Basil King (Jurong West)

For those whom have been to Thailand recently or been coming across social media pages showcasing Thai dining establishments, perhaps the sight of Basil minced pork that is being served with multiple egg yolks within a single egg white might have been a familiar sight — some would recall the name of the establishment being Phed Mark. Appears that there is a Singaporean establishment that is replicating what Phed Mark has done right here at our shores — Basil King is a new stall that had opened in the Jurong West area within the Foodhub coffeeshop located at Blk 496 Jurong West Street 41; the stall can be found situated right beside an outlet of Ah Gong KKM. Basil King shouldn’t be a stall that is easy to miss; the stall does feature a pretty prominent yellow signboard that features a burning flame as its logo — the logo does bear some stylistic differences to Phed Mark’s, though it does admittedly still look rather similar nonetheless. Phed Mark is an establishment that is noted for its stir-fried Thai basil dishes where patrons can go for various options of meat / seafood to be stir-fried and served with rice on the side; another thing notable about Phed Mark is how patrons get to choose the number of egg yolks that they would like their stir-fried Thai basil dishes to come with whilst also opting for varying levels of spiciness. Basil King definitely follows the formula set by Phed Mark in Bangkok — the menu being designed in the same way with patrons being able to opt for either Basil Chicken, Basil Pork, Basil Beef or Basil Prawn options.

Visiting Basil King for the very first time, it is needless to say that the our very first agenda with regard to the dish to try during our visit would be the Basil Pork; it would be quite missing the point to visit Phed Mark in Bangkok without opting for multiple egg yolks for the sunny side-up to be served with the dish so we found ourselves going for the Double Egg version. We also opted for our order to come at Spicy Level 2 out of the five (5) levels that they offer. It did take around 40mins for our order to be prepared considering the crowd that had already formed when we dropped by; the staff at the counter did however inform us about some waiting time while we made our order and was pretty apologetic about it anyway. An electronic buzzer is issued when one makes the payment for their order at the counter; this would be used to page the patrons to collect their order once their order has been prepared by the kitchen. One look at the egg yolks and it is noticeable that Basil King uses regular chicken eggs for their version of the Basil Pork (Double Egg); the eggs come with a noticeable yellowish hue as opposed to that of Phed Mark’s that features an orange hue instead due to the use of duck eggs. That being said, the sunny side-up does come with crisp edges and a molten egg yolk that eagerly bursts as one pokes through it using a fork; the yolk being all runny and best to be had together with the bed of white rice beneath it — adds moisture to the rice. The sunny side-up also does not come with any undesirable notes of overused oil as well.

The stir-fried basil pork does seem to be executed in the dry form of the dish — there is some sauce which the basil pork is being stir-fried in that can be found at the bottom of the plate, though it is pretty minimal. The savoury notes of fish sauce comes pretty prominent with quite a bit of depth, while it does perfume of the notes of basil that we found to be quite aromatic. We did feel that the level of spiciness at Spicy Level 2 to be pretty manageable for those whom have generally moderate levels of tolerance to spiciness; the dish featuring bird’s eye chili that gives it that kick to tickle the tastebuds. That being said, we would probably think that opting for Spicy Level 3 might actually bring better balance to the flavours of the entire dish in general.

Given the likeness between Phed Mark and Basil King, it would be unavoidable that comparisons will be made between the two — unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to comment on how Basil King fares against that of Phed Mark — it was actually Thep Pad Thai that we made a visit to during our trip to Bangkok not too long ago. With that being said, it does seem that the novelty of Basil King is probably the ability to opt for multiple egg yolks to come with one order of basil minced pork rice — no doubt that the Basil minced pork is pretty well-executed here, though there are also other establishments that serves comparable or even better renditions of the dish at more accessible locations. The offerings at Basil King are priced between $6.90 to $11.90; the lowest priced being the Basil Pork and Basil Chicken coming with a Single Egg, while the priciest would be the Basil Beef / Basil Prawn featuring Quadruple Egg — also the most number of eggs that one can opt for in an order. Would probably say they are pretty much an establishment that offers residents in that area an interesting dining option to go for, though one that patience should also be exercised whilst waiting for the food considering how it does garner a crowd. There is also another outlet opening soon in the East for those whom find the West a little difficult to get to, though the new outlet will open some time in May within the coffeeshop situated at Blk 494 Tampines Street 45 according to their social media pages — if this is something to look forward to.