If you miss Malaysia style dark sauce wanton mee, get it here at Downstairs
SG Cafe @ Suntec City (just beside Song Fa Bak Kut Teh).
Downstairs_SG is themed like the familiar void deck of Singapore HDB public housing. There's the yellow phone booths, "marble" table and stools, aluminium letter boxes etc., just like downstairs lah!
Anyway, I came here without expecting much. Just obliging buddy's jio-ing (invitation).
Downstairs_SG Cafe serves a wide range of familiar inexpensive comfort breakfast, lunch and dinner staples. The type that doesn't have any bragging value on social media.
Big party - we had a few rounds of random orders of food and drinks, but I want to go straight to the wanton mee.
The mound of egg noodles come in a dark sauce Malaysian style, topped with lean dry looking char siew, a few token stalks of chai sim greens, some pickled green chili.
I scooped in the egg yolk from buddy's order of soft boiled eggs 😝 Yeah..., just a playful experiment to see if it works. The wanton mee didn't look too inspiring, so I supposed the egg yolk wouldn't ruin anything even if it didn't work 😂
But, man... I was quite blown away by the Malaysian style dark sauce. It's that heady yet simple savoury lardy blend of dark soy sauce, aromatic oil and lard. The egg yolk added a subtle bit of egginess and tackiness to the crunchy springy noodles. (Leave the watery white out as it would wet the noodles too much.)
I haven't been back in Malaysia since March last year due to Covid-19 pandemic border closure. The taste of this Malaysian style wanton mee was kind of emotional - no, I didn't wet in the eye 😂
For me, this Malaysian style wanton mee is reason enough to come back to Downstairs_SG Cafe.
But, let's take a quick run through of some of the rest of the dishes we had.
Downstairs_SG's lou rou fan is not quite the Taiwanese version which is much greasier and much more robust in savoury-salty flavour.
But, Downstair_SG's rendition is pretty tasty in its own right - the intensity of flavours and lower level of greasiness may actually be more appealing for many people.
I like this.
I also like this hor fan topped with fried chicken chop. I mean I like the sauce which is sweet savoury and laced with lard.
My kopi C kosong. Pretty good I must say - smooth round body with savoury bitter taste balanced by sweetness from the evaporated milk. Packs quite a good caffeine kick too.
Nasi lemak with har cheong gai, fried scrambled egg and fish cake. The rice is aromatic with infusion of coconut milk. The har cheong gai has mild savoury fermented prawn sauce seasoning. Crisp outside, moist and tender inside. The sambal chili is good - nicely balanced savoury-spicy-sweet with underlying anchovy taste. Better sambal chili than some big name nasi lemak brands.
Japanese curry rice with pork chop, sunny side up and a clump of fried cabbage. The pork chop was crisp on the outside and inside the meat was still tender and moist. The curry was sweeter and starchier than I like but then, this is Japanese curry mah.... .
Nasi lemak topped with salted egg yolk chicken, fried scrambled egg and that nice dollop of sambal chili.
We had a few more other dishes but you got the idea.
Nice food, competitive prices, clean and comfortable environment, casual friendly ambiance, convenient location. And, for those who miss Malaysian style dark sauce wanton mee, you know where to get it now in Singapore.
Date visited: 13 Jan 2020
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