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| Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Laksa | 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1, stall #01-75 Alexandra Village Food Centre, Singapore 151120 🚆 10 minutes walk from Queenstown station ☎ 9088 9203 🕛 9am - 3pm (Weds & Sun off) |
✍23 Oct 2024. Buddy wanted to try the Depot Road Claypot Laksa stall at Alexandra Village Food Centre. I was keen to try it too as I haven't had it for a very long time. I remember it was nice enough that I wrote an article about it nearly 10 years ago.
Depot Road Laksa is served in a claypot, the only laksa stall that does so as far as I know. The contents sizzle and steam, and kept warm longer.
The laksa was relatively loaded with topping of blood cockle, pulled chicken, prawn, fish cake, and roughly chopped laksa leaves (daun kasum). The blood cockles were relatively large and juicy 🙏
Chili paste, bean sprout, spongy tau pok soaked with curry, and froth on top of the curry.
The stall uses curry from two pots - one with regular soupy curry which fills most of the dish, and topped off with creamy foamy froth from another pot with frothy curry. The only other places that I know that do this are in Malaysia - Senai Johor and in Seremban. There should be more places that use two curries, please share if you know
Buddy got yellow noodles though my default is chor bee hoon, or thick rice vermicelli i.e. laksa noodle.
Anyway, yellow noodles done soft were nice too but would make this dish curry mee.
The curry was creamy, rich, leaned on the sweet side with mild spicy heat. Even the chili paste didn't shift the spiciness needle much. But, it felt quite tasty still.
One of the sweeter and more mildly spiced curry laksa / mee today. Most people assume that curry laksa would be spicy hot but in the (very) old days, not all laksa had chili inside. Jac of Mama Jac private dining re-created a laksa dish from a recipe published in Semarang, Java in 1866. It is rich in spice flavours but sans any hot spice like pepper or chili. It was delicious.
Stall name: Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Laksa
Address: 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1, stall #01-75 Alexandra Village Food Centre, Singapore 151120
Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Queenstown station
Tel: 90889203
Hours: 9am - 3pm (Weds & Sun off)
✍25 Jul 2017. I was at one of my old haunts, Alexandra Village Food Centre today. After circling the 50+ food stalls a few rounds, I noted that the stalls with the longest lunch time queues were the roasts stall, braised duck, and claypot laksa stalls.
I was a regular at the roasts stall in the 80s and 90s. Since, I have not tried the braised duck and claypot laksa before, I opted for these today.
The braised duck was good though not really memorable as it felt little different from other such stalls. It was the Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei claypot laksa that left an impression on me.
There were SGD4, 5, and 6 serving sizes. I opted for the smallest serving as I just had the braised duck (upsized with extra duck breast 😂).
I like it that Depot Road laksa is served in a clay pot as it kept everything warm longer. The clay pot of laksa was topped with a splash of thick creamy laksa "spume" 叻沙頭 and a spoonful of aromatic finely chopped laksa leaves. (I waited about 20 minutes for this during lunch time.)
The laksa curry looked pale - it was thick and heavy with coconut milk. There was a very slight coconut oil aroma - the kind we get when we suck a coconut candy.
The dominant flavour was mild sweetness, layers of it from coconut milk, fish cake slices, shredded chicken, thick rice noodles 粗米粉 etc.
A bit of variety came from the taupok and tiny blood cockles (no bean sprouts nor fresh prawns). A little dried shrimp in the spices added subtle savoury notes to the basically sweet laksa. There was a nice mild underlying spicy kick that come late in the mouthful. (I eat raw chili, so my "mild" may be very spicy to others 😝 )
I enjoyed this sweetish laksa curry because it tasted different from all my other favourites which pack a robust spicy kick and deeper spice flavours. Variety is the spice of life mah 😄
You can add more spiciness with the sambal chili. It's heavy on saltiness and didn't taste fresh, so I didn't use it much as I don't want it to upset the original laksa's nice taste profile.
👉 Depot Road claypot laksa is nice as it has its own unique style and sweet tasting profile. It's a mild, friendly laksa, especially good for introducing the dish to the uninitiated. I would have it again, if I am in the area.
Restaurant name: Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa 德普路真善美驰名砂煲叻沙
Address: 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-75 , Alexandra Village, Singapore 151120
GPS: 1°17'09.6"N 103°48'15.2"E | 1.285988, 103.804209
Tel: 9088 9203
Hours: 9:00am to 4:00pm (Sunday off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 25 Jul 2017
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I was just sharing with a taxi driver today that this Laksa no longer uses claypot unlike those days at the kopitiam near CMPB days..... and here you are proving me wrong! HAHA
ReplyDeleteThey no longer claypot. They even remove the word "claypot" from their name..is just Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Laksa.. Now is just normal laksa.. Maybe you need to write an updated post about them?
ReplyDeleteIvan Yong I was there last week. They changed the signboard again back to claypot. This review and photo is from last week.
ReplyDeleteJOHOR KAKI Blog lucky they changed back and realized apple go there for the claypot taste else theirs nothing much special comparing many others better ones
ReplyDeleteJOHOR KAKI Blog Nani?! Wow! Like that I'm going back again!! Thanks for the update!
ReplyDeleteNot very good even in claypot though. Depot road time better.
ReplyDeleteUsed to have this every other weekend when auntie and uncle were at Depot Road. Standards started dropping after the nephew took over. By the time he moved to Alexandra I had totally lost interest in it. Had it once at Alexandra out of curiosity and never had it again.
ReplyDeleteBy calling her auntie, u meant the older lady from depot road days? Together wif the older guy? The old couple was the original stall holders....
ReplyDeleteBefore their claypot laksa became "famous", they used to also sell wanton noodles and prawn noodles.....