Chinese classics get a kitschy twist at Chow Fun

SINGAPORE — Chinese classics such as flavourful fried noodles and breakfast bee hoon never fail. And it’s apt that this new Chinese eatery is called Chow Fun, a name typically refering to a dish of stir-fried noodles in the United States where chef-owner Alicia Lin lived for 20 years, even though most Singaporeans may know “chow fun” to mean fried rice.

> THE AMBIENCE

Displaying the requisite accoutrements of chinoiserie chic — Chinese posters from the 1940s? Check. Dragon mural? Check. Fortune cats waving their stiff paws? Check, check, triple-check — this cosy joint feels like a hip Chinatown eatery by way of New York.

> WHAT TO ORDER

As its name implies, the menu is largely made up of noodles served in little bowls that cost S$2.90 per serving. Many take inspiration from traditional noodle dishes, which are then given a creative spin. To wit: The pineapple fried noodles has its roots in Malaysian fried Hokkien mee. The thick and chewy noodles are swathed in a rich dark soy sauce and then sweetened with chunks of pineapple that give it a nice, sticky coating.

The kung fu dashi broth noodles were inspired by Singaporean breakfast bee hoon. The dashi it is cooked with imbues the vermicelli with a lovely depth of flavour and keeps the noodles moist and slippery.

The real gems are hidden in the appetiser menu where a potato, bonito and cheese pancake (S$6.90) blurs the line between a Japanese okonomiyaki pancake and a Swiss rosti deliciously. Thin slivers of potatoes, sliced over a mandolin, are bound with a light batter and fried to a crisp before the resulting “pancake” is cloaked in a layer of melted cheese and showered with flurry of bonito flakes and spring onions. This is one umami bomb we’d rather not share.

Sous chef Joven’s family recipe for white radish cake (S$5.90) has made it onto the menu too. Which is fantastic since the deep-fried cubes of white radish and rice flour flecked with minced Chinese sausages, dried shrimps and fried shallots are silkily creamy within and swaddled in a thick, crisp crust.

> WHAT TO SKIP

The chicken skin and salted egg yolk dip (S$6.90) will call out to you. You must resist that siren call. Everything about it was sub-par — the salted egg yolk sauce was thin and bland, and the chicken scratchings unremarkable.

> THE VERDICT

For the carb-happy, this is a don’t-tramp-on-my-spirit kind of place. You could gorge on bowl after little bowl of flavour-packed noodles and leave without spending more than S$25. We loved that the quality of every noodle was top-notch — the slippery strands of vermicelli didn’t break after cooking, the fat wheat noodles were robustly chewy, and the pastas never dried up in their bowls and remained happily al dente.

What’s missing from this menu, however, is protein. After your sixth mouthful of noodles, the urge for meat or vegetables kicks in. And when it does, there is little relief to be found. Which leaves the carb-dodgers to think about how to erase all that starch from their systems. ANNETTE TAN

Chow Fun Restaurant & Bar

Where:

#01-08 The Grandstand

200 Turf Club Road

Telephone:

6464 6900

Opening hours:

Daily 11am to midnight