Le Yi Shi Fried Carrot Cake: Fried the old-fashioned way!

In operation since the 1980s, this stall — located at Toa Payoh Lorong 4 Block 93 Market and Food Centre — specialises in an old-fashioned carrot cake that is getting increasingly harder to find in this day and age. Here the kueh strips are cut long and thick instead of chopped up into little pieces.

Still run by the first generation, the stall is singlehandedly run by Tan Choi Mui most of the time but her elderly husband does help out during the weekends.

Tan and her older sister used to help out their uncle who was a street hawker selling fried carrot cake before they decided to start up their own stall.

The kueh used to be handmade at Le Yi Shi but now they have turned to using factory supplied turnip cakes in their old age.

The results are not as good as before but quite reasonable as the kueh is now double fried: once to precook them and another time when an order is received and it is fried with ingredients.

Both white and black versions of carrot cake ($3/3.50) are sold here and both are equally captivating.

The white version is fried to the point where the kueh has crispy edges and there is lots of robust garlic in the taste complementing the egg, fish sauce and chai poh (preserved radish).

Salty chai poh is used as per the traditional instead of the sweet variety and it gives the favour a little more of a complex savoury punch.

The kueh itself is unfortunately still the weakest link here — despite being double fried, the kueh can be a little dry half the time and it would indeed be less noticeable if it was cut up into smaller pieces.

The black version adds sweet black sauce which gives the dish a smoky sweetness that is rounded and isn’t overly sweet.
Order either version with chilli and it does a nice job in adding spiciness without over-dominating the overall flavour.