Hai Sheng is the most popular of at least three carrot cake stalls at Bendemeer Food Centre.
There is always a queue at Hai Sheng Carrot Cake. And, there is a certain protocol customers follow ๐ค
Hai Sheng serve both black carrot cake and white carrot cake. This is a one-man-operation and there is only one pan. So, the boss fries one pan, one type of carrot cake at a time.
When he is frying a batch of white carrot cake, he will call out "white" and those customers who want white carrot cake will step forward to get served (but always keeping an orderly line.)
When he is frying black carrot cake, he will call out "black". You know the drill.
So, you cannot have a combo plate of white & black mix. You cannot even have one plate white and one plate black. For that, you have to queue again i.e. twice ๐
The boss is always busy handling the long queue with a focussed face. No one ever makes funny requests at Hai Sheng ๐
The soft kueh chopped into dice size cubes was well covered by dark sauce and fried eggs. It's a nice blend of sweet from the kueh, savoury from the sauce and egginess. I asked for chili, so there's subtle spicy heat.
The thing I like about this chai tow kueh is the bits of chai poh (preserved turnip) embedded in the heap. The crunchy bits of cai poh contrasts with the soft carrot cake. Its robust savoury taste added salty layers to the sweet savoury eggy pile.
No spring onion, so their aroma and taste was missing ๐ค
I came back the next day for the white. It is more yellow-brown actually, from the eggs, chili sauce and seared browning outside.
It is done a little differently from the black version which is more stir fried. The white version is more like a slightly crisp omelette with the cubes of kueh held together by beaten eggs.
Same soft kueh but the white tastes a bit more eggy than the black version. The savoury sauce is less assertive. Seemed to have less chai poh bits in the sweet savoury heap. Quite greasy but it wasn't lard (which would have made the cholesterol worth it). It's a tasty, if sinful grease trap.
Again, spring onion was missing. Maybe a casualty of increased cost? ๐คท
I like both black and white, so it looks like I have to queue here twice if I want to eat both on the same day ๐
There are Hai Sheng Carrot Cake stalls at other hawker centres e.g. 216 Bedok and 724 Ang Mo Kio. I have no idea how they are related. Please share in the comments, if you know.
Bendemeer Food Centre is an old hawker centre with many old school, comfort food. Here's more stalls to try at Bendemeer Food Centre ๐ click
Written by Tony Boey on 9 Apr 2021
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