Latest news with #bakchormee
The Star
2 days ago
- General
- The Star
Uncle Quek elevates Singapore's hawker classics for Hong Kong diners
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): As Singaporean expats here can attest, life in Hong Kong is a cycle of hope and disappointment when it comes to seeking out the flavors of our homeland. So when I heard that chef Barry Quek of Whey fame had opened a new, casual eatery where hawker classics like bak chor mee and hae mee would be offered, I made a reservation at Uncle Quek faster than one can say: "Singaporean bak kut teh is better than Malaysian bak kut teh.' The bad news first: Uncle Quek's bak kut teh, the pork rib soup that's beloved in the region, is closer to the Malaysian style. That is, the soup is more herbal rather the peppery - a choice the chef told us was made for Hong Kongers' sensitive palates. Fortunately, everything else is fantastic, with a lineup that nails the original flavors of traditional dishes while elevating them beyond street food with richer and higher-quality ingredients. While its mission is mostly to faithfully recreate Singaporean classics, the few experimental touches speak to an exciting, Whey-like energy in the kitchen. The cereal fried chicken is a sweet-and-crunchy nod to the cereal prawn, and the lobster laksa is a decadent take that infuses a touch of lobster bisque into an already indulgent dish (and luckily hasn't had its flavors tamed for local palates). I was, however, disappointed there were no dessert options on the menu, which only underscores how quickly the restaurant won my trust. Uncle Quek is run by chef Elvin Lam, a Barry Quek protégé who told us that he was conscious of its price point, which is slightly above other lunch options around Lyndhurst Terrace. We spent HK$798 ($102) on a heavy dinner for two. The eighth floor location also won't benefit from any walk-in traffic. So consider this a plea from Singaporeans in Hong Kong who have mourned the demise of Bibi & Baba in Wan Chai and even the Toast Box locations on Hong Kong Island: Let's help Uncle Quek stay alive. The vibe: Uncle Quek's minimalist, honey-colored wood interior is pretty much exactly like the other restaurants in the same group, which include Whey and Korean-French fusion restaurant Sol in the same building. The open kitchen and concrete flooring underscore its status as one of the group's most casual, affordable eateries. Can you conduct a meeting here? Not if there are spirited diners near you, as the acoustics of the space tend to magnify noise. Who's next to you: I heard Singaporean (or Malaysian) accents around me, of course, and the other diners were mostly casually dressed young couples or groups of friends - quite a different vibe from the sleek party crowd downstairs. What we'd order again: The lobster laksa (HK$248) is quite the star, though the uninitiated may want to split a portion given its richness and spiciness. The chefs also nailed the wet-but-not-soupy noodle texture and flavors in the hokkien mee (HK$188), a stir-fried noodle dish, and bak chor mee (HK$168), noodles with minced pork. While the "wok hei' charred flavor of true Singaporean street food was missing, I'm grading on a curve given the restaurant's induction hobs. The achar salad (HK$55) was deliciously tart and nutty - the complexity illustrating its superiority among spicy Asian salads. And it might be worth ordering the bak kut teh (HK$68) just for the perfectly fried dough fritters that it comes with - and fine, that Malaysian herbal flavor does go well with its Zinfandel (HK$88). Need to know: Uncle Quek is on the sixth floor of 8 Lyndhurst Terrace and is open from noon to 9pm. every day except Sunday, when it is closed. Reservations need to be made via a finicky website and are hard to manage or cancel, which I've been told they're working to fix. (This review was originally published in Hong Kong Edition, a weekly newsletter.) -- ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Bloomberg
Uncle Quek Elevates Singapore's Hawker Classics for Hong Kong Diners
As Singaporean expats here can attest, life in Hong Kong is a cycle of hope and disappointment when it comes to seeking out the flavors of our homeland. So when I heard that chef Barry Quek of Whey fame had opened a new, casual eatery where hawker classics like bak chor mee and hae mee would be offered, I made a reservation at Uncle Quek faster than one can say: 'Singaporean bak kut teh is better than Malaysian bak kut teh.' The bad news first: Uncle Quek's bak kut teh, the pork rib soup that's beloved in the region, is closer to the Malaysian style. That is, the soup is more herbal rather the peppery — a choice the chef told us was made for Hong Kongers' sensitive palates. Fortunately, everything else is fantastic, with a lineup that nails the original flavors of traditional dishes while elevating them beyond street food with richer and higher-quality ingredients.
CNA
02-08-2025
- Business
- CNA
A homesick craving inspired her to launch a Singaporean supper club and food brand in London
It was a comforting bowl of bak chor mee (minced meat noodle) that changed it all. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Megan Tan was living in London and working as a finance lawyer. With the city in lockdown, her homesick roommate was craving local Singaporean food. 'It was her birthday and we couldn't go anywhere. I wanted to do something thoughtful for her, so I asked her what her favourite dish was. It was bak chor mee, so I Googled a recipe and made it for the first time,' Tan, 30, recalled. That simple act of cooking for a friend was enough to spark a realisation in Tan for two reasons. 'First, it was the feeling of making something with my own two hands. And second, it was making something that I love so much, and that she loved so much too, and the joy that it brought to the both of us.' In fact, Tan enjoyed the experience of cooking for others so much that for the rest of the lockdown, she started opening up orders for dishes such as wonton mee, Hokkien mee and carrot cake on her Instagram. During the weekends, she would cook the dishes and cycle out to deliver them herself. 'I had a lot of fun and I think it gave me a lot of meaning and human connection at a time when it was very short in supply,' Tan, a self-professed extrovert, reflected. Eventually, she launched Homi Kitchen, a supper club run out of her apartment where she serves Singaporean dishes to guests. What started as a nostalgic dinner for her social bubble soon evolved into something bigger. Beyond the supper club, Tan is on a mission to create a brand that can make 'Singaporean flavours easily accessible on supermarket shelves for everyone in the UK', said the young entrepreneur. In early 2025, Tan went on to launch her first product – the Giga Chicken Rice Chilli sauce, a flavour-packed condiment inspired by one Singapore's most beloved dishes, with more products already in the pipeline. FROM LAW TO LOCAL FLAVOURS Born and raised in Singapore, Tan grew up in a three-generation household in Serangoon, with her grandmother, an avid cook, cooking Teochew dishes every day for the family. 'She's the queen of the kitchen. I would try to help, but quite often I would be making things worse,' Tan recalled with a laugh. It wasn't until she studied law at the University of Oxford in the UK that she began experimenting with cooking herself. 'I missed food from home, and the funny thing is, I didn't have a kitchen in my college accommodation. I only had a rice cooker, and I had all my sauces and ingredients in a box.' She made do with the limited setup, cooking Asian comfort dishes such as chicken curry and katsu curry in that one pot. She often invited friends to gather in her room for dinner, who brought over their own bowls and cutlery. After completing her legal training back in Singapore, Tan made the jump to move to London full-time. 'Within the legal industry, London is one of the big hot spots for top-notch firms and teams. It is also a very international, cosmopolitan city,' she said of the move. A few years into her legal career, Tan quickly realised that her true passion laid elsewhere. 'What sparked the greatest joy for me was being in the consumer retail space, and seeing my customers really enjoying my food and being grateful for the comfort that a simple bowl of noodles brought them,' said Tan. Homi Kitchen was a way for her to indulge in her love for cooking while balancing a demanding day job. 'Why I started the supper club was to also test my theory that there's a growing interest in Singaporean food in the UK. It was a way to meet people who weren't necessarily from Singapore or Malaysia to find out how they know about the cuisine and why they were curious enough to try it,' Tan explained. For her very first supper club, Tan whipped up a Hainanese chicken rice feast. Later on, the menus featured other Singaporean hawker favourites such as carrot cake, wonton mee and even a chilli crab and black pepper crab session. Seats are usually priced around £25 (S$42). At the table, 'there was always a mix of nationalities, which is reflective of life in London,' said Tan. Despite the success of the supper club, Tan knew that if she were to leave her job, it would not be to continue hosting private dinners. Instead, she had bigger ambitions. 'Here in London, we already have a growing number of Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants. We have Singapulah, which still has long queues months after opening, and we've got Old Chang Kee as well, so I don't think London necessarily needs another restaurant,' said Tan. 'I think what the UK is lacking is authentic Singaporean flavours on grocery shelves.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Homi Kitchen (@ From her very first supper club session, where she served Hainanese chicken rice, Tan was already toying with the idea of selling the accompanying chilli sauce she had made from scratch. Over time, she used each supper club as a testing ground, gathering feedback from her diners. 'I wanted to get a good sense of what would be a great product that people actually want,' she said. 'By the time I left my job, I had a very clear idea of what the product would be and the kind of people who would be interested in the brand.' COOKING UP A BRAND With the Giga Chilli Sauce, Tan wants to bridge the gap between home-cooked meals and dining out at a restaurant. The condiment is meant to help home cooks add interesting, familiar flavours to their dishes with minimal effort. Tan's customers have been creative in the way they use the sauce too. Beyond pairing it with chicken rice, they have slathered it on sandwiches or stirred it into their takeaway pho from the nearby Vietnamese restaurant. At one of Homi Kitchen's pop-up events, Tan even created a 'chicken rice cocktail' in the form of a spicy margarita with the chilli sauce as a base, in collaboration with a bar in Camden market. Customers interested in the Giga Chilli Sauce can currently purchase it online on Homi Kitchen's website. The condiment is also stocked at grocers, food courts and delis such as Raya at Borough Market, Eat 17 on Orford Road, Polhill Farm Shop at London Road and Harvest E1 on Brick Lane. The name Homi Kitchen – a playful twist on 'home' that also means 'homie', as in friend – reflects Tan's dual vision for the brand. 'As I started out as a homerun supper club, I wanted people to feel at home with the brand. It's also a reminder to myself that my focus is also on getting my products into other people's homes.' The brand wants to share the 'crazy rich flavours of Singapore" beyond its shores, as its tagline encapsulates. And for Tan, the chilli sauce is just the beginning. 'Right now, it's just chilli sauce, but long-term, the other products I have in mind are stuff like ready made char kway teow that you can pop into the microwave,' Tan elaborated. 'Of course, it will never be as good as going to your favourite store in Singapore, but my goal is to get as close as humanly and to fill that gap for someone who misses local food, or someone who is curious about the cuisine.' Tan is already working on Homi Kitchen's next condiment, the Hei Hei Black Pepper Sauce, slated to launch soon. 'At my black pepper and chilli crab supper club, some of the guests loved the black pepper sauce so much that they asked if I was going to start selling it,' shared Tan. 'I started looking into it and making the sauce for people to try at my events, putting them on things like tater tots just to get people to see it as something different and seeing how it lands. People really loved the flavour.' FINDING PURPOSE Giving up a prestigious career in law to pursue an uncharted path is a bold move. 'Growing up in Asia, and maybe especially in my generation, you are brought up to study hard to secure a good, stable job for the rest of your life,' said Tan, who attended Raffles Girls School and later Raffles Institution in Singapore. 'Reflecting on my younger years, part of why I chased a law career was because my friends were doing so,' Tan reflected. 'But as objectively desirable I knew a law career is for many people, eventually I had to accept that I would never be 100 per cent happy.' Stepping into entrepreneurship is 'unfamiliar territory' for her family, who do not come from a business background. While her parents were initially worried she was making a rash decision, they supported her wholeheartedly. Tan makes regular trips back to Singapore to spend time with her family. Her go-to dish when she's home? A comforting bowl of bak chor mee. Back in London, Tan continues to host supper club sessions while developing new products for Homi Kitchen. In June, she hosted two sold-out events in collaboration with Hong Kong milk tea brand Chadong. On the menu were dishes such as Hei Hei Pepper Pork Belly, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Popiah, while Chadong contributed milk bread prawn toast, lychee and lime granita and Hong Kong French toast ice cream bars. Despite the uncertainties that lie with entrepreneurship, Tan has found a sense of purpose in building something of her own. 'Whatever the outcome, I can say that I already find this journey meaningful,' she reflected. 'This is something I intrinsically want to do. No one needs to tell me that I'm doing a good job, or that it's the right thing to do. It still feels right for me."
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Deliciously old-school bak chor mee & loaded portions at new Ang Mo Kio stall
Heads up, bak chor mee aficionados and Ang Mo Kio residents — or better yet, if you're both. We've got just the spot for you to check out, and it's Heng Ji Traditional Teochew Noodles. So, what's the fuss? Well, despite only opening recently, this humble spot has already drawn a fair bit of buzz across local foodie Facebook groups — earning praise for its nostalgic flavours and even prompting return visits from several reviewers. Intrigued, I headed down to the Kopi Wu coffeeshop at Block 722 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 to check out this formidable new kid on the block. Seeing was believing; I espied a good majority of diners happily tucking into bowls of bak chor mee. I'd been craving a good bowl of those porky noodles for weeks, so if anything could get me more excited than I already was, that was it. Mission accomplished. Heng Ji Traditional Teochew Noodles's menu is pretty straightforward, with 4 main noodle options: Pork Ball Minced Pork Noodle (S$4.50/S$5.50), Fishball Minced Pork Noodle (S$4.50/S$5.50), Fishball Noodle (S$4.50/S$5.50) and Laksa (S$4). There's also Fishball Soup (S$4.50) and Pork Ball Soup (S$4.50) for those after something lighter. Of course, I went for the S$5.50 portion of the signature Pork Ball Minced Pork Noodle, with the ever-reliable mee pok as my carb of choice. The mouthwatering bowl came loaded with a colourful medley of minced pork, pork slices, liver, meatballs, braised mushrooms and a sprinkling of crispy fried pork lard. This feels like a good juncture to mention that each bowl is cooked to order — so be prepared to wait, and for perfectly good reason. Spoiler alert: my cravings were more than satisfied. The noodles were faultless — cooked to a perfect al dente and thoroughly coated in a piquant, punchy sauce. The ingredients were impressive, too, each one complementing the springy noodles beautifully. The minced meat and tender pork slices were my favourites of the lot: well-seasoned, flavourful and far from gamey. And while I'm not usually a fan of liver, these weren't powdery in the least and I found myself savouring every piece. I'm not sure my definition of 'old-school' fully matches that of the Facebook folk, but Heng Ji Traditional Teochew Noodles's rendition of bak chor mee certainly felt like the epitome of fuss-free goodness. There's no doubt I'll be back the next time a craving hits, and I'm already counting down the days. Take this as your sign to drop by when yours call, too. We tried Singapore's best-rated bak chor mee The post Deliciously old-school bak chor mee & loaded portions at new Ang Mo Kio stall appeared first on
