Liao Fan: Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken -An In depth Experience

The 1st ever Michelin-starred Hawker stall, this is a milestone for street food in the history of the Michelin Guide.

Chan Hon Meng, the man behind this small stall is on cloud nine. His Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle which is an Hawker stall has been awarded a “One Star” rating in the newly launched Singapore Michelin Guide 2016. Due to its recognition, foodie around the world have been raving to try this hawker stall, the cheapest Michelin starred worldwide.

Chef Chan Hon Meng (photo credit to the owner)

My Experience:

I am one of those foodie out there that’s been raving to try it! I added it in my Food Bucket list as soon as I’ve read about it in my Facebook news feed.  As a resident from the Philippines, I couldn’t try it right away unless I booked an air ticket from the Philippines going to Singapore. I patiently waited until such time, me and my friends decided to have a South East Asia Trip and included Singapore as one of the country to visit. I immediately decided to include this in our itinerary.

Welcome to Liao Fan’s Famous Soya Sauce Chicken. 😋

I have a friend who is working in Singapore as a nurse. She already gave me a heads up that the queue would be very long since they tried going there but end up eating at another hawker stall because the queue was just too long.

Determined that I should try it, I decided that we will be there very early. Liao Fan opens at exactly 8:30 in the morning. We woke up around 5:30am to prepare and was at the hawker stall area by 7:30am. Though we were an hour early, there was already around 8 customers that were waiting in line. Still, it made us happy knowing that we will be one of those few customers to get a chance to eat it without lining too far.

In queue, while waiting for Liao Fan to open.

While we were waiting, we munched on a local Singaporean Bread that was sold near the stall area, drank some local Teh Tarik ( hot milk tea beverage which can be commonly found in restaurants, outdoor stalls and kopi tiams within the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia and Singapore.) and chatted our way while waiting for Liao Fan to open.

my local Teh Tarik. Cost 1.20 SGD. Don’t mind the broken glass.😆

Once they opened, an usher will immediately guide each customer for there turn to order.

the usher in blue shirt.

After a couple of minutes, it was our time to order. We were overjoyed by the prices of there menu considering it garnered a Michelin Star. How cheap?  Well, let me tell you that one order only cost 2.50 SGD. That’s only about 90php! What a steal! We this pricing, we ordered three Soya Chicken with Rice plus a Pork Rib Rice and Soya Chicken with noodles as Extra. With generous servings  Para lang kaming nag buffet. LOL And we were only 3 eating it! .😋😂

Soya Sauce Chicken in Rice😋

Our Pork Ribs in Rice. Meat is very tender! =)

Soya Sauce Chicken in noodles.😋

Personally, I have tasted few Soya Sauce Chicken rice both in the Philippines and even in Hong Kong, but honestly this is by far the best. No wonder this hawker stall got such recognition.😊

Describing it through words wont do much justice. So experience it for yourself.

Finally, its chow time!😋😋

If ever I’ll have the chance to be back in Singapore, I will definitely eat there again! Another bucket list to all the foodie out there.

Address:

Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle 香港油雞飯麵
Blk 335, Smith Street #02-126, Chinatown Food Complex, Singapore 050335
Opening Hours: 10:30am to 7:00pm (Mon – Tues, Thurs – Fri), 8:30am to 7:00pm (Sat – Sun), Closed Wed

Thip Samai: a taste of the World’s Best Pad Thai | Chinitoeats

Known as the National Dish of Thailand. Undoubtedly the most acknowledged Thai dish worldwide.

Before I would impart to you my experience of this world renowned dish, it is best to give you a little bit of its history.

How Pad Thai was invented:

Pad Thai has been first introduced in the era of the Thai Prime Minister, Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram in the middle of World War II. During the crisis of World War II, the prime minister tried to create a campaign that drove Thai people to consume there local natural produce, thus Pad Thai was introduced and became the signature dish of Thai foods since then.

Through the ages, Pad Thai are becoming more of a staple food in Thailand that most if not all Thai Restaurants and even street vendors are offering this dish.

There may be a lot of Pad Thai that are available in Thailand, but one restaurant really stand out. This is Thip Samai  or better known as ” Pad Thai Pra-Too-Pee” to Thais, because the restaurant is location along the intersection of Pra-Too-Pee in central Bangkok.

Getting to know Thip Samai:

When Pad Thai was introduced there were few restaurants that caters this food, however, with the neat and delicate cooking method, PadThai Pra-Too-Pee became famous that the Prime Minister itself, who created the name Pad Thai, acknowledges there Pad Thai as the “True Authentic Pad Thai in Thailand”. Occasionally the Prime Minister would invite foreign visitors to dine in at the restaurant to taste there Pad Thai.

Later on, the name Pad Thai Pra-Too-Pee has been changed to “Thip Samai” Restaurant in 1966. With the long history of more than a half a century, they have been standing and walking together with Thai people in every crucial and critical event. The restaurant became famous because they are always meticulous in selecting there ingredients.

My experience:

Arriving late in Bangkok did not stop us from visiting the place on our first night even though we had a back breaking 10 hour ride from Cambodia.

Having a taste on this famous Pad Thai was first in my list. Eager to go there, I asked the owner of our hostel on how we could reach the place.

The restaurant was bluntly a 20 minute walk from our hostel. Aside from we were dead tired, it was raining. But our strong will got us there.

We were greeted by a long queue that was evident outside the restaurant. The good thing though is that there service and cooking time are quick and most customers just sit, dine and leave to give room to others who would want to taste this famous dish.

We waited in line for about 30 minutes before we were given a table. You will really noticed that the place is old but somewhat well maintained. Hanged on the walls are there recognitions and awards in various organizations that made them well-known.

We were then given a English Translated menu.

The thing with there menu is that they do not have many dish to choose from (maybe one more reason why there serving time was quick). Inside the menu was the recommended menu “The Superb Pad Thai”. It is a Thai style vermicelli stir fried in shrimp oil with some beansprouts, tofu, chives and deep sea prawns then delicately wrapped with fried egg which was the one we ordered.

Here’s how it looked. Exquisitely cooked.

The taste was heavenly. We were in Bangkok for 4 days and had Pad Thai every single day in different restaurants and food stalls, but this is indeed by far the best. The noodles itself had a taste, not like the other noodles that we tasted that are quite bland.

Selfie with our food:

I also observed when we arrived is that they use coal fire to fry the Pad Thai which I know brings more flavor than the usual method of cooking.They really do think about the quality of there food and even there way of cooking.

Aside from there famous Pad Thai, there are two drinks you have to try here. One of them is the icy Coconut Juice (30 baht) which is actually a recipe of King Rama 9’s mother. She gave the secret recipe to this shop, to pair it with their Pad Thai. The coconut juice is very very sweet and there is coconut meat in each drink.

Another drink is the freshly squeezed orange juice which was very sweet and refreshing! No preservatives are added, just fresh oranges are used to make the juice. I had the small one(250ml) which costs 90 Baht and the large bottle (500 ml) costs 160 baht. Although they said that the orange juice may vary in price 2-3 times a depending on the oranges they used.

Verdict:

If you’re a foodie like me, it would be best not to miss this when you visit Bangkok, Thailand.

Pad Thai Thip Samai (Pad Thai Pratu Pi) ผัดไทยทิพย์สมัย (ผัดไทยประตูผี)

Address: 313 313 Thanon Mahachai, Phra Nakorn
Hours: 5 pm – 3 am daily
Phone: 022216280

ผัดไทยทิพย์สมัย (ผัดไทยประตูผี)
313 อาคาร บริเวณภูเขาทอง ถนนมหาไชย (มหาชัย) แขวงสำราญราษฎร์ เขตพระนคร กรุงเทพฯ 10200
เปิดทุกวัน เวลา 17.00-03.00 น. (หยุดทุกวันพุธต้นเดือนและปลายเดือน)

โทร. 022216280

How To Get There:

Pad Thai Thip Samai is located in the old district of Phra Nakorn, just a few minutes walk from the Giant Red Swing near Chinatown Bangkok, and very close to the Golden Mountain.

If you go as soon as they open, you can take the Khlong Saen Saep canal boat to the final Panfa Leelard station, exit towards Ratchadamnoen, make a left on Mahachai, and the restaurant will be on your left hand side. Alternatively, you can either take a taxi directly there or a bus. It’s also an easy 5 minute walk from Democracy Monument.

If you happen to buy the tourist sim card for data usage, you may use google Map to locate it.

Chinitoeats: Exotic Foods in Bangkok -Conquered! (A Foodie must Experience)

Scorpions, worms, cockroaches, crickets, locust- we tried it all.!

It was an all or nothing experience. When I decided to have my South East Asia tour in Bangkok. I immediately thought of trying there exotic foods, by exotic I mean the real hairy, black, ugly little creatures. Yep, the creepy crawlies everyone’s been talking about that are abundant in the streets of Bangkok at night.

I’ve been so excited to try these little crawlies that most people doesn’t have the stomach  to even dare taste it. Fast forward, the day came that we arrived in Bangkok. We arrived at around 8pm already from Cambodia. It was a back breaking 10 hour ride. I swear to never do it again. Anyway, I was not able to try these things right away. It was on our 2nd night in Bangkok that I had the time to stroll along Khao San road (the road known to backpackers worldwide) and hunt them out.

You can see them right at the heart of Khao San road around 9pm. They will be displayed in food carts.While you can see scorpion vendor selling at an earlier time  of the day but it is expensive. (be very careful if you are thinking to try one right away as they will try to sell it for 150 baht a piece. Rip off!! Normally, a regular sized scorpion will only cost 50 baht.)

A closer look… Those hair though..Mmmmm 😋

We decided to try a little bit of everything, excluding the huge centipede and the Tarantula. We just thought, we don’t have the courage to try it as it was physically disgusting to look at! “argh! Luora!” (that’s disgusting) as what my friends utter.! Hahaha 😆

We had our plate of creepy crawlies for 100 Baht. We had few pieces of worms,  huge wood maggots, huge Grasshoppers,  Crickets and cockroaches! Are you ready dig in? Excited? more like anxious actually. Hahahaha. 😂😆

Our curiosity peaked when we started sticking one insect in our stick and started munching it.

here goes! Hahah

the faces are just priceless..😂😂

All of them pretty much tasted the same, just like a fried shrimp or crablets with skin on except for the maggot that tasted like cooked pig brain. Yuck! Hahaha  Call me crazy but I actually liked it. LOL😂😆😅😁

It was indeed something to remember and bragged about when people will talk about it. If someone would ask us if we tried it, we would say “been there, done that.” Lakas ng loob lang? haha 😁

One time experience was enough to satisfy our curiosity about the taste of these creepy crawlies. Next time, I will try to have the centipede, maybe! 😉

To all Foodies out there, I challenge you to try one of these exotic foods at least once in your life. You might enjoy it! LOL Have fun grossing out! ahahahha 😁😁😁