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I travelled to the quaint neighbourhood of Cambridge Road, where Pek Kio Market And Food Centre is located. I chanced upon Tong Siew Fried Rice in one of my Facebook groups last year, and they specialise in S$3 plates of hor fun and fried rice.
I ordered their Fried Rice (S$3) and their Fried Hor Fun (S$3) from the aunty behind the counter. When she found out that it was far away, she got into a frenzy, and things started getting awkward between us.
“Can you sit nearer so that it’s easier for me to send it to you?” she exclaimed. I saw the words ‘self-service’ on the signboard, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. In the end, we agreed to her request and changed tables.
What I tried at Tong Siew Fried Rice
It was surprising to know that despite the recent GST hike, Tong Siew still sells its food at affordable prices.
My dining partners and I got the ball rolling with the fried hor fun. The plate had pieces of chicken, fish cake, green veggies, and a mound of hor fun doused in a viscous egg gravy.
The hor fun was smooth and slid down my throat easily. Unfortunately, it lacked the fragrant wok hei that you’ll usually get at other zi char stalls. The gravy was well seasoned but wasn’t exceptional.
As I dived deeper into the dish, I found the hor fun generously loaded with tender chicken pieces and tasty slices of fish cake. Honestly, the portions of the ingredients exceeded those of other establishments which charge a higher price.
Fire Rice: Superb sambal fried rice with fragrant wok hei & huge pork chop in Toa Payoh
We then moved on to the fried rice. The pile of rice was heavily laden with bits of chicken, fish cake, egg, whitebait and spring onions. For the price I was paying, I was impressed once again by the amount of ingredients it contained.
The crispy bits of whitebait were scrumptious and injected tiny bits of saltiness into the rice.
I must say that even though the fried rice had no wok flavour, it was tasty in its own way. Everything from the mini egg bits to the pieces of chicken, right down to the tiny sprigs of spring onion, added their own tiny personalities to the dish. The entire table agreed that it was delicious, and we finished every last grain.
Final thoughts
With inflation the way it is today, it’s difficult to discover hawker stalls which offer dishes at the same price point as Tong Siew Fried Rice. Even though things were a little awkward at the beginning, I managed to approach the aunty once again for a little chit-chat.
I found out that the Uncle has been doing this since the age of 22, and it’s been 53 years… that makes him 75 this year— amazing!
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