Tiong Bahru Foodwalk: Dining in the Den of Beauties.

Tiong Bahru is one of Singapore’s oldest housing development neighborhoods; an oasis of art deco buildings and culinary discoveries in an area that modern time forgot – until recently.

Once the desired living room of the upper-class, Tiong Bahru became infamous as the keeping place for mistresses of the rich and powerful, lending itself to the Mandarin label Mei Ren Wo (“Den of Beauties”). But the beauty here is not just skin deep; the architecture is also something to behold, with a mix of local Straits Chinese shophouses and art-deco structures with rounded balconies, flat rooftops and spiral staircases still in use today. Kind of like Miami's pre-gentrified South Beach with Chinese characteristics. 

All roads in this historic area lead to your foodwalk starting point: the famed Tiong Bahru Market. It’s the epicenter since 1955 of what feels distinctly like a compact village hidden deep within the towering development of the Lion City’s central district.  The first self-organized wet market in Singapore, this primarily-morning affair is still seen as a prime example of a well-designed center for excellent food.

Start your walk on the second level hawker center with a helping of chwee kueh at Jian Bo Shui Kueh (stall #02-05). The ladies there will slide tender, steamed rice cakes onto a sheet of paper, plop a dollop of radish sautéed with garlic, soy and herbs on top and slip a heaping spoon of dense, not-too-hot chili in the middle. It’s four for a buck and with just one bite you’ll understand why so many claim this to be the best on the island. 

Next, head down-stall to Tiong Bahru Pau (stall #02-18) and supplement breakfast with a fresh-made steamed pork bun, silky prawn dumpling and delicious shiu mai.

 And if that doesn’t tickle your taste buds, try a plate of roasted meats with rice at Original Tiong Bahru Golden Pig & Roasted (stall #02-68) or nearly any of the other hawkers up there – just look for the longest queue and you can't go wrong.

 

Downstairs in the wet market, wander the aisles of fish mongers on the far end, their catch neatly iced for maximum freshness. Off to one side comes multiple pork stalls – among the best in town – followed by fresh vegetables, eggs and fruit. On the other side of the market's grassy open courtyard is chicken, fishcakes, more vegetables and stalls of fresh cut orchids and other tropical flowers flashing optic in the morning sun.

As much as you’ll want to stay and enjoy the market, head out the main entrance to the intersection of Seng Poh and Eng Hoon streets. As you look around at the old-school architecture of this town center you may feel drawn to the opposing corner, where excellent curry rice with pork chop has been available since 1946 at Loo’s Hiananese Curry Rice (57 Eng Hoon St. #01-88). But make a left and work off your starter snack by walking down Lim Liak Street, passing orderly rows of low-rise housing, inviting lawns and coconut trees.

At the end, turn left onto Kim Pong Road, strolling along the green open space of Kim Tian Green. If a Chinese holiday is approaching chances are there will be a large theater assembled on the lawns - something worth coming back to in the evening to watch. 

As the road curves stay to the right on Yong Siak Street, where you re-enter rows of streamline-moderne flats offering an authentic throwback to neighborhoods of yesteryear, including Teck Kee Leong Huat general store (01-18 Yong Siak St.).

By now it’s time for a coffee or tea, and the groovy Forty Hands coffee shop near the corner of Chay Yan Street (78 Yong Siak St.) is just the place.  The vibe is mellow and inviting -- sort of like a Seattle coffee house before that label meant anything -- and the coffee is made with great care and respect for the forty hands required to bring it from seed to brilliant, steaming cup.

Head up to the corner and make a left. You’ll pass the oldest part of Tiong Bahru and the housing projects that inspired the successful HDB development scheme that is now emblematic to Singapore. Hang a right on Guan Chuan, then left down Tiong Poh Road. At the corner of Eng Hoon Street check out ninety year old Qi Tian Gong Temple, Singapore’s oldest temple honoring the Monkey God, who bestows blessings and protection, eliminates bad luck and grants longevity and prosperity. 

Stroll around Eng Hoon Street to see a mix of old and new cooking schools, shophouses, ancient sewing supply stores and a specialist egg seller. At the dead-end of the street is Foodie Market Place (225 Outram Rd.) a gourmet store where hard-to-find items, including fine cuts of meat, cheeses and an assortment of imported gourmet products not available in most stores can be found.

Back at Tiong Poh Road turn right, toward the corner of Tiong Poh and Tiong Bahru Road. A quick left onto Tiong Bahru Road brings you to Glacier Confectionery (Blk 55 Tiong Bahru Rd.) for colorful kueh, breads, coconut lapis and other Chinese desserts. You’ll want to sample a few and take home even more. 

After sating your sweet tooth, continue along Tiong Bahru Road to Sin Hoi Sai (55 Tiong Bahru Rd.) and survey the live seafood selections for a future cze cha diner feast. It's gone a little Hollywood in recent years, but even local foodie critics admit it's delicious. 

At the corner with Seng Poh, cross right to the yellow Tiong Bahru Bird Arena, where old Chinese guys spend early mornings hanging cages of songbirds and then drink kopi while quietly gambling over who's is the most melodic.

By now you may be getting hungry again (as if!), so walk back up Seng Poh toward the market. You'll pass the aforementioned Loo's curry rice joint where, if you didn't try it before, the pork chop curry rice will knock your socks off. But don't have seconds, because your real destination is a couple of short blocks up the street at Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh (Blk 58 Seng Poh Rd #01-31) where you should treat yourself to a peppery bowl of thier namesake pork bone soup classic along with a side of succulently braised pig trotter and a pot of gongfu tea – it’s an old neighborhood institution, with a crowd almost anytime of the day, so you know it’s good! 

Or head down Seng Poh Lane to Por Kee Eating House (69 Seng Poh Ln.) where, if you find yourself with a small group for lunch or dinner, you should grab a table for some excellent cze char specialties like their coffee ribs (for which they are famous), a plate of crunchy cereal prawns or a steamed fish in a sour broth. Skip the air con dining room and grab an outdoor table by the car park overlooked by spiral staircases of old-school HDB low-rises. Snub-tailed stray cats will wander the lot as cooling breezes flutter your table cloth. Within minutes you'll feel you've left glittering Singapore for somewhere culturally richer.

Tiong Bahru is one of those neighborhoods in Singapore where old and new triangulate into a well-balance blend. She's Asian-old meets neo-bohemian, where you can taste good wines and artesan breads while simultaneously watching the past stand still. And that's one Den of Beauties whose beauty has stood the test of time.

Kiang Kee -- Bak kut teh the old school way

There are monkeys along the road that leads North from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. They squat on their haunches at the edge of the tarmac, watching us whiz by. We've been in the small Nissan driven by Ettore since 8:00am, having needled through Johor Bahru, passed suburbs of dusty, crowded local shops, then buzzed along countless hectares of stunted palm trees in the middle of nowhere. It’s almost 11 am and we’re hungry, having eaten nothing all morning – which explains our three hour ride from Singapore – for bak kut teh.

“It’s the best I’ve had,” Ettore announced three nights before at a Makansutra dinner. Now, I’ve tried a lot of damn good pork rib tea in Singapore, but Ettore’s strong comment gave me pause. He has, after all, been in the F&B business here for more then twenty years. So when he offered to drive to the situs of “the best bak kut teh,” I jumped at the chance.

Misspelling or not?

Kian Kee Bak Kut Tea attracts a breakfast crowd of locals and pork bone soup aficionados from all over. That’s right, breakfast. Which is the best time to eat this hearty meal of pork ribs slow cooked to melting tenderness in a soupy concoction of herbs and spices. It’s an unassuming place that one might drive right by unless spotting the dirt lot crowded with cars bearing Singapore plates. About 40 km north east of JB in Kota Tingii, it’s connected to a rustic motorcycle repair shop crammed with greasy parts and scooters. The restaurant is little more than a thatched roof pondok over a concrete pad and indicated by a plain sign with the traditional “Teh” part of its main dish spelled like the elixir the soup is: “Tea.” Beneath is an open kitchen with a row of coal pots and a few enormous stockpots. Smoke from real wood charcoal is pushed around lazily by ceiling fans and flames shoot up around the sides of clay pots bubbling furiously with an array of brown, clear and opaque liquids purging streams of fragrant, herbaceous steam.

Kian Kee has been an institution in these parts for more than 20 years. Back in the day they made their famous tea/soup with wild boar hunted locally in the jungle. Today, however, it’s local domestic pigs that keeps everyone coming back for more. Each serving is cooked in claypot to order, gurgling under the heat of flames dancing around the edges, occasionally sparking up into bubbles of miniature porcine fireworks. Multiple claypots boil away at the same time, most with the prized dish, but others with delicate liquids and vegetables or bread getting a claypot grilling to add a subtle, slightly smoky char along the edges. The aromas, sounds and visuals of this rustic, almost-outdoor cooking of a food that is really supposed to be cooked only this way, is utterly intoxicating and just plain sexy.

Everyone who goes here orders the same thing from the very limited menu: the bak kut teh. Of course, add to it a little mei cai (wafer-like crispy tofu skin) and some you tiao (those slender, deep fried bread stick chunks) and you’ve got yourself a meal that will carry you deep into the afternoon. A pot of Hao Cha Loh tea, should steep at the table, providing a remarkably fragrant and satisfying drink. But we didn’t stop at the bak kut teh. As if to somehow further validate our distance-traveled to volume-eaten quotient, we also ordered braised pig trotter, enoki mushrooms in fragrant broth, stewed tripe,  pork-braised Tau Fu Pok (fried beancurd) and steamed rice.

Secret ingredient - wine

The bak kut teh came still bubbling and was almost viscous with richness. And upon first taste it displayed a different flavor profile than what I expected from my Singapore versions. It was light on pepper (unlike many in Singapore) and richly translucent with savory pork flavor, strong herbs, garlic and a curious tingle of Chinese rice wine which added an umami-like enhancement to the overall experience. Its delectable balance of salt and herbs created the perfect host for the glistening pork, clinging pale to the bones but slipping off into moist buttery bites bursting with infused flavors from the luxurious elixir it bathed in. And as the mei cai absorbed the tea it added a chewy sensation that was out of this world. It was, in a word, ultra-shiok!

The trotter was tender and robust, with a dark braising liquid adding a porky richness and an earthiness from the claypot in which it cooked. 

It offered a flavor alternative to the bak kut teh which was complimentary and, oddly, not the least redundant. The meat dripped from the bones into tender slivers of knuckle goodness that made us swoon.

The tripe (stomach) floated elegantly in a simple pepper pork broth and presented a gentle, not-so-chewy texture and clean taste. With no hint of iron mineral-ness it was a soothing offal dish and easily the most delicate tripe I’ve had.

Resting on the surface of thin stock, entertained by some barely wilted bok choy cabbage, the enoki mushrooms were alluring in their snow white gentility. Evoking memories of fine Japanese dining, the clear broth served as a featherweight canvas for the barely-fruity taste and moist texture of the mushrooms. A study in beauty and simplicity, it was culinary mycology at its best.

To be sure, there is excellent bak kut teh in Singapore; some versions that I would proudly serve to anyone from anywhere. But Kiang Kee offers something different and not readily available in Singapore anymore – rustic old school cooking in a setting reminiscent of days gone by. Combine that with the exceptional flavor alternative to what is encountered across the causeway and you have something worth driving three hours for. But get there early, because at Kiang Kee breakfast is the name of the game and they’re sold out by lunch.

Restaurant Kiang Kee Bak Kut Tea

Batu 8 ½

Jalan Mawai

Kota Tingii 81900

Malaysia

7:30 am – 12 (or until sold out).