This restaurant, 168 Singaporean Cuisine, is one of only two Singaporean restaurants in Hsinchu that I know of. (The other one is The Curry Garden, which used to be located near Chenghuang Temple, but is now across from National Tsing Hua University in the Three Great Circles area.) For the past few years, it has been a tiny food stall in the Huayuan (花園) night market with barely enough room inside for the owners, an elderly and very hardworking couple. In the last couple of months, they have expanded their operation to a bigger area, still in the same night market, and there are now about five other people working.
The main thing of interest on their menu is the curry. They have curry with chicken, pork, goat, or beef over rice. There is also curry chicken over noodles. The dishes are only about $60 or $70 a plate, so the chicken is mostly bones and the other meat is not of the greatest quality. Despite the small amount of meat, the chicken dishes are good, but the best option is to order a curry and rice plate with an omelette on top. There is a seafood omelette on the menu that is made from squid and shrimp, but I like to get it with just shrimp. The omelette is huge.
The curry omelette is not actually on the menu. The menu lists a Korean omelette over rice, but does not list any omelette dishes with curry. There are other dishes not on the menu. I got one dish with curry and peanuts and dried fish, but I can't remember the name of the dish.
They have always done a very brisk business. I'm not sure if it is because of the location or the cuisine, but there are usually a number of Indonesians who are eating here. There are usually people lined up in front of the stall waiting for their orders, so be prepared for a little wait.
You can see some red sauce on the shrimp in the above picture. That is the hot sauce, which is more flavorful but less spicy than the normal hot sauce.
don't remember seeing that in singapore.
ReplyDeletethe only thing 'singaporean' about it is that it has curry,
but then, which indo influenced country not have curry?
to clarify misunderstanding, indo in the above context refers to indian, which singapore has traces of, which traces to its roots.
So, you don't think Singapore has a unique curry (mix of spices)? I think Malaysian, Indonesian, and Singaporean curries are very similar, but I think there is some differentiation. I haven't eaten enough Singaporean or Malaysian cuisine to be sure. The curry at this restaurant was thicker than I have had at Indonesian restaurants, but I'm not sure if that is a defining characteristic.
ReplyDelete