Jerald can be persistent when it comes to food and his craving a few weekends ago was the fast food giant; MacDonald's!
I remember a MacDonald's near where we were at bugis plus but alas, the fast food restaurant was no longer around and in its place was a local-themed air conditioned coffee shop with a rather kitsch yet easy-to-remember name; Encik Tan.
That brat insisted on having his way although his old uncle me wasn't at all keen to cross the road to Bugis Junction where there's another branch; I needed coffee and nothing's better than a cup of local kopi gao to perk up my morning!
Riding on the wave of small-scale coffeeshop concept with a few stalls focusing on basic local delights; toast and coffee, noodles, rice etc, i simply couldn't keep my eyes off the deep fried options like chicken cutlet, fried fish, fried prawns...
Ordered the Hainanese curry rice chicken cutlet set and couldn't understand why it is called a set when drink was chargeable at a top-up of S$1 and limited to only lime juice!
To be frank, i wasn't expecting much as Hainanese curry rice was famed for their pork cutlet, not chicken! However, Encik Tan was Halal-certified to cater to the significant Muslim population and the haram meat had to be replaced.
Taking a bite of the curry and cabbage, i was sold as the taste was authentically Hainanese style! I couldn't get enough of the curry that's intensely rich, thick and flavourful; add in the crunchy cabbage that's thoroughly cooked to an amazingly soft texture and i knew i would have no issue cleaning up the rice.
It seemed that the marination for pork cutlet was used for chicken as well and i personally liked the chicken version better; chicken meat was juicer than pork and there's that guaranteed layer of crunchy skin! Nothing's perfect though; the fried egg was overcooked and would definitely benefit from having a runny yolk.
As i suspected, the plate was literally licked clean.
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Location
201 Victoria Street #01-02/K1,
Bugis+, Singapore 188067
Map
As above
Operating Hours
8am to 10pm
Website
Menu
As above
Additional Information
Encik Tan is Halal-certified!