Suddenly, my friends are telling me about Quan Ji at Amoy Street Food Centre. It is helmed by Tony Liew who has 14 years of experience and is a 3rd-generation hawker. It occupies two stalls at an area of high rental, and at 11.40am, a long queue suddenly forms. The signboard displays 10 dishes–5 proteinish, and 5 carbs–but they do have other dishes not listed, such as fish belly bitter gourd soup and sambal kang kong.
One item not listed on their signboard–and perhaps the most popular of all items–is the “yellow cloth” noodles. You can choose from two types of noodles: sheng mian 生面 (raw noodles) or lou mien (noodles). Since I think sheng mian is plain strange, I would recommend the noodles.
It’s a simple dish. It’s a piece of omelette–fluffy and soft, not a bit crispy, tasty of lard–covering noodles also doused in lard. It comes with chye sim and prawns. It is homely and comforting. This was the favourite dish I ate here that day.
But some of my friends preferred the beef hor fun. I think the hor fun is done separately from the sauce. The beef is tender, but the wok hei, almost soot-like, is in the sauce instead of the hor fun, something that is strange to me.
The hae zhor is rather good. I heard that they source it from elsewhere and don’t make it themselves, but the skin is crispy and the inside is soft. My friend said that it is too mushy for her, but I find it delicious.
Don’t order the braised tofu. There is not much flavour here and it is way too starchy.
For health reasons, we ordered the kailan with sliced fish. But don’t. Actually, I would prefer to order the other green, bittergourd with fish head, but I read from a review that it isn’t good too.
I generally like pai gu wang 排骨王. Theirs is not bad. The meat is tender and the sauce is sweeter and more vinegary than versions found elsewhere. But there is not enough meat.
We didn’t managed to try their prawn-paste chicken har jeong gai because it was a public holiday the day before and they ran out of prawn paste, not in time to replenish it. It’s a pity because I heard that it is good.
Although Quan Ji isn’t one of my favourite cze char, the food is not bad and they open on weekends so people not working around the area can come and try. We paid $85 for 5 people, pretty good value.
If you are a fan of high-quality traditional Chinese food suitable for sharing, you might already be thinking about the next major family meal. For those planning early, our comprehensive guide to CNY Delivery options, including Pen Cai and other large-format meals, is available now.
Quan Ji 權記
Amoy Street Food Centre #01-56-57, 7 Maxwell Road, Singapore 069111
11am-1.30pm, 4.30pm-10pm, closed Mon & Tue
tel: +65 9746 1926
Food: 6.5/10
Price/value: 8/10
You may be interested in…
–Uncle Leong Seafood, Punggol: Unexpected Great Service and Extremely Fresh Crabs
–Jiao Cai Hotplate BBQ, Yishun Park Hawker Centre: 2nd-Generation Hawker Cooks Amazing “Wok Hei” Seafood
–D’Grill, Punggol: Whole Fish & Chips and Sambal Hotplate Seafood
–Ka Soh, College Road: Michelin Bib Gourmand Cze Char & Fish Soup Noodles
Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.
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