fish, sambal, beef, or just plain. I’m sure you can invent some along the way for them and they’ll most likely be able to do it. Our favourite is beef sambal fried rice, and recently we "invented" a luncheon meat fried rice.

The thing about Mellvin is, everything is above average nice, and they are quite generous with the meat and prawns. Top of my recommendations would be:

Fried pork belly
Clay pot fish bee hoon (not in menu, a version of the clay pot crab bee hoon)
Mee Goreng
Sambal fried rice
Dried beef kway teow
Curry Pork Rice
Sweet and sour pork rice
Prawn paste chicken
Fried sweet potato leaves
KL Hokkien mee

I’m sure the curry fish heads are nice but it’s not exactly food for after sports….

The fried pork belly just wowed us the first time we tried it, crispy tasty batter on the outside, and tender juicy meat inside. I still can’t decide if the batter or the meat is nicer. The batter is marinated in fermented bean curd, which mixes very well with the pork belly, making this a marvellous combination. The fragrance of the fermented beans and the fragrance of the pork belly tussles to excite your taste buds! Heard that a takeaway of this taste just as good when heated up the next day.

The prawn paste chicken or har cheong gai is something we have to order whenever Mr Fried Rice is around. It has really crispy flaky batter but a good dose of prawn paste taste. These 2 are quite excellent, more than above average.

Fried pork belly and prawn paste chicken

I was told by my sister that the fish soup is nice, we tried it once and I started to doubt my sister’s taste… but I came with her once and she ordered the clay pot fish bee hoon, I’d say, confidence restored, with apologies… It was creamy with milk and delicious. As usual, I think there were more fish slices than bee hoon!

It was pretty unanimous that the fried pork belly was top and this the second. We also ordered the special 4 vegetables, or si da tan wang, which is usually a combination of petai, french beans, eggplant and ladies fingers in sambal. This one here I felt was lazily done, with dried chilli flakes instead of the usual sambal, I wasn’t impressed but the others on that day thought it was decent, especially my sister, who doesn’t take chili…. I have since tried the fried potato leaves with dried shrimps; that was excellent with dried shrimps and bit of pork lard as base. They could easily replace the chilli flakes in the special 4 vegetables!

Fish soup

Claypot fish bee hoon

Special 4 vegetables

The mee goring here is appetizing, spicy and exciting. It is a good bet. Likewise the sambal fried rice, the sambal adding a bit of kick to the mundane but comforting fried rice, it is obviously spicy…. These 2 dishes are the most frequently ordered. The KL Hokkien mee here is probably the closest thing you can find in Singapore to the KL ones, it is a good place to come if you have cravings for that.

Beef fried rice

Mee goreng

KL Hokkien mee

Dried beef kway teow is nicer than the wet version beef hor fun. I can’t say I was too impressed with the beef hor fun to be honest so if you have to go for a beef noodle, the dried bee hor fun is better. Fragrant and tasty, with lots of chunky beef pieces, someone just said “shiok” with a sigh after finishing this recently.

Dried beef hor fun

Beef hor fun

I had the pork curry in my first few visits there, it looked as uninteresting as it tasted, but recently, a friend ordered it despite my protests and it looked fantastic, and it tasted as good! Fragrant and creamy curry, it would be more popular if this wasn't dinner after a game.

The sweet and sour sauce is quite thick and tasty. And the pork pieces big, crispy and nice. Could be a bit crispier but I’m quite happy with what they’ve offered. As I said, it’s not the best but it’s above average.

Sweet and sour pork

Curry pork with rice

We have since tried some crabs at Mellvin, we tried the crab with tang hoon and salted egg crab. The crabs were decent, and i was surprised how much meat there was especially in the body. The crab with tang hoon was good but the salted egg crab was excellent. Cooked with curry leaves, the salted egg sauce is creamy and fragrant.

Good food and a nice place to hang out after hours that is not the usual roti prata place, Mellvin definitely offers more than decent options!

Below are photos of various items there.

Pepper beef rice

Garlic fried chicken

Fried mian xian

Pepper beef rice

Dried chili chicken rice (kung po)

Menu - snacks

Fried rice

Coffee pork rib

Menu - rice and noodles

Salted egg octopus

Mongolian pork chop, special dish

Curry pork rice

Lala fried bee hoon

Fried Potato Leaves, there is a sambal version

Pork rib rice

This place has moved from being the place to eat after football, to become the main attraction, football has now become the warm up appetiser...

Mellvin Seafood Restaurant

354 Joo Chiat Road, s427600

Daily 430pm 1am (til 2am on Fri and Sat), closed 2 Tuesday a month

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mellvin-Seafood-Restaurant-%E9%BE%99%E8%AE%B0%E6%B5%B7%E9%B2%9C/203562113004871

Chef Chik

Tze Char

Oct 2020

Steam!

A word used often in the 80’s to describe something super excellent, replaced nowadays by shiok, uber etc. It is also how Chef Chik prepares his dishes. They’re all steamed dishes from what we noticed. Chef Chik’s steaming was, well, steam! The control of the steaming process is more excellent than Lionel Messi’s control of a football; every dish was steamed just right, the food succulent and fresh. Steam!

First, the threadfin belly. Nice bite size, roughly the size of 2 thumbs, they were succulent and we could feel it melt in our mouths. Half of it would melt, the other half gave us the chew and the taste of a good fresh fish! Steamed just right, fish fresh, this belly was unforgettable, as Nat King Cole would say....

It was served in Chef’s excellent soy sauce mix, with some garlic, and a dash of chilli. The garlic gave it extra flavour, and the bits and pieces of chilli adds just enough spiciness to give it a kick, not too much. 2 thumbs up!

When I returned, this belly was served in slightly smaller sized bites, and in a black bean paste. Not as nice but it was still very good. The change could be due to us ordering the steamed prawns, which had the same flavour.

Next, the steamed pork with salted fish. Steam! Soft and succulent pork (ok, you can imagine Chef uses the fattier part of the pork, you’re not wrong), Chef Chik’s was closer to melting in your mouth but yet chewy. He just brought appreciation for a good steamed pork with salted fish to a different level.

Onto the prawns, and the chicken. I can describe them both together. Ya, you guessed it. Steam! Prawns were with the garlic, soy sauce and bits of chilli, same as the fish belly. I suspect Chef changed the fish belly to black bean sauce because we ordered the prawns as well, to give us some variety. After getting rid of some prawns (into the tummy), I found something interesting underneath them. There was a layer of chee cheong fun (rice roll) lining the bottom of the plate. I am not exaggerating when I say this alone was good enough for the dish, this is a tribute to Chef’s sauce base, made the plain rice roll absolutely delicious.

The chicken was good taste wise, I can’t say it was extraordinary, but by then we were spoilt. Served in the excellent sauce and steamed just right, it was actually good, very good.

We also ordered the lone vegetable dish on the menu. To our surprise, it was very well steamed too. Not sure if it was steamed or boiled, but the mini kailans, or Chinese broccoli, did not have the thick stem, was well cooked and succulent. And savoury too, probably due to Chef’s excellent sauce again.

Finally, the soup. I was rather impressed, but my sister and cousin were a bit more critical, they didn’t think much of it, probably because they were used my soup, how could Chef Chik's compare... 😜 One has to assume our own brilliance every now and then to instill some self-confidence, right? 😎

Since I first tried this place, I have been going round gathering kaki’s to try too, so far so good, satisfaction guaranteed!

Chef Chik

14 Haig Road, #01-36 Haig Road Market and Food Centre, s430014

11am – 5pm, closed Sun to Tue.

Mixed rice, tze char

May2021

Reputable restaurant that has a mixed rice stall, entertains Anthony Bourdain whenever he visited!

I first decided to try this very odd looking mixed rice stall at Sin Huat Restaurant, not knowing anything about its reputation. We were there because my friend had driven by, saw that the duck rice stall was popular and decided we should try. I didn’t want to go with the crowd and had mixed rice here instead. I was pretty impressed, had always wanted to return but have not until this second lockdown.

On offer were some unconventional items seldom seen at mixed rice stalls. I later realised this is the famous restaurant that entertained the late Anthony Bourdain. Rumour has it that he visited here with every visit.

Sin Huat

History: I came here once in the younger days, with my BFF when he brought his Bristol mates here. He was good at picking strange places for great food, we were told to be patient and wait our turn for our orders to be taken by Chef Danny, and I will always remember the very interesting frog’s leg with Brand’s essence of chicken. I remember having to go through a wooden gate to the restaurant, maybe they have renovated; maybe my memory is not that great.

Here and now, choices here include curry and rendang chicken, rendang pork ribs, Taiwanese style pork belly, and pork belly in dark sauce, vinegar pork knuckle, what looks like pig skin and meat from pig’s head, whole boiled octopus, baby octopus, curry mutton, petai, steamed chicken and just sambal belachan.

Here’s my list of favourite items:

Otak
Pork Chop
Taiwanese Loo Rou (Taiwanese style pork belly, brown sauce)
Baby Octopus
Rendang Pork Ribs
Bitter Gourd
Otak
Curry Mutton
I heard the crab bee hoon here is excellent, yet to try it, think I did back in that visit
And finally, the Otak

Top of the list is the otak. Has to be the 2nd best otak I’ve ever tasted in Singapore. The first one isn’t quite the same as it comes with an entire fish, so this is the best otak I’ve tasted in paste form. Made fresh daily by the chef, meat from fish is used to make this; it is not cheap, $8 per slab that is slightly bigger than my iphone 7, but thicker. Orders can be in halves. Thick and tender, the taste of the otak is fresh and meaty, $8 is not cheap, but I’d treat myself with it now and then. $8 for an item at a mixed rice stall (sometimes termed an "economical ricestall", where $3-4 gets most people a meal) is not exactly within common budgets, but one can say this is worth it.

The vinegar pork knuckles is also quite decent, more sweet than sour, it doesn’t have an overpowering vinegar taste. I have never chosen bitter gourd from a mixed rice stall, who wants a bitter taste in your mouth, right? Came late once, it was the only roughage available…. Surprise! It was delicious, so soft and smooth, they were in danger of slipping straight down the throat; the big surprise was that it was sweet! I had to ask again if it was bitter gourd. In Chef Danny’s hands, they become sweet gourd!

Curry chicken and bitter gourd

Vinegar pork knuckles

Another very nice item is the pork chop. A very large piece of sweet and sour pork. Tender and tasty, the sweet and sour combination was perfect here. Meat is lean and the chop thin, but the texture was soft and tender with a good bite. A very easy and satisfying eat.

I would suggest the curry chicken instead of the rendang, curry was pretty good but the rendang chicken was a bit dry and salty. The baby octopus was nice and juicy, it almost felt like they melted in my mouth. This was well prepared and a wonderful tasty treat as its texture was soft yet crunchy with a very good bite. I have yet to try the full sized octopus but I’d bet that it would nicely boiled too.

Left and above: the pork chop, right: steamed baby squid

The rendang pork ribs were excellent, a big piece soft tender meaty pork rib coated in a non-spicy rendang sauce. The rib was as long as my palm, the only regret I have for trying this is that I will have one more choice to make in my next visit…

The Taiwanese Pork Belly, the one with the lighter brown sauce, tastes wonderful. Actually the one with the dark sauce is quite good too, but this is exceptional. Very happy the lady serving it was generous that evening when I ordered this and I had quite a scoop. The marinade for this is perfect, mildly sweet, very umami and nice salted.

Other worthy mentions would be the curry fish head (availability differs), and I have yet to try the crab bee hoon which I see is quite popular, and a famous dish people travel here for. Also the wobbly fish ball which is hand made.

The petai and curry mutton are both very tempting items seeking my attention whenever I'm there. The petai is not cheap, made the mistake of ordering the patai, otak and baby squid once and i had a $12 bill for an "economical rice" meal....

It is definitely a very interesting mixed ricw stall, I’d highly recommend this, if nothing else, the otak here is a must try, and the sweet tasting bitter gourd!

Curry fish head, patai and the wobbly fish balls

Other interesting items in pictures....

Left to right, top down:

Row 1 - assorted pig head and skin;Taiwan pork belly and pork slice;

Row 2 - steamed fish; chicken rendang;

Row 3 - pork chop, bitter gourd etc, rendang egg

Sin Huat Curry Fish Head

@ Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant

659-661 Lorong 35 Geylang, s389589

Daily 11am – 12am

Serangoon

Tze Char

Jul 2021

Wonderful taste, funny owner, quite a nice place for dinner!

Walked past this stall one day and I was asked to try, it’s not like they lack business. I asked the cute lady owner what was nice and the reply: “everything!”. Tried the sweet and sour pork, was suitably impressed and came back to try if the others were also as nice as claimed…

Have been back a few times to try different items. I can conclude that they do have a pretty mean basic taste, whatever they use to fry their dishes, it has a delicious base taste, a little bit oily though. Despite them having pretty much a similar basic taste, it is one worth coming back for.

If I had the guts, I might “joke” with the lady owner that everything here tasted about the same, which was why she said everything was nice… I’m a coward… not least because that was really an excellent taste. Savoury and oily, or maybe buttery, there was a nice fragrance and a “mouthful gulper” (urged to go gulp by gulp quickly, like a page turner…). This taste was especially present in their fried noodles and rice dishes.

Occasionally, this taste is missed and I’d go back for it, definitely recommended.

What is interesting here?

Sweet and sour pork
Fried noodles
XiSi pork ribs
Avoid – Beef Noodle, pretty ordinary

Sweet and sour pork

Fried bee hoon

Beef hor fun

The XiSi sauce here was excellent, creamy and delicious, I had it with a pork chop and it was delightful. I can imagine it goes well with chicken too, not sure about it going well with beef.

Have since tried their steamed fish, which was decent; as well their fried rice, filled with nice meaty ingredients, with the same delightful base taste. Their oyster omelette, it was ok with big juicy oysters but nothing special, there iss a nicer option just next door….

The curry dishes were pretty good, well worth a try here, as well their Mongolian style dishes. The la la or clam fried noodle was just average. Maybe I don’t get this dish, I think it’s nice taste wise but have yet to taste one that I really enjoy, they’re all about the same, edible but not a dish I’d crave for, even from Madam “everything is nice”.

I’ve also been urged to try their crab a few times, it’s not my favourite so I have yet to. My sister seems to like this idea and have mentioned coming back to try a few times but declined by everyone else… maybe next time….

89 Zion Road Siang Hee Seafood

49A Serangoon Garden Way, #01-20 Serangoon Garden Market & Food Centre, s555945

715 am – 2pm; 615 – 10pm Closed on Mon

https://www.facebook.com/Hock-Kee-Fried-Oyster-1491812687782767/

Traditional

Tze Char, Taiwan Porridge

May 2021

Excellent omelette, or eggs... add a sunny side up to your dish, order anything with eggs! Very nice curry too.

Noticed this place once while walking past, we could smell the “wok hei” or the “Qi of the Wok” if I want to sound deep… we would have gone in right away but we could see that the chefs were gathering outside having their meals and that they were closed. Noted to self to try later…

And later I came, I was alone on my first visit and simply asked what was good. Curry. Not the expected answer from a tze char stall, especially one that puts Taiwan Porridge on its signboard. Go with the flow I did, chicken curry rice, and it was a very nice! Fragrant curry, a lot of boneless chicken pieces, mildly spicy. Highly recommend this dish.

With confidence, I returned with company. We tried the fermented bean paste pork belly, preserved salted vegetables with pork, lettuce with diced fish, sweet and sour pork, prawn paste fried chicken, pork patty with salted egg/fish and the fuyong omelette.

The omelette was awesome! The fragrance ozzing out from the omelette the moment it arrived and seemed to be calling out to be feasted upon. I felt like a cartoon character mesmerised and floating in the air towards the smell of food…. This invisible aroma was the so called "wok hei" working its way into the food, the immense heat from the wok trapping the food's aroma within itself.

The omelette had a lovely texture, slightly crispy outside with soft within. Fuyong egg had onions, char siew and carrot slices in the omelette, you can imagine the taste. It was simply a mixture of wonder with the softer inside of the omelette. Seldom can I write so much (and say so little) about an omelette, but this is one omelette I will come back for.

Pork belly was decent, but nothing great, I’d probably not order the prawn paste chicken here again, just too ordinary, uninspiring. Vegetable dishes were pretty good, tasty and full of the Qi of the Wok….

The pork patties were also very good, nice and tender patty, salted precisely to give taste, I might order one just for myself next time as the patty is not too big, like that of a good sized very thick burger. The salted vegetables with pork was as good as the dish can be. Nothing fantastic but a decent effort, would go well with porridge.

A friend of mine thinks that the test of every tze char place is their sweet and sour pork, something very easy to do, but not easy to do well. The sweet and sour pork here is quite decent. Nice crispy pork with a good sauce, it definitely passed both in terms of taste and texture.

I have also tried their sambal fried rice and mee goreng. Both were passable, with the usual complain of not enough ingredients, unlikely i would be ordering these here again.

Food here is generally decent, the fried rice and noodles here are generally slightly below par, but this is the omelette house, very good omelettes! The curry here is also quite fantastic, and don't forget the wonderful pork patty with salted fish/egg; aside from these, nothing else really impressed me, the rest are all just passable. Just order anything with egg, or add an egg to your dish! Returning is very likely though!

I would recommend adding a sunny side up to any fried carbo dish you order. The eggs here are fantastic. We attribute it to the wok hei again. Being birds of a feather, my friends and I, we all love our sunny egg with yolk half cooked. Every egg add on was done this way.

Clockwise from top left: Dry beef hun with egg; triple egg with Chinese spinach; curry pork rice, with egg; chai po (pickled turnip) omelette

The best thing to order here would be, curry chicken (or pork), with a sunny side up add on!

Old Place Sea Food Taiwan Porridge

59 Joo Chiat Place, s427783

110am – 300pm, 5 - 10pm , closed alternate Wed

Canto Delight

Tze Char

Jul 2021

Excellent dishes full of Qi!

Set up by Fatty Cheong of the famed wanton noodle stall nearby, and manned by the man himself, this is an interesting stall that sells fish head served in 4 different styles, and various popular Cantonese dishes like the sweet and sour pork, seafood noodles/fried rice, and one or two nyonya style dishes.

While waiting for my food, I noticed the angry sound of the fire under the wok, the force is strong here! Indeed, the “wok hei”, or the qi (force) of the wok, lingered in my fish hor fun with black bean sauce. 5 mins into my dinner, I still needed to wait for the heat to cool off on a spoon before eating.

The black bean sauce fish hor fun wasn’t fantastic taste wise. It was a little bland, not too exciting. I had preferred the “smooth egg hor fun” but Fatty shifu gave me the wrong style.

Came back for the preferred one and it turned out great! In fact, Fatty Cheong remembered me and gave me a few more slices of fish! Same Qi was present, freshly cooked HF and ingredients, tastier gravy. To be fair, I think it’s my personal liking that the black bean sauce HF wasn’t “tasty”.

It is no wonder that the Qi here was strong, Chef Cheong is also a shifu in another aspect, kung fu… looking at him, one can’t help but think of kung fu panda… *bow*. I heard he is an avid dancer too… more later.

The pork rib king was another excellent dish. Served in a delicious sweet and sour gravy that is the 2nd best I’ve tasted (only my own is better, slightly…. 😆😆), a hint of sweetness with a tinge of sour plus robust savoury, the taste lingered beautifully.

The pork rib itself was fabulous, tender and cut thick for a brilliant bite. The kicker was how kungfu Panda prepared it, with a light layer of flour so that there was a dose of soft crispiness with every bite. This texture was simply orgasmic…. You’ll yearn for more. I didn’t want to finish my dish coz I didn’t want it to end!

The steam fishes are very well done, steamed just nice so that the fish remains succulent, which style you ask for would depend on your taste. My sister opted for the black bean sauce which was not the best for a steam fish, her logic was that this is not easily done at home, and she is not one into spicier varieties…

We also tried his fried “Sang Meen”, a typical Cantonese noodle fried crispy with gravy. It was excellent. Crispy noodles with huge prawns, and the gravy is wonderful, it’s given on the side, it is poured when you’re ready to consume, keeps the noodle crispy until consumption!

Fatty Cheong practices martial arts, and frequently visits his ancestral town in China where the famed Cai Li Fo wushu style originated. He should call himself kung fu panda! Also an avid dancer, lion dancer that is, this he has been doing since young.

*see fatty cheong wanton noodles

Cantonese Private Dishes

6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-20 ABC Brickworks Market, s150006

1130am – 830pm, closed Thu