Sim's Ngoh Hiang @ Crawford Lane. Homely Signature 7-Inch Chinese 5 Spice Meat Roll

Generous meaty ngoh hiang with very mild Chinese 5-spice taste. The tofu skin wrap is fried to a golden brown crisp while the pork, prawn, water chestnut, and scallion filling is juicy and savoury sweet. Other than their homely signature 7-inch meat roll, they have fried prawn fritters, fried chicken wings and fried bee hoon.



Restaurant name: Sim's Ngoh Hiang
Address: Wiseng Food Place, 462 Crawford Lane, #01-29, Singapore 190462
Tel: +65 9456 1018
Hours:  11:00am - 6:00pm (Mon off)

Makan-ing around KF Seetoh's 'hood, the first stop was Sim's Ngoh Hiang which is at Makansutra office's downstairs coffee shop, Wiseng Food Place.





Peeking into the little kitchen, it reminded me of homes where everyone chips in to chop pork and prawn, hand mix it with seasoning, assemble and wrap, and deep fry the ngoh hiang meat rolls. Actually, that is exactly what the Sim family is doing, so their food have a decidedly homely feel about them.




They have prawn fritter, fried chicken wing, ngoh hiang, and fried bee hoon (rice vermicelli), all made on the spot with grandma's recipe.



Sim's freshly fried ngoh hiang is the meatiest 5 spice meat roll money can buy. The type which only grandma will lovingly make for the family where she will spare nothing for her children and grandchildren.



I can taste the fatty pork and prawn meat because there was so much of it inside the crisp golden brown fried tofu wrap. The meat is chopped (not minced), so it doesn't have the soft pastey feel of minced meat. Bits of juicy water chestnut added a bit of soft crunchy sweetness and moderated the meatiness. Chopped scallion added a bit of aroma and green taste. Five spice flavour was very mild, if any at all.



Sim's fried prawn fritter and chicken wings were pretty enjoyable too, with the same homely feel to them. They call them drunken fried chicken wings but I didn't notice alcohol in it. Too busy yakking lah.... . (If you tried it, please let us know in the comments.)



The quite sharp spicy hot, garlicky, sourish sweet chili sauce makes everything taste better.

While you are at Wiseng Food Place, you may also like to check out the popular fishball noodle stall here 👈 click

Ngoh Hiang 五香 refer to both Chinese 5 spice powder seasoning and a deep fried meat roll wrapped with dried tofu skin.

The ngoh hiang meat roll wraps minced or chopped pork and other ingredients which are all seasoned with Chinese 5 spice powder, hence the name ngoh hiang.

The ngoh hiang dish is found in southern China (among Teochews in Guangzhou, and Hokkiens in Fujian) and in southeast Asia where Southern Chinese settled e.g. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines and Thailand.



In Singapore, ngoh hiang stalls serve ngoh hiang meat rolls plus a wide range of other deep fried dishes such as fried chicken wings, prawn fritters, fried tofu, fried bee hoon and so on. Lao Zhong Zhong is a popular ngoh hiang stall in Singapore 👈 click

In Penang, similar ngoh hiang stalls are called Loh Bak 卤肉 stalls.



The Teochew and Hokkien communities have slight variations in their ngoh hiang recipes.

In the Teochew version, there are pork, prawn and water chestnuts wrapped in the roll.

In the Hokkien version, there are pork and onion, but no prawn or water chestnuts.

Nowadays, the differences are often blurred with hybridised versions combining both traditions. There are heirloom recipes passed down the generations that have yam, carrot, etc rolled into the filling. There are also Halal versions that replace pork with chicken.

But, there has to be ngoh hiang (Chinese 5 spice powder) seasoning in the meat (even a token amount), otherwise how to call it ngoh hiang, right?

Ngoh Hiang 五香 literally means five fragrances or spices. There are variations to the spices used, but it commonly contains:

Star anise 八角  
Cloves 丁香  
Cinnamon 肉桂  
Dried chili pepper 花椒  
Fennel seeds 小茴香.



The Teochews also have a similar dish known as Hei Cho 虾枣. What's the difference? Hei cho is a mashed or minced prawn roll with little pork, wrapped with dried tofu skin and deep fried. Like ngoh hiang, Chinese 5 spice is usually used in hei cho as well.

Date visited: 7 Aug 2020