Lao Li Da Pai Dang
Singaporeans love tze char. While most are happy with tze char dishes at their neighbourhood heartland kopitiams, many travel across the country (and even the causeway) in quest of the best sweet and sour pork, prawn paste chicken, curry fish head and other wok-hei-infused dishes.
When I was recently alerted about a newly-opened tze char joint near my office, I immediately found myself with my lunch partner here at this corner shophouse along the stretch of popular supper eateries in Simpang Bedok. The joint has a catchy name "Lao Li", which is the same way many Singaporeans affectionately call our founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. But as one might imagine, this has nothing to do with the famous Lee family. :)
The menu is simple and well organised with a list of their signature dishes clearly displayed at the very top. The two of us picked 3 dishes from this list: Collagen Broth with Pig Stomach, BBQ Pork Ribs and KL Tai Lok Mee.
Served in a hot claypot with one big chicken maryland, generous amount of pork tripe slices, ginko nuts and wolfberries, the collagen broth soup ($12) is thick, milky, peppery and rich in flavour - the result of long hours of double-boiling pork bones, pork skin and chicken feet. Really value for money.
BBQ Pork Ribs ($12), or commonly known as pork ribs king, is a classic dish that you can find on the menu of almost all tze char stalls. I do not usually order this dish for 2 reasons. One, I prefer savoury dishes to sweet ones; and two, many tze char stalls tend to overcoat the pork with flour batter, causing it to become soggy when cooked/coated with the sweet sauce. But I enjoy the version here. The sauce is not too sweet and the thick pork slices still crispy outside and moist inside.
Black lardy fat Hokkien mee, or Tai Lok Meen, is one of Kuala Lumpur's signature dishes. Over the years, it has also made its way on to the menu of some tze char stalls helmed by Malaysian chefs here. I nodded my head with my first bite of the dark caramel soy sauce coated fat noodle. The KL Tai Lok Mee ($8) is fried in lots of pork lard which imparts a rich flavour and comes wth prawns, pork slices and squid rings.
We came to know later that the head chef of this tze char joint, Chef Tan, was a former executive chef at the modern Chinese seafood restaurant Majestic Bay at Gardens by the Bay and he had also honed his skills at the now-defunct My Humble House, a Chinese fine-dining restaurant by the Tung Lok Group. With such wealth of culinary expereince, no wonder the food quality here is impressive. Combined with its very inexpensive pricing, I am confident that this new tze char joint will do well and give the various eateries in the vicinity a run for their money.
Check out this place the next time you are planning a feast for the whole family. I will most likely be there as well, trying out Chef Tan's other specialties.
Lao Li Da Pai Dang
282 Bedok Road Singapore 469438
Lunch
11:00am - 3:00pm
Dinner
5:00pm - 11:00pm
Closed on Tuesdays
