I was stranded in Bukit Batok Central after running an errand. Took a quick browse of makan kakis Martin and Philip's Facebook posts. Their positive reviews of Xiang Mei Roasted Meat 香美烧腊 in Bukit Batok caught my eye.
One look at the golden roasted ducks in Xiang Mei's stall window, and I decided to look no further.
I quickly get into line, before the lunch crowd arrived.
I indulged in a roast duck drumstick SGD6. The large bowl of corn soup was complimentary.
Muaks!
The duck flesh was tender, juicy and well infused with savoury and herbal flavours. The savoury sweet flesh was juicy as a wet sponge. Yet, I could still detect a slight natural duck flavour (which I like).
The flavours were all well balanced.
The golden brown skin was crispy and nicely savoury. The crispy smokey skin went very well with the juicy, moist, tender flesh.
The rice had the right moistness as well as light chicken and garlic flavours. (Xiang Mei also sells chicken rice.)
Xiang Mei serves a good soup.
Xiang Mei offers a different soup everyday. Today, it's corn soup which was nicely naturally sweet and it was not greasy. I drank up the whole, large bowl and didn't feel any MSG thirst afterwards.
The watery chili sauce was a blend of sour, salty and sharp spicy. I didn't use this much as I like to taste the flavour of roast duck by itself.
Mr. How 好, the boss was of course very busy but he graciously entertained me for a few moments.
I wondered where Mr. How learnt his superb roasting skills from. Mr. How told me that his family has been Cantonese meat roasters for generations. His great grandfather was a meat roaster in Guangzhou China. When Mr. How's grandfather came to Singapore, he was a meat roaster at old Bencoolen Street 五馬路. Now, Mr. How himself has been running this Cantonese roast stall in Bukit Batok for 23 years.
Xiang Mei uses larger chilled ducks from Malaysia for their more tender, juicier and sweeter meat.
Mr. How fan dries his marinated ducks in a special steel cabinet which he designed himself. The ducks at Xiang Mei are still roasted with charcoal fire.
Xiang Mei is a corner stall at the S11 kopitiam at Bukit Batok Central.
The S11 coffee shop at Blk 640 in Bukit Batok Central is a short 3 minutes walk further inside from here.
Blk 640 is conveniently located beside the Bukit Batok MRT station and bus interchange.
I shall be back with the eat gang to taste a whole duck, siew yok and char siew ;-D
Restaurant name: Xiang Mei Roasted Meat Bukit Batok 香美烧腊
Address: S-11 Food House, Blk 640 Bukit Batok Central, Singapore
Map: http://bit.ly/XiangMei
GPS: 1.349289, 103.751469
Hours: 8:30am to 8:30pm (Closed on alternate Thurs)
Non Halal
Date visited: 2 Mar 2015
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