One good thing about living in Singapore is that we’ll always have (relatively) affordable hawker food that’s also reasonably delicious. Yi Fa Kway Chap won’t win any awards for being the best in Singapore, but they will still quell your hunger and satisfy your tastebuds as well.⠀
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In addition to the bowl of flat noodles & plate of pickled mustard greens, I ordered a quartet of my personal kway chap must-haves: big & small pig’s intestines, braised pork belly, and pig skin. The broth that all the pig parts are braised in is quite light, and you taste a lot more of the five spice mix used that the soya sauce. This imparts less savouriness to all the braised products, instead more focused around the aroma of the spices.⠀
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The pork belly was braised to tender perfection, with a gloriously gelatinous layer of skin and fat atop the maddeningly tender meat. The intestines were remarkably well cleaned of any plaque & debris that’s normally stuck in there. I usually prefer the delightful springiness of the big intestine, but Yi Fa’s large intestines lacked that desired springiness. Instead, the small intestines were the clear winner here. As for the pig skin, it was braised perfectly, losing all of its inedible chewiness and turning into a soft, collagen rich delight.⠀
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The 咸菜 was astonishingly ambrosial. It was subtly sweet, just the right amount of sour to maximise saliva production, and just salty enough for flavour. It’s also incredibly light and garlicky, making for the perfect palate cleanser. The kway (rice noodle sheets) was alright, nothing to shout about, but served its purpose excellently.⠀
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Hawkers like Yi Fa Kway Chap is what keeps Singaporeans, and by extension Singapore, running at peak performance. If you ever wanted to ruin Singapore, just take out the hawkers. Singapore would collapse rapidly. Hawkers are Singapore’s MVP, I’m not even kidding.