We gathered at Chiderful @ City Plaza for lunch. Catherine's friend tried it, so Catherine went to try, Chua followed Catherine, liked it, went back a few times with his wife, and today seven of us showed up 😀 We all enjoyed ourselves. Yeah, that's typically how we uncover favourite makan (eating) places - the slow, old way 😬
Personally, I like everything slow - slow food, slow travel, slow conversations.... (yeah, I know, the choice of slow is a luxury of the privileged in today's world 🙏 )
Chiderful is at a blind corner at level two of City Plaza - an aged well worn building I passed by daily when I was schooling (it's really that old). But, Chiderful is easy to locate as the shops here still have shop numbers on their signboards. Chiderful is at #02-73.
(Digression: One of my pet peeves at Singapore shopping malls, is that nearly all shop signboards no longer display shop numbers. That makes looking for particular shops more difficult and can be exasperating quite frustrating when in a hurry. End of rant 😬 So, I am appreciative of City Plaza 🙏 )
Cinderful is not a place to impress on a first date. It's across the corridor from a foot massage joint. There's one large table inside where we ate with our backs against an open shelf of pots, pans, sundries, and don't know what else. There's another large table at the corridor.
Chef Kelvin runs a One Man Operation - from setting up tables, taking orders, prepping, cooking, serving tables, collecting payment, clearing and washing. From our table, I could see chef Kelvin slogging it out alone in the kitchen. So please be patient and help if you can 😬 Regulars help themselves to utensils, etc.
It's like some private chef situations but this is in a shopping mall.
Chiderful is transliterated from 吃淂福 which literally means "eating is a blessing". In Cantonese, 吃淂福 "sek tuck fook" sounds the same as 吃淂苦 "sek tuck fu" which literally means "able to take hardship".
I am not sure if that is what Chiderful owner chef Kelvin mean (I didn't speak with him as he was so very busy during lunch). Kelvin hails from Ipoh and rose from kitchen help to head chef at Sessions at Resorts World Sentosa before he was let go during the height of the Covid pandemic. With a family and five year old daughter to support, Kelvin and a partner started Chiderful. His partner bailed after a couple of months leaving Kelvin to press on alone. Fortunately, word about Chiderful's delicious offerings spread quickly and Kelvin's startup soon won a loyal following. So, yes 吃淂苦 and 吃淂福 are two sides of the same coin (to me lah).
Seven of us, we had seven dishes.
Chua like this chap chai (mixed vegetables) as it has a generous sprinkle of tee poh (dried sole fish) on top. Most of us agreed.
It's layers of savouriness from the blend of soy sauces and umami from tee poh. The natural sweetness from the cabbages etc provided the sweetness in the savoury sweet dish.
Sambal prawns. It's unshelled prawns stir fried with a savoury spicy sambal sauce and curry leaves. Lots of aromatics from the curry leaves as well as umami, spice and chili heat from the sambal.
I never liked peeling prawns in the middle of a meal, so I just chewed up the whole prawn, shell and all (sans the head).
Cereal prawns.
The prawns were encased in a crackly crisp batter shell. Savoury sweet flavours from the crispy batter shell and shelled prawns.
Hahaha, my favourite part of cereal prawns is the sweet savoury crisp fried cereal. Since young 😬 Chiderful's version is quite sweet.
Cod fish steak stewed in a shallow pool of savoury sauce. I enjoyed this. The gentle sweetness from the juicy soft tender slab of cod was well accentuated by mild savouriness from the brown sauce.
Drunken chicken served chilled. The poached chicken dressed with a thick blanket of chopped scallion and ginger.
The chicken was silky smooth, tender, and moist yet there was a subtle crunch to the bite. There was also a subtle natural chicky sweetness which was complemented by savoury saltiness as well as the taste and aroma of scallion and ginger. The presence of Chinese wine was hardly felt.
Curry seafood. The curry was creamy (we say lemak here), rich in curry spices but not overly pungent. The fish and prawns retained most of their tenderness and their natural flavours were also still intact. So, nice.
Blanched Ipoh kway teow in a pool of sloshy dark sauce, sesame oil and topped with poached chicken and fried shallot.
Nice combination of soft and tender, savoury and sweet complemented with fried shallot and sesame oil aromatics.
Quite generous with taugeh (beansprouts) which not everyone appreciates but I happily sapu (sweep) it all up lah. Thanks!
We enjoyed ourselves at Chiderful today. I look forward to be back and try chef Kelvin's other dishes.
City Plaza has Arnold's Fried Chicken's original shop and I also spotted a few other interesting eateries which I want to come back for.
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