Huat Huat 80 小厨 Zhi Char · Menu & Review · Chinatown Green Zone #02-80 |Tony Johor Kaki Travels for Food · Heritage · Culture

Continuing our exploration of zhi char stalls in Chinatown Complex, today we ate at Huat Huat 80 小厨 and were pleased with our delicious, affordable lunch 👍

Stall name: Huat Huat 80 小厨

Address: 335 Smith Street, stall #02-080 (Green Zone), Singapore 050335 (inside Chinatown Complex)

Nearest MRT: 5 minutes walk from Chinatown station

Tel: 9873 7995

Hours: 10:30am - 2:30pm | 4:30pm - 8:00pm (Weds off)

There must be some 20 zhi char stalls among Chinatown Complex's over 200 food stalls. We figured that any zhi char stall that can survive in this ~~rough~~ competitive neighbourhood must be worth its ~~salt~~ calories. It's just that some have high media profile while others remain as "hidden gems" known only among their fans who prefer their favourite stalls to remain under wraps. Indeed, it was because we have no more chance to eat at Claypot & Cooked Food Kitchen that we started looking for alternatives 😅 Every day, C & CFK is mobbed by regulars and fans.

Zhi char which literally means "boil and stir fry" are tiny stalls with menus that can match their restaurant cousins.

Chinatown Complex zhi char stalls are almost all mom and pop operations. Pop does all the cooking from deep fry to stir fry, steam, stew and boil. Dishes range from chicken to pork, beef to fish and seafood as well as vegetables. Mom cuts and prepares the ingredients, collects money and returns change, and serves the dishes at the tables. It is darned hard work. I haven't even mentioned washing and cleaning up.

Huat Huat boss and wife Ivy hail from Ipoh, Perak, one of Malaysia's culinary capitals famous for their Cantonese cuisine. The couple have been running Huat Huat 80 for six years.

Six dishes for five people. Total bill $65.

Every Chinatown Complex zhi char stall have Song fish head dishes in different sauces on their menu. My kakis (buddies) opted for Nyonya style. I am a little ambivalent about it but everyone else loved it 😂 I never like sour tasting things 😝

Anyway, the sauce was just mildly sourish sweet spicy which complemented the fresh Song fish well. Today's meaty soft-tender fish didn't have the characteristic earthly taste of Song fish.

I enjoyed this Taiwan icon, Three Cup Chicken 三杯鸡. In fact, I like this better than those I tried in Taiwan (though I haven't tried that many there). The Three Cup Chicken I had in Taiwan were fried till quite dry and chewy while at Huat Huat 80, they were tender, smooth and juicy. The chunks of chicken were well infused with savoury sweet flavours from sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine. There was a hint of wok hei.

Steamed Pork Belly with Yam 芋頭扣肉 was nice. I like it that the pork belly was tender with a bit of chew instead of being mushy soft. The sauce was savoury salty with nam yue (red fermented bean curd). Perfect with plain white rice and would be heavenly with steamed buns (not sure if Huat Huat serve these buns).

Chai Po Omelette was okay. The bits of preserved turnip embedded in the omelette were sweetish. Not greasy, but not that fluffy.

Sweet potato leafs fried with sambal. Not my preferred way of frying vegetables because the dish tends to be overly salty as chefs are often heavy handed with the sambal (fermented krill). But, I was wowed by this rendition by Huat Huat 80. The sambal enveloped the vegetable with a savoury umami spicy layer with just the right flavour intensity for us to taste the natural flavour of the still crunchy, juicy leafs 👍

We always order a beef hor fun as a sort of benchmark item for zhi char stalls we visit. When the beef hor fun arrived, I ~~sian~~ ~~half already~~ was turned off that Huat Huat used kway teow instead of hor fun (which are broader rice noodles).

The kway teow tasted sweetish savoury and had a little wok hei. My kakis liked it actually.