http://www.soshiok.com/articles/13038
Old-fashioned goodness to slurp in Yishun
Tue Jun 09 2009
Tan Hsueh Yun
The Sunday Times
Owner Alex Tham’s stall offers a good chicken curry and delicious pig’s trotters cooked in black vinegar and old ginger.
Wang Wang Local Delight offers a good chicken curry and delicious pig’s trotters.
Cheap & Good
Singapore, June 7, 2009 - For some women, having to eat bowl after bowl of pig’s trotters cooked in black vinegar and old ginger after giving birth is 50 kinds of hell.
I happen to like the stuff and order it whenever I see it on a menu.
Not a lot of places make this rather old-fashioned dish, which is served – or force-fed – to new mothers. The ginger warms the body and the vinegar is supposed to be cleansing.
I do not need to be any warmer than I already am, but I like anything with vinegar in it.
So when I heard about a stall in a Yishun coffeeshop that serves it, I made my way there.
Wang Wang Local Delight makes a good version of the dish. The black vinegar is tangy without being too sharp and the dark gravy is just sweet enough.
The old ginger used in the dish is sliced thin, which makes it easy to chew on to extract every bit of ginger juice and vinegar.
A $6 portion gets you a generous serving with several chunky pieces of trotter and two eggs that have been braised in the gravy so they are infused with that mellow vinegar flavour (above).
My only complaint is that the trotters are not meaty enough. Stall owner Alex Tham, 31, explains that the dish was originally made with the less meaty shank end of the trotter. Authenticity aside, I still would prefer more meat on the bone.
Now, I did not go all the way to Yishun to just have one thing, so I also tried the stall’s chicken curry (above, $3.30).
I have always thought that the potatoes are the best part of chicken curry and the spuds here do not disappoint. They are soft but still hold their shape and, best of all, are flavoured through and through with the curry.
The gravy is mildly spicy and very coconutty. It looks far too rich but it did not give me heartburn. The dish would be perfect made with fresh coconut milk but who does that any more?
There are some little touches that make this stall stand out. If the curry is not spicy enough, ask for some homemade sambal belacan to stir into the dish.
I also appreciate the fluffy jasmine rice they serve with the two dishes. It is such a nice change from the slightly mushy grains you get at most hawker stalls.
If the name of the stall sounds familiar, well, the owners used to operate a fish soup stall in Beauty World Centre but moved to Yishun in February.
Fish soup is off the menu because another stall in the coffeeshop already offers it.
I do not mind the revamp, especially if it means I get to eat pig trotters in vinegar anytime I want.
WANG WANG LOCAL DELIGHT
Blk 156, Yishun St 11, 01-122
Open: 10.30am to 10pm daily
Rating: ***
Old-fashioned goodness to slurp in Yishun
Tue Jun 09 2009
Tan Hsueh Yun
The Sunday Times
Owner Alex Tham’s stall offers a good chicken curry and delicious pig’s trotters cooked in black vinegar and old ginger.
Wang Wang Local Delight offers a good chicken curry and delicious pig’s trotters.
Cheap & Good
Singapore, June 7, 2009 - For some women, having to eat bowl after bowl of pig’s trotters cooked in black vinegar and old ginger after giving birth is 50 kinds of hell.
I happen to like the stuff and order it whenever I see it on a menu.
Not a lot of places make this rather old-fashioned dish, which is served – or force-fed – to new mothers. The ginger warms the body and the vinegar is supposed to be cleansing.
I do not need to be any warmer than I already am, but I like anything with vinegar in it.
So when I heard about a stall in a Yishun coffeeshop that serves it, I made my way there.
Wang Wang Local Delight makes a good version of the dish. The black vinegar is tangy without being too sharp and the dark gravy is just sweet enough.
The old ginger used in the dish is sliced thin, which makes it easy to chew on to extract every bit of ginger juice and vinegar.
A $6 portion gets you a generous serving with several chunky pieces of trotter and two eggs that have been braised in the gravy so they are infused with that mellow vinegar flavour (above).
My only complaint is that the trotters are not meaty enough. Stall owner Alex Tham, 31, explains that the dish was originally made with the less meaty shank end of the trotter. Authenticity aside, I still would prefer more meat on the bone.
Now, I did not go all the way to Yishun to just have one thing, so I also tried the stall’s chicken curry (above, $3.30).
I have always thought that the potatoes are the best part of chicken curry and the spuds here do not disappoint. They are soft but still hold their shape and, best of all, are flavoured through and through with the curry.
The gravy is mildly spicy and very coconutty. It looks far too rich but it did not give me heartburn. The dish would be perfect made with fresh coconut milk but who does that any more?
There are some little touches that make this stall stand out. If the curry is not spicy enough, ask for some homemade sambal belacan to stir into the dish.
I also appreciate the fluffy jasmine rice they serve with the two dishes. It is such a nice change from the slightly mushy grains you get at most hawker stalls.
If the name of the stall sounds familiar, well, the owners used to operate a fish soup stall in Beauty World Centre but moved to Yishun in February.
Fish soup is off the menu because another stall in the coffeeshop already offers it.
I do not mind the revamp, especially if it means I get to eat pig trotters in vinegar anytime I want.
WANG WANG LOCAL DELIGHT
Blk 156, Yishun St 11, 01-122
Open: 10.30am to 10pm daily
Rating: ***
