Hup Huat White Carrot Cake @ Hainanese Village Centre Hougang. I Like this House Made Carrot Cake

Lovely, comforting fried carrot cake in a homely feel hawker centre with kampung spirit.

Stall name: Hup Huat (White) Carrot Cake 合发白箩卜糕

Address: 105, stall #02-35 Hougang Ave 1, Hainanese Village Food Centre, Singapore 530105

Hours: 7:00am - 2:00pm (Mon & Thurs off)

The far corner where Hup Huat (White) Carrot Cake is located seemed to be the quieter side of Hainanese Village Centre. For a popular stall, you won't see any long queue but three things give it away - that LED counter at the front, polyclinic style "dng, dng" paging announcements and the non stop clanging sound coming from the back of the stall.

To order, step up to the front. There's $2.80 and $3.30 servings - quite odd as that would mean getting clanging coins in the pocket, unless you got exact change or pay cashless (can't recall if they got this option). I opted for the $3.30 serving as I guessed the $2.80 serving might be a tad small. (Wrong but more about that later 😂 )

After paying, the friendly lady boss will hand you a plastic key tag with a number. Go back to your table - go get a coffee along the way and wait. Come back to the stall to collect your carrot cake when your number is called and flashed. I waited about 15 minutes on a Tuesday morning (10am).

When I saw my plate of carrot cake, I regretted it straightaway. I mean, the $3.30 serving was far bigger than I expected. It would mean a premature end for my food safari today. 

(I don't do "tasting". I have a habit of finishing all the food on my plate. Can't be helped - brought up that way. My mum always reminded us - think of the farmer before throwing away a grain of rice 🤔 Unmentioned is to think about others in whatever we do 🙏 )

But, look at that gorgeous / glorious plate of fried carrot. Isn't it so beautifully done?

It's a simple comfort dish. Tiny cubes of radish cake with embedded bits of chai poh (preserved radish) and chopped spring onion held together with eggs. It's basically a fried omelette of beaten eggs with radish cake inside. Additional flavours come from soy sauce and optional chili sauce.

Outside, the egg is well browned while inside, the radish cake is snowy white.

The overall texture is soft - the fried egg is soft (with the subtle crisp), the house made radish cake embedded inside is softer. But, bits of chai poh spiked the dish here and there with delightful gritty, crunchy bites in every mouthful. 

The taste is basically eggy and sweet - the egg is eggy (duh... Captain Obvious 🤦 ), the raddish cake is sweet. But, the chai poh gave the radish cake umami savoury highlights that lifted the taste of the entire dish.

Hup Huat is light handed with seasoning so the savoury flavour is mild and the chili sauce is... what shall I say.... a bit meek. If they have a bit more savouriness from soy sauce or fish sauce, I might go crazy over this fried carrot cake.

Truth be told, fried carrot cake isn't one of my favourite hawker dishes (that's why you don't find many carrot cake posts in this blog). The dish has too much carbs, the cake is mostly factory made and is often a grease trap. But, I like it that Hup Huat's rendition is really light on the grease and does not feel jelak (feeling bloated and congested inside) at all after eating.

Bravo! I can eat this again!

Eating Hup Huat carrot cake reminds me of Chey Sua Carrot Cake in Toa Payoh. I haven't been back to Chey Sua for a long while now. (Chey Sua has "red" carrot in addition to the traditional white radish in their house made carrot cake - I am ambivalent about that actually 🤔 )

How is Chey Sua Carrot Cake? 👈 click

You may also like to try out other top choices at Hainanese Village Centre 👈 click

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Written by Tony Boey on 20 Apr 2021