Henghua Cuisine in Singapore at Ming Chung @ Maude Road 民众菜馆

✍️ 8 Oct 2023. Back at Ming Chung at Maude Street after five years - was last here in 2018 and I still love the experience today. 

Restaurant name: Ming Chung 民众菜馆

Address: 67 Maude Road, Singapore 208348

Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Farrer Park station

Tel: 6296 3428

Hours: 12 noon - 10pm (Mon off)

It's a shop lot restaurant with old school charm, comfort dishes, heavy on carbs but still delicious and enjoyable 😋

Ming Chung spans two shop lots and only one is air conditioned. The decor is basic, the walls decorated with framed pictures of signature dishes and numerous media coverage over the years, since 1933.

Martin Yan was here in 1995 with the third generation owners. The fourth generation has just taken over.

They say Heng Hua people like to use vinegar a lot when they eat. Actually, I like the taste profile of today's dishes and its subtle nuances. Didn't use any of these condiments at all.

OK let's eat.

Fried ikan batang fish is fried ikan batang fish right? No! Ming Chung does it better. There is a subtle something in the savoury sweetness in how Ming Chung does it. So, must order this.

Next was the la la clams. Another dish which Ming Chung excel in. The clams were fresh, so nice but it was the savoury umami sweet spicy sauce that got me. I was scooping up and drinking the spicy sauce neat. It was that good (to me lah).

Prawn roll was good too. I only had one piece. Couldn't make much of it but it taste nicely savoury sweet.

I like this bitter gourd pork ribs in fermented black bean sauce.

I am a bitter gourd lover, and like it that Ming Chung cooked it to a nice tender crunchy texture. The savoury umami sauce complemented the subtle bitter sweetness of the vegetable well. There were subtle hints of heat from the chili pepper thrown in.

The pork rib texture was perfect for me. Soft tender but not mushy and just nice even for my old man teeth 😬

Kai lan greens with bean curd skin. Love everything here especially the sauce and the bean curd skin which was soft like omelette with a subtle beany sweetness along with savouriness.

I prefer today's rendition over the one I had five years ago.

Oyster omelette.

Oyster omelette was literally that. Double happiness for oyster and egg lovers. Perfect couple with complementary savoury umami and sweet eggy taste. The egg was done moist and soft like wet molten cheese. Swee lah.

Stir fried peh kueh (rice cakes). The kueh was generic but they blanched it to a nice tender chewy texture. The savoury umami sweet sauce was tasty.

The savoury umami sweet white lor mee lived up to its reputation 👍 Clams, prawns, pork, vegetables, yam, fried bean curd, etc all played their part to make a deceptively simple looking noodle dish so rich with layers of flavours across the savoury, sweet, umami spectrum.

Fried mee sua was sweet savoury with lots of seafood, pork, vegetables, nuts, seaweed in the heap. We enjoyed this too.

It's a total wipe out even though there's lots of carbs. Overloaded on carbs but everyone was happy 😁 We were pleased that we made the right choice for lunch.

via GIPHY

The fourth generation was hands on in the kitchen today - thank you and well done!

I will be back!

This place is accessible, interior is comfortable, food is delicious though simple, and prices are within range.

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Written by Tony Boey on 8 Oct 2023

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✍ 23 Jul 2018. I had long wanted to visit Ming Chung Restaurant 民众菜馆 at Maude Road for its authentic Henghua cuisine. So, I was glad that the makan kakis (foodie buddies) were gathering at Ming Chung, one of the oldest Henghua restaurants in Singapore (founded in 1933).



For decades already, there had been a lot of concern about the (lack of) continuity of Singapore's hawker culture. My impression is that clan restaurants like Ming Chung and Hokkien compatriots like Beng Hiang, Quan Xiang Yuan etc are under similar, if not even greater pressures due to their smaller numbers.



Located at the Jalan Besar area where there are 3 or 4 Henghua restaurants, most of the folks at Ming Chung are not here looking for the latest food thrills nor culinary innovations. Most are here to reconnect with the comforting flavours, aroma and feel of their heritage food.

Throughout the dinner, I heard Alvin mentioned his late dad many times... "My late father brought me here... " "My late father always ordered this...." etc etc.



Ming Chung is in the third generation now - it specialises in homely, affordable Henghua dishes. Most things have not changed, like the humble thick noodles which is a big part of Henghua cuisine. Ming Chung used to make these in-house with just flour and rock salt.

Putian, the city of Henghua people is located where the Mulan Brook (river) meets the sea at the south coast of China's Fujian province between Quanzhou and Fuzhou - so, seafood is abundant. Like Quanzhou and Fuzhou, seafood like fish, prawns, clams and seaweed feature a lot in Henghua cuisine.



White Lor Mee is an icon of Henghua cuisine (which differs from the dark brown Quanzhou Hokkien version). The lor (sauce) is starchy and thick, and well infused with layers of gentle sweetness from the prawns, clams, pork, and various vegetables. The gooey sticky sauce thoroughly coated the thick soft noodles, making them slurpy smooth.



Many people like to zest up their sweet white lor mee with sourish zing from a dash of black vinegar (from that re-purposed Corona bottle). Me too 😄



Henghua fried mee is similar to the white lor mee but without the lor - it's mainly layers of sweetness from seafood and vegetable stock infused into the strands of tender noodles. The peanuts and dried seaweed at the side provided some more texture and flavour accents.



Henghua fried bee hoon has the same infusion of sweet seafood stock, pork and vegetables. Pieces of fried pork belly added savoury balance to the sweet savoury dish.



豆皮芥蓝 Kailan vegetable fried with tofu skin and seafood stock.



Fried Batang fish (Spanish Mackerel). The Henghua version is marinated in a robustly savoury soy sauce then fried till the outside is well browned. The resulting little steaks are slightly stiff but still moist inside. The savoury taste outside is balanced with the slightly sweetish briny taste of white Batang fish meat. I like the deep savoury flavour of the soy sauce they used. 



I tried three pieces of Prawn Fritters to be sure about this popular dish. All three times, the little prawn inside played hide and seek with me inside the thick batter. But, the sweet savoury batter itself was nice with its puffy tender texture. I enjoyed it with the sweet savoury sourish dip.



Fried La La Clams. Small shellfish stir fried and bathed in a mildly savoury spicy sourish sauce.



👉 Henghua dishes at Ming Chung tend to be mildly flavoured and leaning on the sweet side, so it suits my taste buds. The more memorable dish this evening was Ming Chung's white lor mee. I would love to be back for this white lor mee - it's a convenient and delicious one dish meal. 

Seven of us, each of us paid $19 for our share of the total bill (which quite reasonable).

While Ming Chung serves Putian Henghua style of Hokkien cuisine, Quan Xiang Yuan also in Jalan Besar is the flag bearer of Quanzhou Hokkien cuisine in Singapore. Quan Xiang Yuan still have rare dishes like Five Spice Trotter in its menu 👈 click



Restaurant name: Ming Chung Restaurant 民众菜馆
Address: 67 Maude Rd, Singapore 208348
GPS: 1°18'29.3"N 103°51'29.3"E | 1.308133, 103.858150
Tel: 6296 3428
Hours: 3:00pm - 11:00pm (Monday off)

Non Halal

Date visited: 19 Jul 2018

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