I went to a coffee shop and ordered a plate of chee cheong fun (CCF) from the porridge stall ( Jia Ping Porridge House) and observed the lady making my CCF from scratch. I asked her, Madam Lum, if I could take some photos. She happily obliged and showed me not just how she made my chicken and mushroom cheong fun. Mr Chang, the stall owner, got very excited too and and said I must try their other special items which is unique to them, nowhere else in Singapore would I find them he said.
Which was how I ended up eating three types of CCF for lunch.
Left: Chicken and mushroom
Middle: Fa cai ( black moss) and hou si (dried oyster)
Right: Durian
Well, Mr Chang and Madam Lum were right. The fa cai was finely scattered and partnered with its long-time friend the dried oyster it reminded me very much of CNY, smoky and delicious. The durian was lovely too, filled generously with loads of durian pulp and then scattered liberally on top with plenty of freshly ground peanuts.
I have to say also that their CCF has a fabulous skin, which is the most important thing for me as far as this dish is concerned. I can't care luss about the filling if the skin is icky. I like mine thin and smooth with a bit of bounce, and it shouldn' tear easily, gets smudged disgustingly when prodded with a chopstick nor come with a thick layer of oil.
Jia Ping passed the skin test. And the taste test. And I must say, I am not saying all this because they gave me the fa cai and durian CCF free of charge. They are justifiably proud of their product, I would eat their CCF again.
The time-stamp on the pictures says 7 March 2005, which was when I took them. I uploaded them before my trip to Shanghai but could not find the time to blog about it. Lucky for me, Cha Xiu Bao also blogged about chee cheong fun yesterday and he even explained the process in a poetic fashion. So you can just enjoy my pictorial.
Step 1: pour the batter on to a cloth placed over steaming pot.
2. Sprinkle filling on top. Or lay it out in a neat line.
3. Steam. Unroll carefully. Cut it up for serving.
4. Enjoy.
And no, I didn't eat all the CCF. Ta-powed for my colleagues who enjoyed it too.
Jia Ping Porridge House (formerly from Dunman Road Hawker Centre)
310 Lavender St , S (338815)
Tel: 6297 7537
