[EDIT: my blog crapped out yesterday and today, so no one could click any links or make any comments. It’s fixed now. Sorry about that!]

Cheng Delicacies
27 Yong Siak Street
Singapore
PRICE: $$$
RATING: ???–

I’d been in the area before and noticed this little corner coffee shop called Cheng Delicacies. We were looked after by a lovely lady that was friendly and obliging, and the coffee shop is nice and airy, albeit a little bit tucked away on a quiet street.

Cheng Delicacies sells, according to them, Authentic Hainanese Curry Rice. I admit I don’t actually know what the authentic version tastes like.. but basically  my ideal version has ultra crispy pork or chicken that’s tender, with curry that’s creamy and not-too-spicy. So we got the Hainanese Pork Curry and you know what? It was pretty good! I liked how the pork was separated from the curry, so that the pork was ultra crispy since I could drizzle on the curry at the last minute before stuffing it all into my mouth (mmmm…). The curry is creamy and a bit like Japanese curry in texture, but it has quite a bit of a kick to it – at least it does for me, Miss Chilli Non-eater!

We normally would never order Sambal Prawns but decided to this time since it was one of their recommended dishes. It’s one of the better sambal prawns I’ve had in Singapore. BIG plump prawns that had a lovely ‘crunchy’ bite.. ain’t it gross when you bite into a prawn and it’s a big squishy and powdery because they’re not fresh? Ewww. These weren’t like that at all, but tasted very fresh and the sambal sauce was not too spicy such that I couldn’t handle it.

The Otak Omelette confused me when it arrived at the table, because I’d expected it to look more like otak. It was actually a regular omelette with otak pieces dotted through it. A very simple dish, but oh-so-tasty and fantastic with just plain white rice!

Their Duck Soup (I believe this had a fancier sounding name, but I forgot!) looked very homemade and made me think that this would be something a Chinese family would serve up at home. I’ve never had duck soup before and really enjoyed this – the broth was thin but packed with flavour, and the duck was tender, though the meat didn’t have a lot of flavour as it had all gone into the soup it was boiled in! There were thick chunks of vegetables in there too, but I was happy just slurping up the broth.

At $0.80 a pop, it was hard not to resist the Chocolate Eclairs. They were served chilled with yummy cream on the inside and encased in smooth milk chocolate. I hear their local desserts are all baked fresh by them, but sadly we didn’t see any in the display case so I think they were out of stock. Suppose it’s just as well, or I’d have been inclined to order one of everything 😛

I was pretty surprised with the bill, though. For a 4-person meal, it ended up being over SGD$60. I’d expected it to be 2/3 of the price since it IS a local open-air coffee shop! But, to be fair, their portions were larger than other places and they used good quality ingredients. I hear that if you order the individual dishes with rice, it will be heaps cheaper (something like $5 per person).. so will probably do that next time!