Given that I am such a fan of Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine, as the closest I can find to that of my native birthplace Brunei; I was surprised to discover that Burnaby has its own Singapore Hawker location. This discovery is just one of the perks of Bites of Burnaby. This is Burnaby’s food festival celebrating local eateries and inviting those visiting the city to take advantage of discounts and specials.
Bites of Burnaby is running from March 1-31st with over 75 participating restaurants to try. Singapore Hawker is one such restaurant offering 10% off on certain dishes, all month long. This location is the spin-off of the original in Coquitlam that open 7 years ago, the Burnaby location now is hitting their 4th year.
Both locations have their walls decorated with Singapore’s landscape in cartoon. This includes mermaid lion and sky flower domes. The Burnaby location is the larger of the two, but is just as popular and busy. We cleverly came in between lunch and dinner and were able to enjoy your meal leisurely without the pressure of having to vacate our table.
When it came time to order, everything is done on an iPad. You get to view coloured images and read descriptions before “adding to cart”. Everything looked amazing and deciding was no easy task.
My instinct was to go with the usual Laksa seafood noodles, fried rice noodles, and/or Hainanese chicken rice. However, after almost 45minutes of indecision and going back and forth, I decided to try new items and take advantage of the Bite of Burnaby discounts. So the following are less popular Singaporean dishes, that you may not have heard of, but I now recommend.
New to their menu is Bah Kuh Teh, a traditional Singapore-Malaysian herbal pork bone soup with a fun to say name. Available in a large and medium sized serving. This is the medium pictured, for $10 less. It is pork ribs slow-simmered with aromatic Chinese herbs for a savoury broth that is deeply comforting and utterly soothing. I was impressed by how much meat the medium pot comes with. Three substantial pieces of meat on bone, plus plenty of pork belly slices. Each flavourful without the need to dip into a sauce. Despite the soup’s savoury nature it ends somewhat sweet, thanks to the goji berry fruity essence coming through. This served as a great way to warm up the belly to start, and then serve as a palate restarter as I jumped between all the dishes below.
The soup also came with a fresh fried Chinese donut and dish of crushed raw garlic and chilli. I have never had it like that and didn’t think it necessarily went together, when I dipped crispy donut into soup for it to become waterlogged. I did like the donut as is and ended up packing the condiment to take home and repurpose.
The Singapore Black Pepper Prawns are another new menu item, and it came highly recommended by our server. A sizzling clay pot of crispy fried, all blackened prawn in shell. So blackened that it looked like they were coated in charcoal dust. Each prawn is tossed in freshly cracked black pepper and butter and is some of the most flavourful I have ever had. It was to the point I couldn’t eat a whole prawn in one bite and needed rice to buffer. Luckily they have many rice options to choose from.
I would say that with all the dishes and eating everything as a shared meal, rice is needed. It served as a base for pooled sauces, a way to bridge dishes, and method to mellow out salty bold flavours. Your rice options included the classic steamed white, a coconut rice cooked in coconut water for a creamier finish. The ginger rice is a bright yellow, it isn’t spicy or heated like ginger, but slightly sweet with kernels of corn embedded throughout. And my favourite was the Hainanese chicken rice. It doesn’t come with any chicken, but the rice is cooked in chicken broth for a luscious soft and meaty texture, and a flavour all its own. Although admittedly, a lot of this flavour is hidden by all the wonderful seasonings of each dish below. I love how every dish was unique on to itself and nothing overlapped.
I ordered the Nyonya Fried 3 Kinds for name alone. My family has ancestors who were part of the nomadic Nyonya tribe and not only is this culture not often heard of, but their cuisine is even less represented. So to see it offered and acknowledged here made me want it all the more. The flavours can be best described as salty, tangy, savoury, and mostly sweet. It is similar to the Malaysian flavour profile, but with more acid. This would serve as a vegetable dish with stir-fried eggplant, green beans, okra, tomato, red pepper, and prawn. I love how crisp and colourful this clay pot was and how it offered a good variety of tastes and textures, naturally.
We over heard another table exclaim how great the Malacca Gai Lan was, and seeing as it was part of the 10% off Bite of Burnaby promotion we decided to try it for ourselves. Stir-fried gai lan with smoky pork lard, squid, and oyster sauce, served in a sizzling clay pot. I love how crunchy the stems of the leafy vegetable were. I also appreciated the mix including peppers and squid for diversity. However, I did not get any of the promised richness of lard in this. There were chunks of it sitting in the pooled sauce, but not enough to flavour. Just enough to offer a chewy, gel-like texture for little contrast. Similarly, given how many charred whole cloves of garlic there were I expected more garlic flavour, and was left wanting this as well.
Another 10% of Bite of Burnaby clay pot was the Nyonya Chicken Claypot. Boneless chicken pieces braised in a mix of caramelized shallots, fresh basil, and savoury garlic. I found this just as light as the gai lan and in need of more soy or salt. It was also bland when compared to the prawns and soup above. Good, but not as memorable as the others.
And we got the Kari Lembu as a personal favourite. I love the softness of slow-cooked beef brisket. This was a spiced, but not spicy curry with potatoes and Malaysian seasonings. This is one dish you want with a plain bowl of steamed rice, considering how much flavour it packs on its own. The meat practically melted, it was so easy to break apart with the edge of a spoon. Each morsel rich and comforting. This is exactly what I wanted and I got exactly what I hoped for.
And for dessert we got individual bowls of Bubur Cha Cha. This version had a thinner consistency than what I am use to. The same flavour of condense milk and coconut cream, but runnier. It would have been easier to drink out of a straw, especially with the small tapioca pearls and the fact that the pieces of firm root vegetables were chopped up relatively small.
In closing, this was an amazing meal, I am glad I tried new items and ones I would not normally gravitate towards thanks to the discount. I am also happy to have discovered a second location in Burnaby, closer to me that I can now frequent. If you have never been, I suggest you do now and take advantage of the 10% off Bite of Burnaby discount to discover a new favourite dish. And if you enter my Instagram contest at @magmei you could win one of two $50 gift cards to have a meal on me!
Singapore Hawker Burnaby
7150 Sperling Ave, Burnaby, BC V5E 2W5
(604) 519-1882
singaporehawker.ca
