When it comes to food, most people would have places they go back to again and again.
One of my zhi char (stir-fried Chinese food) haunts is Fook Kee Seafood in Telok Blangah.
At this no-frills corner stall in a coffee shop, you can get comfort food at decent prices.
You can opt to dine alfresco just outside the coffee shop or in the open space beside it.
If I am having dinner with my younger sister and her family and I ask what they would like to order, my nieces would invariably chorus: cai xiang doufu ($7) and crispy cereal fried fish ($8).
And those dishes are usually the first to disappear.
The homemade doufu is so silky-smooth it glides down your throat.
But the X factor is the topping of canned pickled Chinese lettuce. The diced vegetable is stir-fried with minced meat, and this gives it a nice, crunchy bite. Dried shrimp and dried chilli are then added.
Pop a piece of doufu with the topping into your mouth and you savour the palate-pleasing mix of flavours which are just right - a tinge of saltiness from the pickled vegetable and a subtle whiff of spiciness from the chilli and dried prawns.
The cereal fish is a refreshing change from the usual cereal prawns, and comes with deep-fried bits of low-fat cereal and curry leaves, sprinkled with a little milk powder, and this is what lends it its unmistakable fragrance.
The smooth texture of the snakehead slices is a nice contrast to the crispy cereal, which feels oil-free.
For meat, check out the prawn paste chicken ($8) and the well-marinated pai kuat wong (fried sweet and sour pork ribs, $8) which are not too bad.
At one bite, you can tell that fresh chicken is used in the prawn paste dish. It is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
For your daily serving of greens, go for mini bok choy simply fried with garlic ($6). For some kick, try it with dried shrimp sambal ($6).
I also like the yam ring or yam pot ($14) with diced chicken, cashew nuts, celery and carrot. The taste of fresh yam, which has been steamed and then mashed, comes through.
Little flour is used to make the dough firm but still malleable before it is deep-fried to make the yummy yam ring.
Fook Kee Seafood
Block 10 Telok Blangah Crescent
01-141
Open: 2pm to 11pm daily, closed on alternate Wednesdays Rating: ***
