razark's chinese muslim food

A full house at 8pm.

Friday night out in East at Changi Road for Cantonese and Sichuan style halal cze char (chinese stir fry).

To be honest, I didn't harbour great expectations.

Being Chinese, we often take for granted how lard seems to make everything smell and taste better. While I do agree that this is an entirely biased point of view, there is some truth in that.

But of course, that's nothing that's heart healthy.

Lard spells clogged arteries, cholestrol and fats, my friend.

Reality was what I was stating. Not showcasing morbidity.

Everything in moderation aye. :)

Now I've had terrible halal teppanyaki and disappointing halal sushi so we've since settled for proper Malay mamak style food whenever we want to go halal.

So imagine my surprise when I settled into my seat and looked up to see an elderly couple speaking Cantonese and heavily accented Hongkong style English coming by to take our orders.

Then I look around to see laminated menu sheets of all-day dim sum offerings. Roasted duck.
This is halal certified? 

And of course there's more.

The majority of the diners were Chinese?
How surreal.

We waited for a while before our orders were taken. Service was slow but immaculate.

They take care of orders table by table.

For good food.

We wait.
And here they come dish by dish.

Silky smooth beancurd with vegetables and mushroom medley covered in an egg drop thickened gravy. Starchy. But otherwise, tasty.

Batter at its best!
This was chicken skin-on coated in a light flour batter that gave a satisfying crunch biting into it.
And that thai sweet chilli sauce just keeps one going at it.
Order with caution.

Kangkong stir fried with garlic and home made sambal.
Crunchy signals freshness and adequate cooking time.
It's a good attempt at a balanced diet.

 Very tender beef slices.
Mildly spicy.
They took the chilli seeds out of those dried chillies so don't be fooled. :)
Evidently too generous with the oil though.

 And this?

The house specialty.

At $30, you get three average sized soft shell crabs.

And a lot of that cereal addiction.

Curry leaves and chilli padi fried into nestum cereal.

For flavour, texture and taste. 

Oh give me cereal anything.

They do cereal chicken, cereal prawns. I'm not sure if there's more. 

Or if they have an order for just cereal itself.

<3

And the after dinner party continues with a sleeping baby in a stroller, a toddler and 5 adults playing musical tables at Cafe Cartel along Siglap Road trying hard to fit ourselves into their terribly unfriendly tables.

Late night supper with finger food, milkshakes, birthday cake slices till the kids were cranky and tired.

Happy birthday!

It's just another Friday night. :)