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

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