Update 8 Oct 2020. Today, we went to Yalong Bay restaurant, Uncle Bob's choice for our simple celebration of his birthday. Uncle Bob is a regular at Yalong Bay's Toa Payoh outlet and is eager to check out their new location at the Sheng Siong Supermarket at Serangoon North Ave 5.
Yalong Bay moved into level 2 of Sheng Siong Supermarket at the intersection of Serangoon North Ave 5 and Ave 6. The green building is highly visible but not within walking distance from any MRT station.
Whereas Yalong Bay at Toa Payoh was a hawker stall at a food court, Yalong Bay at Serangoon North is a full fledged restaurant. It is spacious, bright, clean and air conditioned - simple but comfortable.
Owner-chef Tony Tan and wife come from Perak state in Malaysia, so their zhi char menu has a Malaysian imprint. In Singapore, chef Tony had worked with Tanah Merah Country Club (executive chef), Long Beach King Seafood (head chef), Palm Beach Seafood (head chef), Goodwood Park Hotel (head chef), Boon Lay Raja (head chef).
Yalong Bay was busy during lunch time but their staff did their best to provide warm and friendly service.
Customers normally help themselves with cutting the bird but they cut it for us today as it was Uncle Bob's birthday 🎂
The chicken was tender and moist, savoury sweet with a bit of floral fruity taste of wine. But the wine taste was subtle, fleeting and not evenly spread on every piece of chicken. Nevertheless, even without the wine, it was a nice roast chicken.
Four Heavenly Kings. Every Malaysian zhi char restaurant have their own version of stir fried four mixed vegetables dish fancifully dubbed Four Heavenly Kings.
Yalong Bay's rendition has long beans, deep fried brinjal, lady finger, and stinky bean (petai). The vegetables are stir fried with sambal belacan (shrimp paste) and dried shrimps.
The savoury flavours from the belacan and dried shrimps complemented the stir fried vegetables which were crunchy and juicy.
This dish is known as Sun Hor Fun - created by chef Tony Tan, it is one of Yalong Bay's signatures and among Uncle Bob's favourites.
It is hor fun (broad rice noodles) stir fried with scallop and served smothered with egg white and crowned with salted egg yolk - like a sun.
The contents are tossed to mix the hor fun, scallop, egg white, salted egg yolk and vegetable garnish.
Oh..., I love this Sun Hor Fun. The rice noodles had a nice toasty caramelised sauce and starch aroma. The noodles had rich seafood and savoury sauce flavour. The egg white and salted egg yolk added more richness and umami to the dish. The salted egg yolk at times seemed to compete with the wok hei though. (Personally, I am not a fan of salted egg yolk nowadays as I find their taste tend to dominate the dishes they are in.)
We love the Sun Hor Fun so much that we immediately followed up with an additional order of Moonlight Hor Fun.
The wok hei was more subtle and the sweet savoury sauce was dominant. Mixing the raw egg into the hor fun noodles made them extra slick and smooth as well as added a slight eggy taste. We enjoyed this hor fun dish too.
We enjoyed our simple lunch at Yalong Bay. The food was delicious, environment was clean and comfortable, service was friendly and prices were reasonable. It is a good place for affordable family and friends get-togethers.
Restaurant name: Yalong Bay
Address: 19 Serangoon North Ave 5, #02-01, Singapore 554913 (level 2 inside Sheng Siong Supermarket)
Tel: +65 8457 4885
Hours: 11:30am - 9:30pm
Date visited: 8 Oct 2020
10 Apr 2018. I had been curious about Yalong Bay's flambeed chicken since it appeared on social media about a year ago. Finally checked out the famous flaming fowl today in Toa Payoh North near Braddell MRT station. It tastes quite nice and worth a try, if only for novelty's sake.
Yalong Bay is located in an air conditioned food court on level 2 of Blk 978, a flatted factory/ office block in Toa Payoh North. Plenty of parking at the multi-storey carpark and just 10 minutes walk from Braddell station. (Use exit A, if you come by MRT.)
Yalong Bay is a zhi char stall (stretching two lots) in the food court.
Without much ado, we went straight for Yalong Bay's claim to fame - their "Roasted Standing Chicken" 火焰栋企烧鸡.
The chicken was seasoned with spices and herbs, coated with maltose, oven baked and air dried. It was then brought to the table, set up upright, doused with Chinese rose wine 玫瑰露 and whisky, and flambeed.
Orange flames danced on the naked brown bird for about 10 seconds.
The fiery spectacle never fails to please. Curious heads turned whenever a chicken lighted up around the food court.
Ehhh...... a bit gimmicky, but how did it taste? We soon found out 😄
We were honoured to have Alvin, the famous Chef and Sommelier helped us carved the bird. Alvin said it was easy to carve as the bird was falling-apart tender and juicy.
The meat and skin had a mild savoury sweetness from the seasoning and maltose. The well browned skin had a slight crisp and toastiness. There was also fleeting floral and fruity taste and aroma from the rose wine.
For all the show and drama, the flambe did add subtle, interesting flavours to the chicken that was not possible otherwise.
Besides the "Roasted Standing Chicken", we also had a few zhi char type dishes at Yalong Bay. Generally speaking, Yalong Bay was rather heavy handed with sauces and seasoning with their zhi char dishes.
Sweet potato leaves fried with sambal belacan (price $9). The vegetable was slightly overdone. The sambal belacan's robust taste lifted the soggy vegetable with savoury umami flavour, rescuing the dish.
The slab of tofu was deep fried till it was well browned outside. It was smothered with a thick blanket of fried dried shrimps and minced pork. The whole dish was sitting in a pool of savoury blended soy sauce.
The layers of robust savoury flavours made the tofu with dried shrimps and minced pork quite enjoyable (price $12).
Signature curry fish head (price $28).
The fish was very fresh, submerged in a thick curry approaching the viscosity of cream. The curry was very sweet and loaded with mild spice flavours. Fortunately, I was still able to taste the fish's natural sweetness.
This dark heap was deer meat fried with kam heong sauce (price $17). The sauce was robustly savoury, completely overwhelming any flavour there was in the chewy deer slices.
Fried black pepper live frog (price $16).
The frogs were deep fried and then served with a strong savoury peppery sauce. I was not able to taste the frog (which has delicate sweetness), just saltiness and pepperiness.
👉 The highlight of our lunch was Yalong Bay's flaming chicken. The orange flames provide a focal point for any gathering at the food court. As the bird is not too large, it makes a nice couple dish - almost romantic for dinner, dare I say. At $32 a bird, it is just a small premium for the visual feast and the tender chicken tastes quite good too with its rose wine notes. (Best to book the flaming chicken, a day ahead if you are coming ☎ 8457 4885.)
Seven of us, we paid $20 each for our share of the total bill.
Restaurant name: Yalong Bay
Address: 19 Serangoon North Ave 5, #02-01, Singapore 554913 (inside Sheng Siong Supermarket)
Tel: +65 8457 4885
Hours: 11:30am - 9:30pm
Previous location
Restaurant name: Yalong Bay 亚龙湾地道小厨
Address: Blk 978, Toa Payoh North, #02-01, Singapore 319001
GPS: 1°20'35.0"N 103°51'03.7"E | 1.343050, 103.851033
Tel: 8457 4885
Hours: 11:00am - 2:30pm | 5:00pm - 10:30pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 10 Apr 2018
Return to Johor Kaki homepage.
Address: Blk 978, Toa Payoh North, #02-01, Singapore 319001
GPS: 1°20'35.0"N 103°51'03.7"E | 1.343050, 103.851033
Tel: 8457 4885
Hours: 11:00am - 2:30pm | 5:00pm - 10:30pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 10 Apr 2018
Return to Johor Kaki homepage.
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