The queue at Ghim Moh Carrot Cake stall starts soon after 6am and lasts till as early as 12 noon, when all the day's carrot cakes are sold out. Ghim Moh Carrot Cake's kway 粿 are freshly made at the stall, so once the day's batch is sold out, it's shutters down.
Mdm Sim and her husband have been making and selling fried carrot cake or chai tow kway 菜头粿 for over 20+ years - 19 years in this hawker centre.
Ghim Moh Carrot Cake is one of the last handful of stalls in Singapore that still make their own chai tow kway from scratch. Nearly all chai tow kway stalls in Singapore now serve generic "carrot cake" made in factories.
Ghim Moh's carrot cake is made by blending rice flour with shredded white radish 菜头 (daikon) and a bit of red carrot which are cooked by steaming. The big blocks of cooked carrot cake are cut into small cubes like small white dice. (In the old days, not really that long ago, people eat chai tow kway with toothpicks 😄)
Ghim Moh Carrot Cake stall serves both the "white" and "black" versions of chai tow kueh.
The white version of chai tow kway is cooked by laying the cubes of carrot cake on an oiled flat iron pan. Beaten egg is poured over the carrot cake and used to hold the cubes of carrot cake together.
(Black carrot cake is made by stir frying the cubes in a savoury sweet blended dark sauce.)
Today, I had this SGD3 white chai tow kway. I thought it is a generous serving.
The texture of carrot cake reminded me of ketuput (Malay rice cake) but Chinese carrot cake 菜头粿 is softer due to the radish and carrot mixed into the rice flour. Carrot cake is also sweeter with subtle layers of sweetness from the rice, radish and carrot.
The slightly browned crisp outside added a contrasting texture to the soft kueh and its savoury eggy flavour complemented the sweet carrot cake. Tiny of bits of chai poh 菜脯 (dried radish) provided little bursts of umami savouriness embedded here and there in the carrot cake. Ghim Moh Carrot Cake has just the right bite for me.
Ghim Moh Carrot Cake's kway has mild gentle, balanced savoury sweet flavours which I like. It is also not overly greasy, so I can eat them often without feeling bored, bloated or guilty.
More top choices at Ghim Moh Food Centre 👈 click
Restaurant name: Ghim Moh Carrot Cake
Address: 01-16, Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre. 20 Ghim Moh Rd, Singapore 270020
GPS: 1°18'40.4"N 103°47'19.6"E | 1.311225, 103.788773
Hours: 6:00am to 2:00pm (Monday off)
Non Halal
Date: 14 Dec 2017
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