For me, har cheong gai is a quintessential order at any zi char establishment. Not doing so is akin to walking out of a theme park without having been on a single ride. This would’ve simply been one of those easily dismissible family meals on a Saturday evening, if not for a plate of what I believe to be one of the best har cheong gai dishes that I’ve tasted to date.
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📍THE PLACE
Glance right while you’re senselessly staring into the abyss wondering what to have at Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre, and you’ll notice a signboard. It says “Master Crab”. Hanging lanterns and red on gold on red on gold remind you of a glorious Chinese New Year, and all the money you’ve lost playing Ban Luck and In-Between.
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🍽 THE FOOD
1️⃣ Salted Egg Crab (seasonal price) - Placed an order for this as it happens to be the most popular preparation of crab available at Master Crab. It was alright, but to their credit, the golden salted egg sauce was not overpowering and played well with the mild sweetness of the more-than-subpar crab
2️⃣ Shrimp Paste Chicken ($9/$13/$17/$21) - The showstopper, this was har cheong gai done right. Executed to fundamental perfection with a crispy, thin batter that shattered with every bite to reveal the tender flesh underneath glistening with flavours of shrimp and chicken. Fantastic stuff.
3️⃣ Claypot Frog with Dried Chilli ($16/$24/$32/$40) - very similar to dried chilli chicken, taste and texture wise
4️⃣ Fried Asparagus with Fresh Scallops ($16/$22/$28/$32) - a disappointing handful of 3 or 4 morsels of scallops in a classic mix of fried asparagus, mushrooms and carrots
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🤔 THE VERDICT
For a zi char joint selling zi char food at a zi char price point, their signature dishes could use a breath of life and more wok hei. Granted, the har cheong gai here remains to be hidden gem of sorts.
Forgot to take note of this Zi char store because I thought it would be just a normal pai gu wang. But boy was I wrong. It was the most tender and fragrant pai gu wang I ever had! (It's at the non kopitiam coffee shop)
Love my food today!! CRAB!! Woohoo! I think the sauce was butter&salted egg 😘😋 It was delicious!! First time eating this with my family! 😁👍
2 chilli crabs, 10 buns, 1 veggie, 2 rice, 3 ladies. #chillicrab #crab #dinner #tgif #gno
And their famous Salted Egg Yolk Crab with Maine, @totallyguan and @fredkieran! #crabs #dinner #seafood #foodporn
