When it comes to fried carrot cake or “chai tow kway”, I’m with Michael Jackson in his 90s hit song Black Or White: “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white!”

One of the most popular articles in last year’s Tried & Tested column was white carrot cake. This year, the search is on for the best black carrot cake. Click here to read the full article!

Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone! Did you enjoy your Lunar New Year celebration? For me, it was a really busy time. Lots of cooking, baking, cleaning, and visiting. I only managed to bake pineapple tarts this year. Sorry, no photos, cos I was too exhausted.

Besides pineapple tarts, radish cake is another Lunar New Year food which has an auspicious-sounding name. Radish is 菜头 in Chinese, which is a close homonym for 彩头 (a herald of good luck). What better way to start the Year of the Tiger than having some fried radish/carrot cake? Check out the latest Tried and Tested feature on inSing.com for five of the best fried carrot cake in Singapore!

In the modestly-sized Bukit Timah Food Centre, there are two food stalls – Seng Kee Carrot Cake (#02-182) and He Zhong 合眾菜頭粿 (#02-185) – selling fried radish cake, and both do it the same style. Now, I don’t understand this business logic. Why sell the same product as your competitor located just three units away?

Unable to come up with an intelligent answer to this profound question, there was another issue I had to stress over: Which stall’s chai tow kway should I have for breakfast?

Oh, what the heck, let’s order both and compare! Here are the final entries from the two worthy contenders.

Seng Kee's version, S$2.00

First impressions: Seng Kee’s chai tow kway (CTK) smelled tantalizing, and certainly looked very appealing. The CTK has a beautiful golden brown crust that’s light and crispy to the bite. I suspect there’s some flour batter in addition to beaten egg for that kind of result.

He Zhong's version, S$2.00

He Zhong’s CTK emitted a drool-inducing aroma as well! This is very much like an omelette. There was definitely more egg than Seng Kee’s. Amazingly, the egg batter is evenly distributed and evenly cooked, testament to the chef’s skill. No rubbery exterior and runny insides, unlike some lesser versions I’ve tried.

Ok, let’s rate them on the following criteria:

1. Frying skill: It’s a TIE. Both are very good, though different in style. I also liked that both are relatively grease-free.

2. The kway 粿 (steamed radish cake): He Zhong wins, but only by a tiny margin. Actually, the kway from both stalls is disappointingly similar, like those supplied wholesale from factory. There’s no radish taste, and is a bit too stiff for my liking. But He Zhong’s kway feels a wee bit smoother and less lumpy.

3. Chai poh 菜脯 (salted radish): He Zhong wins, hands down. Sweetish bits of crunchy chai poh were present in every bite! For Seng Kee’s CTK, there was hardly any chai poh.

Ok, so the winner (based on my own personal taste) is He Zhong. Actually, I liked Seng Kee’s crispier crust a lot, but overall, He Zhong’s version is more shiok (local slang for “satisfying”)!

That said, this “omelette” type of CTK is not my favorite. My default choice is the “black” version. I prefer my CTK to have more kway than egg, and also, I’m a sucker for sweet, sticky black sauce.

Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Char koay kak, RM2.30 ≈ S$0.95

So here’s what really good char koay kak tastes like! The sad, soggy version I had on the first night is nothing like the real deal!

This was an unexpected find. Ricky and I were walking back to Traders Hotel after breakfast at Toh Soon Cafe. From Campbell Street (Lebuh Campbell), we walked down Cintra Street (Lebuh Cintra). When we reached Kimberley Street (perpendicular to Cintra St.), I spotted two pushcarts selling food.

The friendly auntie and her helper.

My foodie radar told me we were on to something great, so I insisted on checking them out! One was making ban chien koay 慢煎糕, the other was a lady frying char koay kak with gusto! Luckily I only had kaya bread and milk tea earlier. Breakfast Part 2, here I come!

Char koay kak is the Penang counterpart of Singapore’s chai tow kway 菜头粿 (fried radish cake). Actually, our chai tow kway is a farce, ‘cos there’s no chai tow (radish) in the kway (cake), only seasoning and MSG. In Penang, they simply call it char koay kak 炒粿角 (fried rice cake chunks).

One's frying the koay, the other's cutting fresh pieces into the wok, which is fired by charcoal and wood.

Because the taxi we hired was waiting to pick us up at the hotel, we packed our char koay kak to go. The steamed rice cakes are fried with chai po 菜脯, beansprout, Chinese chives, garlic, egg, and dark soy sauce.

The seasoning isn’t as thick and sweet as the Singapore “black” chai tow kway. The taste is more savoury and just mildly sweet. But it’s delicious in its own style, and the crunchy beansprouts are so refreshing! There’s plenty of wok hei too! Gosh, it’s really scrumptious! I’m now drooling at the memory…

I wonder if the Singapore XO-sauce fried radish cake with beansprout was inspired by Penang char koay kak?

Also read: Penang Day 1, Penang Day 2

I wasn’t very hungry either, after all that free food and plane meal, but I just couldn’t resist the bustling street stalls just outside the hotel entrance. Real street food! So exciting! So I went to tar-pow some supper back to our hotel room.

Oyster omelette , RM7.00 ≈ S$2.90

Very fresh plump oysters, with no fishy smell. But unlike the Singaporean version, this one was rather “wet”. Our or-jian (oyster omelette) is more like an crispy omelette, with the starchy bits. This one is more like scrambled eggs, with a lot of sauce. But still, it pretty much hit the spot, after such a disastrous day of eating.

Char koay kark with seafood, RM4.00 ≈ S$1.70

This is pretty much like our chai tow kway, except the rice flour cakes are called koay kark, and are plain, with no chai tow (radish). The usual version is fried with egg and beansprout. For another RM2.00, you can opt to have seafood, which turned out to be just two measly prawns!

New Lane Eng Kee

Again, like the oyster omelette, the char koay kark was very “wet”. Both are from the same stall. I wasn’t impressed with the char koay kark. And although cheap after converting to SIN$, portions were very small, and I thought it was expensive by local (Malaysian) standards.

Cold dessert soup, RM2.00 ≈ S$0.80

However, dessert was really good! At first I thought it was cheng tng, but it’s a combo of cooked lotus nut, red bean, gingko nut, and dried longan. The lotus nuts and red bean were so powdery, and the gingko nut was cooked till candied just like Mom does! You can tell everything was cooked from scratch, the good ol’ fashioned way.

Also, it wasn’t too sweet. Very healthy and refreshing. You can opt to have it hot or cold. I’ll be looking out for this again!

As at June 26, 2009, conversion rate is approximately 1 Malaysian ringgit to 0.412 Singapore dollar.

Fried carrot cake, S$2.50.

I’ve actually blogged this place before, way way back in 2004! Yup, I’d just started blogging then. Look at that dinky photo, taken with our very first digicam, a Fuji E500.

It’s hard to believe I’m still blogging, and still eating at this stall almost every Saturday morning when I accompany the mother-in-law to the market.

The current stall-holder is the 3rd generation owner. It’s a business started by his grandfather, who used to fry his carrot cake (or, more accurately, “radish cake”) in Tanjong Pagar. Then, the government banned all roadside hawkers, so his father was relocated to Tanjong Pagar food centre.

Then, his elder sister took over, but when he completed his National Service, the stall was handed over to him, and he’s been solely in charge ever since. Wow! I wonder if any of the 4th generation will take over this historic carrot cake stall?

50′s Carrot Cake
6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza
#02-45
Tanjong Pagar Food Centre
Singapore 081006

Open: 7am to 2pm
Closed on Mondays

The VIPs putting on their rubbers. Gloves, that is. What were you thinking?

The guest-of-honor was Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Lee Yi Shyan (second from left in above photo). He tried his hand at making one of Singapore’s iconic hawker dishes, char kway teow. The other VIP made rojak.

The pro showing the con artist minister how to fry it right.

Guiding him every step of the way was Mr Saw Cheng Poh. Wonder whether the minister’s char kway teow passed the taste test?

Drummers giving their all.

After that, the Singapore Food Festival was declared officially open, with the drummers giving a rousing performance.

The sample platter for invited guests.

This was the platter that was served to invited guests. It was a sampler of popular hawker dishes like char kway teow, roti prata with curry, chicken rice, laksa, and satay.

This was more for photography rather than consumption, cos all the dishes were already cold (read: not nice to eat).

Cuppa cappucino

One of the perks of wearing the “media” pass was being plied with samples, like free java. The cappucino was actually pretty good.

Our local brand liquid gold.

Free booze! Alas, I don’t drink beer. Now, if only they gave out champagne…

That’s Nic of Black Tie, White Lie angling for a good shot in the background! I also met up with Keropokman and Momo of Singapura Daily Makan.

Char kway teow.

We were each given a stored-value card by the organizers to purchase food from the vendors at Lau Pa Sat. The char kway teow at Stall 77 Lakeview Char Kway Teow was great, as evidenced by the long queue.

Chai tow kway (fried radish cake with black sauce)

The chai tow kway, from the same stall, was also not bad.

Bak kut teh.

From Stall 14, this is a S$6.00 portion of bak kut teh. This is the Teochew version, pork ribs stewed with white pepper seeds and garlic in a clear broth. I liked the light, sweet broth that wasn’t too peppery, but the ribs weren’t tender enough.

Braised duck set.

Also from Stall 14, there was very little duck given. Taste was so-so.

Rojak.

Someone from our table got this. Not bad, but I don’t know which stall it came from.

To reflect the retro theme of this year’s festival, old black-and-white movies will be screened at Lau Pa Sat in the evenings. There are many other food-related activities and events throughout the month of July. For details, go to the official website: www.singaporefoodfestival.com