Kacang Pool Special

I love Kacang Pool.

But because it can be.. well.. a little on the unhealthy side (with all the ghee and the egg and the what-nots), it's best eaten in moderation. So that means that it'd better be a damn nice serving.

When I was a kid growing up in Eunos, the original Eunos market had some of the best food ever.
There was this one stall that sold only 2 things - Rojak Buah and Kacang Pool.
But it was for some reason, closed most of the time.

Well that stall stuck it out after the fire at the old marketplace and shifted to the new Eunos Market.

Kacang Pool ($3.00)

Well the stall sells a few more than 2 things now but Kacang Pools seems to remain a firm favourite.

Along with your piping hot kacang pool (made up of mashed fava or broad beans), you get a fried egg (which has a slightly runny yolk) and of course the usual garnishes like chilli and onions plus some bread.

A lot of people have a lot of differing preferences when it comes to their Kacang Pool I'm sure.

Some people like theirs to be on the chunky side which means the beans are not mashed or blended too finely. You'll still have a pretty thick consistency that way.

On the other hand, you have the people who like theirs to be runny and smooth. This means the beans are blended till extremely fine and I guess you say a little more of a fluid consistency.

For me - not fussy when it comes to this.
Thick or fluid I'm still gonna whack until finish.

And as you can see from the picture on the left, this stall has it just in the middle. You can scoop it up or soak it up with the french loaf that comes with it or you can just have it with the egg and garnishes. It's gonna be delicious either way. Oh, and you'll still a few whole beans that missed the blender.

Salt and Lime for additional seasoning

This stall goes the healthy route and does not seem to include any ghee.
There's definitely a good dose of oil but not much or no ghee and minimal additives.

They'll give you some salt and lime to add as you please.

Now that's what I call comfort food.
And when that runny yolk breaks and starts running all over the place, grab some bread, mop it up and shove it in your mouth and go "Mmmmm".

And for the record, I cleaned the plate. Literally. (I used the bread)

Adam's Verdict:
Kacang Pool 4.5/5

My old neighbourhood market may have relocated but some of the old stalls definitely followed suit and I'm so happy that they did and this stall is one fine example.

Kacang Pool Special

Eunos Crescent Food Market & Food Centre
Blk 4A Eunos Crescent #01-03

Operating Hours:
7.00am til 9.30pm (or til the food finishes)
Closed on Wednesdays

Epok Epok Central

I grew up in the Eunos Crescent neighbourhood.
Back then, the Eunos Crescent Market was in full swing and the adjoining food centre was just as popular.
From early morning breakfast til evening dinner. Everyone cam to get something.

And there was something for everyone too.
There were two whole sections of Chinese (Non-Halal) hawkers and only one section of Malay/Indian (Halal) hawkers. But that one section alone has so many treasures. And there was something for everyone.

Abu Bakar stall was famous for its Nasi Jenganan and Nasi Rawan.
Ali Baba stall famous for Roti Prata. Arifin stall for its Chicken Rice. Then there was the 'no sign' Kacang Pool' stall which also sold a pretty mean Rojak Buah. Then there was 'Mee Kak Tik'.
And so many more I can hardly remember.

The old market burned down some years ago and it took awhile for the new one to be built.
In that time, some of the hawkers probably moved on and decided not to wait for the new market to be built. But some of them returned to the old neighbourhood with a brand new market place.

One of those that was a staple back in the day and still stayed on - Epok Epok Central.

People would queue up for the fresh and hot epok-epok which seemed to come out in endless batches.
If there was one place for epok-epok then Epok Epok Central was it.

Potato, Sardine & Egg Epok-Epok

Just like before, you can get 3 types of epok-epok.
There's the default Potato & Sardine epok-epok ($0.40 each) and there's the Egg epok-epok ($0.60).
The Egg epok-epok has some potato filling in it as well.

The first thing I have to pint out is that I don't remember the epok-epok being so expensive in the past.
Of course, we are talking about the 90s when I was a kid so definitely the prices were lower back then.
But even in today's modern times, I'm guessing a few people would raise an eyebrow or two when the hear the price of $0.40 or $0.60 for an epok-epok.

What's that you say? The price seems reasonable?
Well, that depends on how you relate the price to the size of the product.

Yes that is my hand. And yes that is the epok-epok.
Now do you see what I was talking about when I mentioned the size?

The epok-epok is definitely bite-sized which I'm guessing some people (like my Mum) will appreciate.
Because this means that the pastry will be nice a crispy. Which it definitely is. Love that crisp!
The pastry has a nice bite to it and is not oily at all. They have definitely mastered the art of frying the epok-epok to ensure that it's a nice crispy golden brown.

The filling itself is also quite tasty. But....

(From left to right) Potato, Sardine, Egg

For those of you whole love your filling, then there might be some issue.

The filling itself is very tasty. The taste of the potato filling is especially tasty to me.
However, the sardine epok-epok seemed to have more onions than anything else. And that is simply something that I despise in my Sardine epok-epok.

Why call it Sardine if you're just going to pack it with onions? If you're worried about your sardine mixture being fishy then work on your mixture instead of taking the short-cut of piling on the onions I say.

To be honest the potato mixture also had its fair share of onions but at least I could get some potato chunks.
For the Egg version, you get about 1/5 of an egg stuffed in with the potato mixture.

Adam's Verdict:
Potato 3/5 -- Sardine 2/5 -- Egg 3.5/5

Epok Epok Central remains a familiar name when it comes to the tasty snack we all love.
Nowadays with places like Old Chang Kee offering fat oily currypuffs at a bargain price of $1.20, I guess it's easy to see how old-school places like this are on the losing end.

In fact, the long queue at the stall when I went was actually for the Nasi Lemak which they also seem to sell.
The old stall used to sell just epok-epok. Nothing else.
Maybe the Nasi Lemak is damn nice? I might check it out next time.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe Epok Epok Central's standards have really dropped.
But I'll never forget the excitement as a kid when Mum & Dad brought home some epok-epok.

 Epok Epok Central

Eunos Crescent Food Market & Food Centre
Blk 4A Eunos Crescent #01-09

Operating Hours:
9am -10pm Tuesday til Sunday
Closed on Monday

The Quest For Briyani Part 3: Mami Midah Briyani

So the Quest for Briyani continues on this food blog.
So many recommendations came in for where people think should be the next place I try.
But I decided to go somewhere recommended by my dear ol' Dad.

Mami Midah Briyani is a stall located in my old neighbourhood - Eunos Crescent.
It wasn't around when the market and food centre were at its old location before the fire a few years ago but despite that it seems this stall has made quite a reputation for itself in just a few years.

When you think of a good briyani, 'healthy' is not really the first word that comes to your mind I reckon. I mean, how many times have you heard your elders tell you not to eat too much too often right?

Well I saw this article displayed at the stall.
It was featured in the 'Mind Your Body' quite awhile back and was toute as a 'healthy' version of Nasi Briyani but apparently still didn't lose any of the flavour or deliciousness that you'd expect from a serving of Briyani.

Evaporated Milk? Vegetable Oil? Low Sodium Salt?
This doesn't seem like it's going to go well... But you'll see a lot of this at a lot of the stall here under the Healthy Eating campaign.

Okay so my Dad tells me we have o go really early because this place seems to sell out really fast (especially the Mutton Briyani) especially on Fridays. Well, we were not going on a Friday so you'd think it'd be safe to arrive there at around noon right?

Well we arrived at 12.15pm and guess what? The Mutton was sold out!!
Apparently someone had a funeral wake and pre-ordered like this whole order of the Mutton Briyani. And since we couldn't call ahead to pre-order 2 plates of it, I guess we were out of luck.
And the worst thing was that my Dad had let me taste some the last time he brought some back and it was quite good so I was pretty bummed I didn't get a chance to try it out properly.

Oh well.

Chicken Briyani ($4.50)

So we decided to have the Chicken Briyani (purely out of lack of choice).

The chicken itself was not bad. The masala which literally swamps the chicken was actually really good!
It's not really on the spicy side though. If it was, my Dad wouldn't be able to handle it very well. But the rempah briyani taste was very strong but very tasty. Not overpowering like I expected.

The acar is actually worth a mention. It really complimented the briyani well.
I'm saying this because I've had Briyani where the acar is just absolutely doing nothing for the overall dish but they really put some effort here to make sure it makes a difference.

As always, the rice itself is going to play a big part in Briyani and the rice here is pretty steady.
It was fluffy and I guess it was pretty tasty. But I doubt I enjoyed it as much as my Dad does.
My Dad says that the rice is the reason he loves this Briyani so much. And trust me, it's not often you find something that he will say is nice.

As for me? It was actually the Dalcha believe it or not.
It was damn tasty and really packed a tasty punch to the rice. In fact, the Dalcha seems to be quite a favourite with a lot of people. How do I know? I've seen people come to the stall and order just the Dalcha on its own. Like $2 a packet. They probably eat it with bread or something. And I don't blame them cos it's damn nice lah actually.

And if you stir the bowl, you'll find out why. The secret - lamb fat (tetelan).
It's an old school way of ensuring your Dalcha is the bomb and they sure as hell do it well here.

Adam's Verdict:
Chicken Briyani 3/5

Zain's Verdict:
Chicken Briyani 4/5

So remember, if you wanna try the Mutton Briyani - go early.
Hopefully I'll be able to add in a Mutton Briyani review here soon okay!

Mami Midah Briyani

Eunos Crescent Food Market & Food Centre
Blk 4A Eunos Crescent #01-14

Operating Hours:
10.00am til 8.00pm Daily
(or until they sell out)