Life is like that 🤔 The day didn't start as planned but everything turned out better than expected in the end. Just stay calm and eat on!
Our original plan was to eat at the legendary Cooked Food & Claypot Kitchen stall in Chinatown Complex. The plan was simple - whoever arrived first, order for our party of 5 (CF&CK don't take phone in orders).
I arrived one hour ahead and promptly joined the queue. When I was 5 pax from the front of the queue, it suddenly dispersed. Lady boss announced, "Booked out for the day!" 😱
That's that 😓 🤷
Plan B. No problem, lah - this is Chinatown Complex 😄
We just walked a few steps around the corner to Mr. Fish 魚.
And, their next door neighbour, Lin Da Qiang 林大强.
Both Mr. Fish and Lin Da Qiang are Cantonese zhi char (dai chow) stalls in the same Green Zone of Chinatown Complex as Cooked Food & Claypot Kitchen stall.
Okay.... we also had a large claypot rice from Zhao Ji stall #02-53 (which I ate too many times before already). Zhao Ji Claypot Rice is also in the Green Zone.
Today, I learned something from chef Benny.
First, order the claypot rice only with sausage instead of the usual chicken. We ordered a chicken dish from Lin Da Qiang, so why get more chicken right?
Then, transfer all the Cantonese lup cheong or wax sausage to a plate.
Add oil and dark sauce as desired.
Mix the claypot rice, oil and dark soy sauce well, and serve. Eat with Cantonese sausage as desired. This way of eating claypot rice gives us better control over the taste as compared to mixing everything - rice and sausage / chicken in a jumble (my usual way). Thank you chef Benny!
Now, the zhi char dishes.
First was Lin Da Qiang's famous fried fish with bitter gourd and fermented black bean. The meaty chunks of fried fish were crisp outside while inside it was still tender and moist. The sauce was savoury from the fermented black beans. The bitter gourd was crunchy and more sweet than bitter. Love this dish.
Lin Da Qiang's fried chicken with ginger. Oh..., I love this dish too.
The chicken was fried and smothered with a thick savoury sweet sauce with lots of ginger. The chicken had a subtle crisp outside while inside it was tender and moist. The savoury sweet sauce had mild ginger heat - it all melded together in a nice well balanced blend of flavours which I enjoyed with the chicken.
The simple kai lan stir fried with a savoury sauce was perfectly executed. The greens were crunchy and juicy. There was no bitter taste, and the natural sweetness was complemented with savoury sweet flavours and aroma from the sauce. We can feel the mastery of the chef from this simple stir fried vegetable dish.
From Mr. Fish 魚, fried tofu with siew yok (roast pork) and cabbage. (I have tried Mr. Fish 魚 before and like their dishes.)
Mr. Fish 魚's signature sliced fish hor fun in a savoury sweet sauce. The hor fun noodles were soft-tender, slurpy smooth with savoury sweet sauce and I can taste a bit of lovely wok hei.
Mr. Fish 魚 was generous with their Toman fish slices which were uber fresh, meaty, tender and tasted naturally sweet.
Are you a fan of Lin Da Qiang 林大强? What dishes do you recommend?
I went back to Lin Da Qiang 3 days later and this is my post 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 16 Dec 2021
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