National Day at ABC Brickworks Food Centre

9th August 2012.
National Day.

I think there is no better way to celebrate National Day with some good ol’ hawker food. Hence, we head to ABC Brickworks Food Centre as the nation gathered at Marina Bay.

Hawker food is such a beautiful cuisine, not only it’s affordable but it is nothing less sophisticated than fine dining. It is not true that there is no thought behind the food these hawkers prepare everyday just because they did it for a living (an assumption in the first place).

Perhaps, they do not have a PR wing, or the ability to articulate it as well as Andre Chiang or Joel Robuchon. From the use of banana leaf to serve char kway teow to the right temperature for stir-frying noodles or the tedious preparation for a flavourful broth, hawker food is a whole lot of work and science. I dare not say I know food but I personally think for anyone who thinks hawker food is simplistic compared to haute cuisine, simply does not understand food in the first place.

Our family had a few dishes from Gu Zao Ren Seafood Taiwan Porridge. The food ain’t too bad, the Pork Chops for example were really good, sweet, not too oily and very tender and the Omelette was crispy but not dried out.

Other items like the Stewed Mushrooms and Pork with Salted Vegetables seemed to have dropped in standards.

For appetizer, we had Chicken Satay (0.50 SGD each) from Nasi Ayam Geylang Serai, seemingly the only store selling satay that day. The meat was succulent but I felt it wasn’t charred enough and the meat wasn’t marinate long enough resulting in the need to spam peanut sauce to make up for the rather bland satay meat.

We also have another national favourite, the Grilled Sting Ray from ABC Seafood BBQ, Makanan Land. It was a major disappointment, the Sting Ray as you can see is pale in colour, evidence that the chilli sauce was applied onto it after grilling rather than grilled together. The result is bland, almost tasteless stingray with a miserable chilli sauce smeared over it.

Lastly, we had desserts from Jin Jin Hot and Cold Desserts which has a sizable queue. I had the Mango Ice and Ice Jelly with Cocktail. The Mango Ice was readily wiped out by my already full parents and younger brother, a testimony as to how tasty it was.