Late one night, as The Wife was scrolling through her Facebook feed, she noticed a friend’s photos of soon kueh that she had bought from Mei Zhen Hakka Delicacies (美珍客家美食) in Shunfu Market.
The pictures looked very mashida (맛있다), especially for someone with a semi-addiction to soon kueh. What made them more enticing was the fact that these were the Hakka version, with skin made using yam, another thing that The Wife was semi-addicted to.
Given the double whammy, I knew that the outcome was inevitable and pre-emptively said to her: “Gaja (가자)!” Which, as we all know, is Korean for “resistance is futile”.
There was just one small catch — the stall is only open from 6.30am to 1pm, and apparently sells out quite early. So, a couple of mornings later, we found ourselves on the bus at 7.30am, headed for Shunfu Market.
Thankfully, when we arrived, there wasn’t a queue and all of their dishes were still available, especially the all-important soon kueh that we had specifically travelled all the way there for.
Everything on their menu looked interesting, and we were this close to buying everything, until we remembered that we couldn’t possibly finish everything.
Plus, as we were walking there, we noticed other stuff from other stalls that we wanted to buy. But more on those later.
What did we eventually buy back from Mei Zhen? Everything, except the yam porridge and chee cheong fun with topping.
Of course, the first thing we tried that morning had to be the Hakka soon kueh. The skin was thin, firm and springy, unlike the thick and mushy wrapping that you sometimes get with normal soon kueh.
There was a slight hint of yam as we chewed, but we wouldn’t have identified the specific taste if we didn’t already know beforehand.
Each piece of soon kueh was generously filled with not only the pre-requisite mang kuang (jicama), but also chunky pieces of shitake mushroom, hei mu er (black fungus) and hae bee (dried shrimp).
All the components resulted in a crunchier-than-usual texture and more umami-laden flavour, made even more fragrant with the liberally-scattered chopped spring onion and deep-fried shallot topping.
Just the soon kueh alone was worth the trip to Shunfu Market.
The item that Mei Zhen is famous for is actually not their soon kueh, but their suan pan zi (abacus seeds), a traditional Hakka snack that’s becoming harder and harder to find in Singapore.
It gets its name from the shape of each piece, which look similar to the individual seeds of an abacus. And like the dish, sightings of an actual abacus being used are also increasingly rare.
If you’ve not tried abacus seeds before, the closest equivalent I can think of is yam gnocchi, if you’re into Italian cuisine; or yam mochi, if Japanese food is more your thing.
We were expecting a yam explosion on our first bite, but unfortunately, the flavour was more restrained. The texture was pleasantly chewy, but we would have preferred a more robust taste.
Unlike the soon kueh, we’d probably not buy the abacus seeds again. Not because it wasn’t good or anything, but simply because it didn’t suit our preferences.
I would, however, buy their chee cheong fun (rice noodle rolls). They’re not as soft and silky as those that are freshly-made and steamed just before serving, like in some dim sum restaurants, but for a pre-cooked version, these were quite close.
The orh kueh (yam cake) that came in the same packet was not bad, but unfortunately, since we eat the orh kueh from Prince Coffee House fairly regularly, any others don’t quite stack up against, in our opinion, the best one in Singapore.
However, their chilli deserves special mention. Not because it’s super spicy, but because it has just the right balance of spiciness and sweetness that goes very well with all the dishes from Mei Zhen.
We had the glutinous rice last, but only managed a bite each before storing it in the fridge for another day. It was alright, but not particularly special.
I know that we’ll make a return visit to Mei Zhen soon, primarily for their Hakka soon kueh, and also to try out the other items that we didn’t get to try yet i.e. yam porridge and chee cheong fun with topping.
Besides Mei Zhen, the other stall that we’ve been meaning to try is Chocolat N’ Spice (晶品美食西点), famous for their muffins and other baked goodies.
There was a long queue by the time we reached, but since it moved quickly, we didn’t have to wait long. The short wait also gave us time to decide what we wanted to order from their muffin menu and glass display counter.
Not all muffin flavours are available at any one time, so you’ll just have to try your luck and hope that what you like is in stock. They do churn them out pretty quickly, so chances are good that you’ll be able to get what you want.
We got the pear almond flan, orange peel butter cake and two flavours of muffin (blueberry and cheese).
There was no way that we could eat anything after the heavy breakfast, so we kept them for a tea-time snack, which ended up being an early dinner given the time window of our 15-9 intermittent fast.
Despite the popularity of their muffins, which were good but not great, we found that their other baked goods were better.
The flan had just the right density with a nice and syrupy glaze, and the cake was just the right level of buttery without being too overwhelming.
You’ll probably find better muffins and cakes in other bakeries and cafes, but it would be hard to beat their wallet-friendly price point.
One unexpected find that morning was a delightful kueh lopis from a Malay stall manned by a friendly pakcik and his wife. I forgot the name of the stall, but it’s the corner stall a few units away from Chocolat N’ Spice.
It’s not easy finding a kueh lopis that has the soft consistency that I like, but this came pretty close. I’ll probably order their lontong next time to see if their savoury dishes are equally good.
By the time we finished buying all our food, it was close to 8.30am and the hawker centre was really starting to fill up.
The walkways are quite narrow, making it difficult to navigate when there’s a crowd, so it was good that we had reached there early when it was relatively empty.
On our way out, we saw three prawn mee stalls just a few units apart from each other. I have a feeling that we’ll be back at Shunfu Market soon, to try out all three at one go.
That, and more oishii soon kueh from Mei Zhen Hakka Delicacies.
