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I anxiously made my way to Berseh Food Centre and prayed to the heavens that Special Chilli Yong Tau Foo would bless me with a short queue that morning— this hawker stall sells yong tau foo at only S$0.60 a piece, and there’s no minimum amount you’re required to order! Say what?
I explored the hawker centre and finally caught sight of the stall. To my surprise, there wasn’t a queue at all (hoorah!), except for a lady in front of me (or so I thought).
I proceeded to take my pick from the myriad of ingredients which were displayed on the shelves. After I was done, the aunty just asked me what noodles I wanted before prompting me to take a seat.
That’s when I noticed a long line of orders before me, judging from the number of bowls that were in the kitchen (I assumed too soon).
After 15 minutes, I headed over to try my luck and my timing was perfect; the food was ready.
What I tried at Special Chilli Yong Tau Foo
My first bowl consisted of steamed tau kwa, mushroom with meat, green chilli, seaweed, bean curd roll, bitter gourd and pig skin served with a clear broth for only S$4.20. I also chose Hakka Mee (+S$1.50) for this.
I tossed the Hakka Mee which consisted of 3 simple ingredients: noodles, minced pork and spring onions. The noodles resembled mee pok but were much finer. They were glimmering with shine after the oil had coated a thin layer of itself onto the slim yellowish strands of dough.
The minced pork added delightful textural bites, while whatever magical seasoning that was laying dormant underneath suddenly gave it loads of flavour.
I decided to savour the noodles with the homemade chilli by mixing both together. Unlike other yong tau foo stalls that offer both the sweet sauce and chilli sauce separately, this stall mixed both together.
What you get is a subtly sweet concoction with a slow-creeping spice at the end. I also picked up notes of taucheo (salted fermented soy beans).
The soup was clean-tasting and extremely well-balanced with delicate flavours of soya bean. Due to the addition of bitter gourd in it, the broth had absorbed some of its acerbic taste— it’s the sort of soup that will warm you up on a cold, rainy day.
The pig’s skin was aromatic and had a great chewy mouthfeel to it. The bitter gourd was a thick chunk of satisfying bitterness with a silky fish paste centre.
When you think about the ingredients being S$0.60 a piece, you’d think that they would skimp on portioning, am I right? Well, not at Special Chilli Yong Tau Foo. The meat filling on top of the mushroom was huge… just look at the picture!
I then moved on to my second dish, a bowl of bee hoon soup with fried wanton, tau kwa, eggplant, ngoh hiang and enoki mushroom for only S$4.
The enoki mushrooms provided shiok crunchy bites to the paper-thin strings of bee hoon, which managed to absorb some of the savoury soup together with it.
The piece of ngoh hiang was perhaps the meatiest piece that I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve had many renditions of it which had more flour than meat but this was on an entirely new level.
Dunking each individual element into the chilli made it more appealing and exciting. If you’ve got a tolerance for spice, rest assured that this chilli is a walk in the park.
Final thoughts
I still can’t believe that my total expenditure for this meal was just S$9.70. Special Chilli Yong Tau Foo still keeps its prices reasonable for the high volume of older folks who are residing nearby.
If you’re thinking of paying them a visit, do reach there early before all the good stuff runs out.
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