Chinatown Ah Po Braised Duck @ Commonwealth Crescent 牛车水阿婆卤鸭

This is a very low profile stall at Commonwealth Crescent Market & Food Centre. The "Chinatown Ah Po" in the stall name refers to the legendary braised duck stall owner Hor Ng Mei 何五妹 who ran the famous Run Ji braised duck 润记熟食 in Chinatown.

Stall name: Chinatown Ah Po Braised Duck 牛车水阿婆卤鸭

Address: 31 Commonwealth Crescent, stall #02-95, Singapore 149644 (stall inside Commonwealth Crescent Market & Food Centre)

Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Commonwealth station

Hours: 9:30am - 12:30pm (Weds off)

Hor Ng Mei retired in the mid-2010s and passed on in 2019. Before she retired due to age and health, Hor Ng Mei taught two disciples. One is her staff, who now still runs Run Ji in Chinatown Complex. The other disciple 江月银 is here at Commonwealth Crescent since 2015.

Ms 江 and Mdm Hor are unrelated. Ms 江 was Ah Po's regular customer (fan) who requested to learn the skills from Mdm Hor whose own children did not wish to take over her business or legacy.

This stall doesn't serve Mdm Hor's signature hae bee hiam (nor does the Run Ji stall now in Chinatown Complex). The Commonwealth stall also don't serve Mdm Hor's signature duck congee.

Ducks are relatively big birds (compared to chicken), so there's lots of meat for two of us even though we only ordered ¼ bird. The dark brownish braised duck chopped into large pieces came sitting in a pool of watery dark soy sauce.

The meat was tender, juicy and smooth, the way Ah Po's ducks were known during its heyday. The sauce was mildly savoury salty sweet, leaning more on savoury salty. It was nice though not yet reached optimal depth of flavours. There was no herbal or spice taste.

Buddy also got us a heap of braised pig skin, ear, duck liver, gizzard, heart and intestines which were all soft tender, well cleaned, and infused with a mild savoury sauce flavour.

Chinatown Ah Po Braised Duck at Commonwealth Crescent has built up a following over the last 6 years at this old housing estate. There's a short queue the moment the stall opens for business at 9:30am.

If you are the type who prefer soft tender duck with smooth juicy meat in a watery, mainly savoury salty sauce, you may like to try Chinatown Ah Po Braised Duck at Commonwealth Crescent.

Ah Po Hor Ng Mei's other disciple running Run Ji at her old Chinatown stall 👈 click

Written by Tony Boey on 31 Oct 2022

👉Click for the 100 best Johor food. Image of Johor Bahru CIQ & Causeway courtesy of Wikipedia