Good popiah, the kind we eat at home at special get togethers where we wrap our own spring rolls together using premium hand picked ingredients are rare in Singapore. Labour intensive and costly, it's something hard to do commercially and if anyone still does it, it can only be a labour of love. Love of tradition, love of heritage and love of food that gives us identity.
Restaurant name: Good Chance Popiah 好彩薄饼
Address: No. 1 Jalan Berseh #01-15 New World Centre Singapore 209037
GPS: 1.307221, 103.857942
Tel: +65 96229445
Hours: 11:00am – 2:30pm | 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Non Halal
Good Chance Popiah is the only restaurant that I know of in Singapore that serves do-it-yourself popiah the old school way.
Good Chance Popiah has an outlet at Blk 149 Silat Ave off Jalan Bukit Merah, opposite Singapore General Hospital. A new outlet opened recently along Jalan Berseh (beside the Jalan Berseh hawker centre).
Good Chance Popiah's Jalan Berseh outlet though simply furnished, is spacious and air conditioned. I like such casual dining places when gathering with groups of bantering friends especially when the food is reasonably priced and delicious.
Despite it's name, Good Chance Popiah is a lot more than their famous old school spring roll. The restaurant has many traditional Hokkien comfort dishes not commonly found at Chinese restaurants in Singapore.
Still, coming to Good Chance Popiah we must always start with their signature dish which is an excellent appetiser :-D
At Good Chance Popiah, the popiah ingredients are presented separately so that customers can enjoy an immersive experience of roll-it-yourself traditional popiah. This is the way popiah is eaten at Hokkien family home get togethers.
Ah Boy is the third generation owner of Good Chance Popiah. He is energetic and passionate about the legacy which his grandfather founded in 1977.
This was my second visit to Good Chance Popiah and second time eating this. I made a mess of making the popiah myself the last time and so was secretly glad that Ah Boy is demonstrating how to do it this time ;-p
The braised turnips, shrimps, lup cheong (Cantonese style wax sausage), bean sprout, crab meat, egg, lettuce, crushed peanuts, sauces and lots more were rolled up in a handmade popiah wrap.
My fully loaded popiah.
I fell in love with the rich flavours and interesting mix of textures in Good Chance's popiah, the first time I tasted it. It's a highly gentrified and more flavourful version of the humble popiah at hawker centres. The multiple flavours were well balanced and at just the right level of intensity - I wouldn't missed it whenever I have the opportunity.
After a great start with Good Chance's popiah, we tried the main courses at the restaurant.
Wait.
We also nibbled on this brilliant fried fish skin marinated with salted egg yolk before we launched into the mains. This appetising side is a must order.
Traditional fried prawn roll.
Crispy fried chicken marinated with prawn paste 虾酱鸡.
Fried fresh crayfish with salted egg yolk batter.
The meaty crayfish blended well with the savoury flavours of salted egg yolk.
I was fooled by the mundane ordinariness of these cubes of fried tofu. I casually picked up a cube to taste without
I was blown away. (If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know that this is the first time I use such hyperbole.)
Ah Boy used a secret simple healthful natural ingredient to make this jiggly soft tofu with nice layers of gentle savoury sweetness. This tofu dish is a Must Try.
Fish head braised in claypot with yam and cabbages 砂煲鱼.
This is a traditional fish dish found in Hokkien homes. The fish head, yam and cabbages are braised in slow fire until they give up their natural sweet juices into the syrupy broth. This lovely comfort dish of mild sweet savoury flavours is one of my favourite ways to eat fish head.
The old familiar comforting stewed pork belly bun 扣肉包.
We wrapped up our dinner with another traditional Hokkien family home favourite - bee hoon fried with braised pork trotter. This dish is known in Hokkien simply as 豬腳罐 or canned pork trotter because it is one of those rare dishes where it works better when cooked with ingredients straight from a tin can than when it is made with fresh ingredients :-D
The bee hoon does a marvellous job of soaking up and balancing the greasy intensely savoury juices from the pork trotter can. The mushy soft pork trotter with bone on which were soaking in the tin can since it left the cannery in China (weeks earlier?) went extremely well with the bee hoon.
Must Try.
Good Chance Popiah is a good place in Singapore to get together over traditional Hokkien comfort dishes, and the obligatory popiah.
Date visited: 17 Jun 2015
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