Thondamans

What happens when you are starving and seriously so hungry that you could eat a cow?

Choose from the below options:
a) I would settle for the first stall/restaurant/eatery I see and eat whatever they sell
b) I run to 7-11 to buy myself a cup of instant noodles
c) I swallow my saliva unwillingly and distract myself because I’m too lazy to get off my chair
d) I walk and explore patiently, believing that good food will come my way if I just practise patience and wait till my heart tells me this is the one.

So which did you choose?

Did you pick the easiest options? OR

did you go with option d?

If you chose option d then we have something in common.

Weird choice you might think but I have a rationale.

Good food is worth the walk; besides walking helps work up an appetite and heck, it’s healthy!

I went for sunset mass at OLPS yesterday and was ravenous by the time it ended and it was about 8pm when JF and I started walking around the area searching for something delicious and substantial.

Just when I thought I had to settle for the usual rice with mixed vegetables, I spotted a large green sign that read “Thondamans Restaurant – Authentic Curry Fish Head”. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sign and started to suggest that we dine there.

Blame it on my love for Indian food but I really can’t say no to curry! We walked closer and saw the menu – they sold thosai! I love eating thosai and have been wanting to eat some. Then the owner who was mopping the entrance told us to come in. We were checking out the menu (too intently i guess!) and he gestured us to come try the food, and promised that it will be cheap. We were sold. haha… well by then I had decided what to eat, so we entered the place.

I wanted some meat, dhal and vegetable so we ordered mutton masala, snake gourd, dhal, and the usual thosai.

mutton masala

Raita

The food was tasty and really up-to-standard. The mutton was so tender and the gravy thick and rich. I loved it. Even JF was impressed. I couldn’t stop chowing down my thosai with the gravy, including the dips that came with the thosai. Everything was so fresh and yummy that I stopped talking for a while. The raita was refreshing. I love anything with yoghurt.

Midway, JF asked me if I was full (that’s his way of saying that he was still hungry) and I told him, sure, we’ll order more!

So we ordered sambal fish briyani and we were taken by surprise (in a good way) when this appeared:

That’s alot of rice! It came in a metal steel bowl and the fish was in the middle of the rice together with an egg. The set came with some pappadums together with more tasty curry.

We put the rice on a plate and started eating every grain, with big mouthfuls. The owner must have been frightened at the amount we were eating! hahaa…

I liked the sambal fish although it tasted different from the usual sambal. There was more of a fresh chilli taste. I loved the briyani; they cooked it really well with the right amount of spices and it was really fragrant.

We were seriously stuffed. I felt sooo full but I was really happy. As I’ve mentioned before, if you succeed in feeding me something yummy, I will be your best friend for life :p

And I think the owner will be seeing more of me in time to come…. I still have to try their curry fish head. Okay, now I’m drooling… AGAIN!

Thondamans Restaurant
No. 324P, Changi Road
Tel: 6345-5022

P.S. They do catering as well!

Beach Road Scissors-Cut Curry Rice

Sometimes the simpler the food is, the more glorious it tends to be.

Who says you can only get good food in posh restaurants? Food is food is food. The only difference is the combination of ingredients (how well they meld together, resulting in a gamut of taste and smell) and the packaging.

Hawker food in my opinion, is simply food that is stripped to its bare essentials. It’s naked, exposed for all to see. Most of the time, it doesn’t look as pretty as what you’d get in places where you’d most probably be forking out 3 times as much. It’s all in the branding, marketing etc.

But some food is so good that you really don’t need to market it – that usually happens when the food is so good that it speaks for itself. Having a ‘voice’ of its own, these types of food are themselves legends. Backed with history, each has a story to tell. That is perhaps why I have a soft spot for hawker food. I appreciate the hard work that goes behind each day in the non-air-conditioned kitchen. Some stalls are passed down from generations. So the recipes are old and authentic.

Food might seem simple and plainly functional to some, but to me, it’s multi-dimensional. It’s an entire entity. There’s so many textures, flavours, culture, history that goes into it. I dare say blood and sweat too. But I will delve into that another time.

Today I want to bring to light a certain stall that most of you might have already heard of or dined at. It’s a rather popular place. Open from 11am to 3:30am, this stall can get really packed; especially during suppertime.

Here’s the reason why:

What’s so fantastic about curry you ask? This is no ordinary curry. It’s Hainanese curry rice at its best. The gravy is thick and starchy (i think they put corn starch) and tasty. Eating rice drenched in curry of this sort makes for a different gastronomic experience. Perhaps I’m just too used to normal curry that’s why I find this type a novelty. I’ve eaten Hainanese curry rice before but that was many years ago – Midnight Curry Rice I think (they open only at midnight.. haha).

So how come I’m suddenly so infatuated with this curry rice? Maybe it’s due to the fact that it’s Beach Road Scissors-Cut Curry Rice. I have Winston to thank for this. He brought me to the stall in promise that I will be super satisfied. He says that it’s one of the pioneer Hainanese curry rice stall. I’ve heard that they named their stall Scissors-Cut Curry Rice because they used to use scissors to cut the pork chops. I think it’s an ingenious name and catches one’s attention.

The colour of their curry also caught my attention:

I totally dig the lovely reddish-earth-brown hue. The smooth liquid glides down well and is just so yummy!

Then there’s the pork and cabbage:

Totally adored the sauce as well. I realised that I am very much a sauce person. If the sauce is done well, chances are, the dish would taste good. Well most of the time.

Winston and I ordered many dishes and ate till we were so full! We also had chicken chop and this feisty sambal ikan bilis. It rocks my world:

Our entire meal cost only $14, including a generous bowl of winter melon soup. Here’s the interesting thing – the soup is sold by the drink stall. In it, there’s pork chop, winter melon and soya beans (my favourite) and it only costs $3. It’s refreshing, especially since the weather was so hot.

I like their signboard:

Pretty straightforward; scissors and all. It isn’t exactly on Beach Road though. This stall is actually at the junction of Kitchener Road and Jalan Besar Road. It’s opposite Hong Leong Finance and diagonal to Jalan Besar Plaza. The humble store is part of the Lau Di Fang (Mandarin for ‘Old Place’) coffee shop:

Who knew that such a simple nondescript location would hold such a gem? I recommend this place to all who enjoy food in its simplest form with no pretense and no nonsense – just pure soul food.

Beach Road Scissors-Cut Curry Rice
Lau Di Fang
229 Jalan Besar
Open 11am to 3:30pm