Sunday, November 22, 2020

Chuan Xiang Xiao Chu at Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre

Shui Zhu Yu

The line at this hawker stall (22 Lorong 7 Toa Payoh #01-51) was pretty long tonight. I'm not sure how much of that was a function of some online coverage that it got recently, but presumably the lines are usually this long given that they were using a fancy remote buzzer system. After waiting at least 20 minutes, we finally got our shui zhu yu above.

It was good enough that we finished the whole bowl, but I left unsatisfied, without even touching a second bowl of rice like I thought I would. Part of it was simply that it wasn't as spicy, greasy, nor salty as I had expected it to be. Part of it was also because the choice of fish wasn't as luxurious as what Shisen Hanten uses. But this was also much, much cheaper, and it was still fresh.

The other part of my disappointment was the ganbian sijidou, which was surprisingly sweet. Actually, the sweetness was arguably a nice touch that complemented it, but it was also so sweet that it became a bit of a distraction, making me again wish that it were spicier, greasier, and saltier. Maybe this is because we didn't specify that we wanted it that way, but I'm in no rush to go back here.

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