Yuet Loy: Really good homestyle Cantonese dishes!

The only reason why this family-owned tze char stall isn’t as famous as it should be is because they haven’t built up a strong customer base, having changed locations five times ever since their humble beginnings at Tras Street more than 50 years ago.

Ardent fans who have stuck with them (and their numerous locatons) will swear by their homestyle Cantonese food which is less heavy-handed compared to other places.

One dish in particular — Golden Coin Dou Fu ($5 for 5 pieces) is a must-order. Also called kam chin (golden coin) tofu, each piece is made in-house, something which is extremely rare to find these days. It’s a painstaking process involving mashed up firm tofu and raw egg mixed together, deep-fried then boiled in stock. The result is a soft-textured tofu ball which is unbelievably rich and made even richer when drenched in a seafood sauce with crunchy bean sprouts like how they do it here.

Their Black Bean Fish Head ($12/15/18) comes in pieces instead of a whole fish head, but the meat — which has lots of lovely fish fat — is perfectly steamed. The black bean sauce which it comes with is also done without the use of any corn starch but still comes thick, rich and with very well balanced flavours — not too sweet, not too salty and it has a nice spiciness.

Other dishes like their Salted Fish Chicken ($12/15/18) where the chicken pieces are wonderfully soft and tender, and swim in a complex sauce where you can distinctly taste salted fish, wine and ginger flavours.

If you’re here alone, order their Sliced Fish Hor Fun ($7/14/20) as they give you generous pieces of the more expensive sang yu (snakehead) fish that’s never overcooked.