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My ears pricked up when I heard ‘Geylang Bahru Market & Food Centre’. I don’t live very near it but visit whenever I hear someone speaking well of a stall there. All chameleon-like, I eavesdropped on a discussion about a stall named Sheng Ji Soya Sauce Chicken Rice/Noodle.
2 of the aunties were praising the food and the other was seriously against it. Hmm, that makes for the most interesting stall visits. After the trio went on their way, I decided to read up on Sheng Ji Soya Sauce Chicken Rice/Noodle before going there myself.
What I read was promising. The stall had even been described as a “hidden gem”, which meant that I simply had to try it.
Also, there is no doubt that the team at Sheng Ji Soya Sauce Chicken Rice/Noodle works hard. Operating 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, they are in the minority of stalls that remain open for close to half a day at a stretch.
The very next day, I made my way to Geylang Bahru Market & Food Centre. It was a rainy day, so I wasn’t surprised that there was no queue in front of this apparently hotly-discussed stall.
I was surprised, though, when the person eating cup noodles at a nearby table turned out to be one of the staff. I suppose you can get sick of eating the best food if you eat it every day!
What I tried at Sheng Ji Soya Sauce Chicken Rice/Noodle
I asked the 2 ladies working there what the crowd favourite was. The immediate answer was the Soya Sauce Chicken Rice or Noodle (S$5). (The stall has the same price structure for virtually everything on the menu, from the Dumpling Soup to the Chicken Drumstick Noodle and the Chicken Feet Noodle)
Service was reasonable — I got my bowl of noodles and bowl of soup in about 5 minutes. The presentation was quite nice. Almost covering the bed of yellow noodles, white chicken meat was drizzled with black soya sauce, giving it a white-brown colour that contrasted with the deep brown chicken skin.
Some of the chicken as well as the side of the bowl were marked red with the homemade chilli. To the other side was a mass of boiled green vegetables. In the small window that still revealed the noodles, the springy curls were dark with the stain of soya sauce.
My mouth watered at the sight as my mind conjured up a combination of remembered tastes of each ingredient. Lengths of shallots dressed up yellow-brown the soup in its bowl.
The portion of chicken served for S$4 was generous. Oh, and the meat was tender, too. Unfortunately, I came across too many stray bits of bone as I ate. 1 or 2 are acceptable, I suppose. When you bite on 6 in one serving, it does seem to be a bit of over-carelessness.
That shouldn’t detract from the taste, though, and I agree that the combination of chicken, soya sauce and the homemade chilli was beautiful.
The noodles, on the other hand, were just average, given that the strands clumped together excessively. I had been looking forward to the soup, given that the rain had begun pouring down but was let down by the tepid bowl. Flavour-wise, it was acceptable, I suppose, but it’s a bit difficult to accurately assess lukewarm soup.
Final thoughts
Although I don’t know anyone personally who is a fan of this stall, I have seen a couple of people proclaim Sheng Ji Soya Sauce Chicken Rice/Noodle is a “hidden gem”. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in my experience.
With such a strong advantage from the portion of meat and how well it goes with the soya sauce and chilli, I was expecting my bowl of Soya Sauce Chicken Noodle to hit it out of the park. In the end, the bits of bone, temperature of the soup and very average noodle preparation dragged it down.
Yet, when I think back to the 2 aunties who sounded as if they were great fans of this stall, I feel that there could be something that I may have missed. Perhaps, I will come on a day when it’s not raining, ask for a different meal and try some of the add-ons (chicken feet seem to be popular here).
That revisit will be sometime soon, for sure. I will also lower my expectations based on my first visit. I hope they wow me.
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