Most of us have heard of chee cheong fun, and most of us also know about fried carrot cake. But have you ever wondered what these two dishes would taste like if they were combined?
That’s what this Chinese Fried Noodles/Rice stall in Singtel Comcentre staff canteen is offering! For just $2.80, you can enjoy these two comforting local dishes for the price of one.
Located within the staff cafeteria of Singtel Comcentre, the Fried Chee Cheong Fun is a real head-scratcher. When I first heard about it, I was rather sceptical. First of all, wouldn’t the staff cafeteria be only for, well, Singtel staff? Surprisingly, this cheap food haven is open to members of the public as well!
My other concern was this: how could they possibly combine the smooth texture of chee cheong fun with the slightly charred flavour of fried carrot cake?
But after trying the dish, I was pleasantly surprised. A simple dish, the Fried Chee Cheong Fun delivered well on flavour and texture nonetheless.
My first thought upon seeing the dish was that it looked very ordinary. Served on a Styrofoam plate together with disposable plastic utensils, it looked pretty much like any fried carrot cake you could get from hawker centres and coffee shops.
But lift a few pieces, and the pieces of chee cheong fun become visible.
The fried carrot cake is the ‘white’ variant, which means it comes sans dark soy sauce. I generally prefer because the dark soy sauce sometimes overpowers the entire dish. Especially for the Fried Chee Cheong Fun, the lighter flavour of the white version meant that I could properly savour the mix of tastes.
Slightly crusty around the edges, the fried egg portion of the dish held the slightest hint of charred flavours. I loved how the taste profile changed with each bite; the crusty fried egg would give way to the smoother texture and milder taste of the chee cheong fun. Finally, there was also the lingering sweetness from the char siew bits.
The Fried Chee Cheong Fun is best enjoyed with a generous dollop of sambal chilli sauce. Fragrant but not overly spicy, the chilli added a subtle bite to the dish. The spice also helped to lift the taste of the dish; the sweet heat from the chilli complemented the blander taste of the rice noodle, as the flavours rolled around in my mouth.
An interesting twist on two of our beloved hawker dishes, this affordable Fried Chee Cheong Fun is definitely something you’ll want to explore.
The trickiest part is probably getting to the cafeteria. To avoid getting lost, instead of entering from the main entrance on Exeter Road, walk in from the Killiney Road entrance instead.
It’s a short 10-minute walk from Somerset station, so if you’re ever in the area and craving cheap hawker dishes, you know where to go.
Expected Damage: $2.80 per pax