Naakin (Maxwell)

It has been quite a while since we made our last visit to Amoy Street Food Centre on a weekday afternoon for lunch — decided to make a visit to the food centre on random and it does seem that there have been quite a number of new tenants which had moved into the food centre since our last time there. One of the few new tenants which had moved into Amoy Street Food Centre on the ground floor is Naakin — the stall is actually situated at the side of the food centre that is closer towards Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, being neighbours with another recently-opened stall named Spicelios that seems to serve up fusion Middle Eastern cuisine. As one might be able to guess from its name, Naakin is a stall that specialises in Thai cuisine; the stall is quite easy to spot, considering how the signboard bears a black background with orange-coloured wordings for the stall’s namesake — the stall’s name also occupies just a small space on the left of the signboard. One notable thing about Naakin is that they are a Muslim-owned stall; this also means that the menu here comprises of items that does not come with pork or lard. Unlike most stalls serving up Thai cuisine around, the Naakin’s menu does seem to be positioned towards the busy office folks of the Central Business District where they are situated at — the menu comprises items which are more suited for individual diners rather than for communal sharing. There are only three items that are being listed in the menu at Naakin — the Pad Krapow, Tom Yum or the Pad Thai; all of which coming with various options of meat to choose from.

It was a pretty tough call to pick between the Pad Thai and the Pad Krapow considering how we usually opt between the two; we were feeling a little bit more like a “rice bucket” on the day of our visit so we found ourselves going for the Pad Krapow instead. Naakin offers their Pad Krapow in two different meat options — one being the Chicken, and the other being the Beef; patrons can also choose too “upsize the meal” by adding Chicken or Beef to whichever option that they may choose at an extra cost, while one can also opt for more rice to be served up with the dish at an additional 60 cents as well.

Orders are prepared a la minute; we were actually pretty impressed with the speed that they had served up our order in. While Naakin does not describe the elements that come with the Pad Krapow, the chicken variant of the Pad Krapow which we have opted for also comes with sunny side-up as well. It is noted that the Pad Krapow Chicken comes with chicken — not minced chicken; so do expect chunks of chicken meat that is being stir-fried with fish sauce, basil and chili to come along with the rice. It seems that the folks at Naakin serves up their Pad Krapow in a form that is not too wet — the type which definitely hit the spot for us where there is sufficient sauce to go around the rice for flavour, without having the whole dish being soaked in moistness. The umami notes of fish sauce were more prominent in the variant of the Pad Krapow (Chicken) served at Naakin, though one can definitely detect that light aroma of basil lingering around especially when one chews on the basil leaves; the level of spiciness being rather mild for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness, though would likely tickle the tastebuds for those whom can take only light amounts of heat. While the lack of long beans also meant that there is a lack of crunch factor in this variant, the chunks of chicken provided more bite and meatiness as opposed to the minced meat version that we are more accustomed to; definitely made up for the textural aspect of the dish. Overall quite a decent eat at $6.50 — one that we wouldn’t mind going for if at Amoy Street Food Centre; price point of the other dishes are somewhat reasonable considering the ‘hood it is at, with all dishes are priced below $8.