Succulent Singaporean national dish, Chicken rice, and tofu in sweet and sour sauce at Nex

 

Chicken rice at Nex. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Chicken rice is the national dish of Singapore. The Chinese dish, inexpensive and sold at many hawker centres (now still called hawker centres but upgraded to the grand title of food courts).

On what looks like the ground floor, but is actually basement 2, where you walk out of the MRT underground train station with street level outside, of the large Nex Shopping Mall you find an indoor food court called Food Republic, not one restaurant but a series of independent businesses.

I was delighted by the chicken rice dish. A large portion of chicken, nice rice (I chose white rice, which is less tasty but less fattening than fried rice. On the side were two pieces of cucumber - I would have liked more. 

Soup and Spicy Sauce

Was there anything else they could do better? The chicken soup didn't really taste of chicken. (I dream of chicken soup from B & K in Hatch End, London.) The lack of flavour didn't matter as I used my chicken soup to pour over the rice to add some liquid to the meal. But we didn't finish our soup. We did finish every scrap of chicken and rice.

To be fair, I must admit that I did not attempt the spicy sauce, which you can see in the teeny white bowls.

Equally more-ish was the tofu in sweet and sour chili fleck sauce. I have never been a great fan of bland tofu. But the sauce was just wonderful. I would definitely go back for this. Oddly, the tofu was dearer than the chicken dish. The tofu was 7.50 dollars (and did for two people sharing), whilst the chicken rice was 4.50 Singapore dollars.

I finished with lemon tea from another stall, near the entrance. It was really lemony. All in all, a great experience. Highly recommended. I look forward to going back.

The chicken meal company's name was Guan Chee. Guan is a Chinese character, meaning gate keeper (the official in a city) or border pass. The symbol can also be romanized as Kuan or Kwan or Quan.

The name Chee also appears as Chia

Useful Websites

Singapore

https://www.nex.com.sg/

https://foodrepublic.com.sg/food-republic-outlets/food-republic-nex/

https://guanchee.com.sg/outlets/

Food Republic

23 Serangoon Central, #B2

Singapore 556083

Chinese names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C4%81n

https://www.mychinaroots.com/surnames/detail?word=Chee

UK

https://www.bksaltbeefbar.com/

https://www.ubereats.com/store/b-&-k-salt-beef-bar/

Google Local Guide eg Braddell Heights Community Centre, Singapore, and worldwide activities

Club Tampines West, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
How do you give brief but useful information about a Community Club in Singapore or anywhere?
First, how do you find it? Google maps. The map on the nearby MRT station. Look for a large building with the sign club outside.

Answer
I wrote this about Braddell Heights Community Club in Singapore and the nearby MRT underground station.

DIRECTIONS
From Serangoon MRT take escalators to exit F (fewer escalators than the other set of escalators which exit to the shopping mall). Along the corridor you emerge by bus stops. The Community Centre (changed name to Community Club in 2018 to sound more friendly) is a large building, same side, to your right, on the corner. Compact building with office, signboards and lift the lobby.

ACTIVITIES
Open to all. Non-members pay slightly more. Many activities are courses such as martial arts, Lion Dance group, singing, crafts, for children or adults, seasonal events. However, you can often drop into either the Mandarin speaking Toastmasters' International speaking club or one of the three English speaking Toastmasters clubs held on three of the five Saturday afternoons each month.   

EATING
No eating place is inside but a hawker centre is diagonally across the road junction beyond the HDB housing block; or go back to Nex shopping mall beside Serangoon MRT railway station. 

I could say much more for the Google reader, but the text would be too long for Google browsers. What else have I not said? This community club is one of my two favourites, because of its nearness to the MRT (trains every three to five minutes) and the number of English language activities. My other favourite is Cairnhill, near Newton MRT, with about nine English language Toastmasters clubs plus one Mandarin and one bilingual English and Malay.

You could also check out the Community clubs website which lists the clubs all over Singapore. 

PHOTO
I am in two minds about putting up a photo.

Inside the atrium of Braddell Heights Community Club. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites (Alphabetically by country)

EUROPE / GERMANY
The Rathaus, not a rat house but what we in the UK call a town hall. Normally the historic building is on the main square of each city. The big basement with columns and carvings usually has a bustling cafeteria serving reasonably-priced local food. Signs on walls and tables tell you about activities and local events.















Bremen town hall or Rathaus. Source Wikipedia article on Bremen. Photo by Pederec.

I remember that Bremen in north Germany has a typical, striking basement cafeteria.

In France the town hall is called the hotel de ville.

SINGAPORE
https://www.pa.gov.sg/our-network/community-clubs
TOURIST INFORMATION
https://www.visitsingapore.com/see-do-singapore/socialiser/?cmp=SEM_LEISURE-EATDRINK-NIGHTLIFE
SINGAPORE AIRLINES
singaporeair. com

CLUBS
toastmastersinternational.com/find-a-club

UK
Cities have events and activities in town halls, Arts Centres, churches, church halls, colleges, public libraries, pubs (the whole pub or a room upstairs), restaurants, schools, and theatres.  Look for the free newspapers in racks outside railway stations, in Tourist Information Centres, 
and in supermarkets and outside newsagents and the shops of estate agents (property agents).

USA
Just google 'community centres near me' and you will get suggestions for each city.

Author 
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Ginger Tea - Where to try it - and order in Tamil

Problem
What is it?

Answer
Unlike the ginger tea which I make in England, using a Twinings tea bag, which looks like a herb tea, ginger tea from a hawker centre in Singapore looks like a regular brown tea.

The first taste was pleasantly gingery. However, I soon forgot the taste. If you don't like ginger, that would be a good thing.

I do. I drank most of the drink without even noticing.

But that was because I was so engrossed in the conversation.

I had it at the hawker centre across the road, diagonally, from the Braddell Heights Community Centre, near Serangoon MRT (train station), on the circle line, and Nex shopping centre in Singapore.

The stall was Indian. Afterwards, one of our group ordered a big platter of food for our group of six to share. It was mee goreng, fried rice, but with egg and vegetables. Vegetarian but not vegan, so only five of the six of us were able to eat it. I could not see any egg. It came up with onion and ketchchup on the side.

To my surprise I ate some of the onion. I was hungry. I think that with curry or peeppery food you soon fail to notice the ginger flavour or any other flavour in your tea.

My general principle in Singapore is to eat and drink the same as the others. This has several advantages. If I don't like mine, one of them will finish it off. They will be able to explain the contents, the ingredients. They will be able to translate the meaning of the name of the food or drink.

I do not risk ordering something more expensive that everybody else. I can wax enthusiastic about their favourite food. I feel part of the group. I do not feel they are ordering something special for me.

The others ordered for me in Tamil. They spoke Tamil and so did the owners who were serving the food.

They also explained to me why Tamil was chosen out of two possible Indian languages. They claimed that Lee Kuan Yew heard from two groups who wanted their language chosen as the fourth official language, the one for the Indian minortiy. Lee Kuan Yew responded, "The Tamils supported me in my fight for independence, therefore they deserve to be rewarded with their language being chosen."

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Prata Wala, food ready signal

Problem
How do customers know when food is ready at a restaurant where customers collect their food from the counter? At some coffee bars in London, England, the server simply shouts out a number. But often you don't hear because of the noise level, or you busy yourself doing other tests while waiting. You only get your food after retuning to ask when it will be ready. This causes clutter, delay, stress, food not hot, customers cross, risk of other customers taking the wrong order which looks similar.

Answers
Queues in government offices rely on everybody watching numbers electronically overhead. The change of numbers may be accompanied by a signal.

I have seen several variations on my travels.

Stories
In the USA in the Sixties a restaurant had little flags on every table with a number. A skating server brought the food.

For restaurants in Singapore, here is the device which you as a customer carry to your table. It signals food will be ready by showing a small red or green light. However, you have to keep watching, and to know what red or green means. Is it red for not ready and green for ready?

I must confess I was looking at the device and puzzling over this when I heard somebody call out, "Masal dosai!"

I assumed that you were supposed to eat with your hands.
I forgot to collect or ask for cutlery. They didn't tell me it was the other side of the till. Another customer told me I could wash my hands and pointed to the basin.

My bill told me that I was at Prata Wala restaurant at New shopping Mall. I remembered it from a year or two ago. It is above Serangoon MRT. Open plan by an escalator and noisy but some people like a buzz.

Angela Lansbury,  travel writer and photographer.

Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer.

This system I observed used in Prata Wala restaurant, Nex, Singapore.
It is above Serangoon MRT.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.