Traditional Hokkien dishes like many heritage cuisine in Singapore are getting harder to come by in restaurants. One of the few places left to get old school Hokkien food in Singapore is at Quan Xiang Yuan at 252 Jalan Besar (near City Square Mall). A few rarely found heritage dishes are still on the menu here.
Quan Xiang Yuan spans 2 shop lots. Decor is minimal
Quan Xiang Yuan was founded in the 1930s by Tho Cheng Kia's grandfather who came to Singapore from Quanzhou city in Fujian China. The younger gentleman on the left is Tho Cheng Kia and his father Tho Hey Sio (on the right).
Tho Cheng Kia joined the restaurant when he was 12 years old, starting by washing dishes and cutting vegetables. After learning the ropes, mastering every aspect from cooking to running Quan Xiang Yuan, Tho Cheng Kia took over in the 1980s. He expanded Quan Xiang Yuan to become a leading 到会 caterer in Singapore.
Tho Cheng Kia is in semi but active retirement now. The fourth generation of Quan Xiang Yuan, his son Gabriel and daughter Amy run the restaurant now.
Let's eat 😋
This dark looking steamy heap may not look appetising but it will make some people salivate and maybe a few wet in the eyes because the dish reminds them of their grandparents. It's 福建炒蕃薯粉糕 fried sweet potato cake - a traditional Hokkien dish eaten in Hokkien homes but is rarely found nowadays at home and even rarer in restaurants.
Here at Quan Xiang Yuan, they make sweet potato cakes 蕃薯粉糕 from scratch with sweet potato flour. (Advanced booking ☎ 6294 6254 ☎ 6292 9251 is required as it takes time to make the kueh.)
The chilled rice cake is cut into bite size pieces like tiles.
Sweet potato cake is a versatile staple dish which can be cooked with many combinations of ingredients. At Quan Xiang Yuan, they cook it with roast pork belly, dried shrimp, mushroom, carrot, leeks, greens (cabbage) and sambal chili.
The flavours of the ingredients together with oil and soy sauce are fused at high heat by tossing, searing and stir frying in a wok.
In the mouth, it has multiple layers of savouriness from caramelised soy sauce, roast pork, dried shrimps, with sweetness from sweet potato cakes, carrots and greens. All the different ingredients contribute to a mix of textures from chewy spongy sweet potato cakes, soft spongy mushroom, crunchy vegetable to crisp roast pork belly skin. The sambal chili added a subtle heat to the dish.
五香粉蹄 Fen Ti (Ngoh Hiang Trotter) one of Quan Xiang Yuan's signatures is rarely seen in Singapore - this was my first time seeing it.
Fen Ti is a fascinating traditional Hokkien dish which is tedious to make. Meat and bone are removed from a pig trotter, leaving the skin intact like a long glove.
The bone is discarded (usually used as stock bone) while the meat, fat and tendon are minced and marinated with Chinese 5 spice (star anise, cinnamon, peppercorn, clove, and fennel). At Quan Xiang Yuan, they add a secret sixth spice.
The well marinated minced pork is stuffed back into the trotter "glove". The whole trotter is then cooked by steaming. After the trotter is cooked, it is brushed with customary char siew colouring, hence the red hue.
The cooked Fen Ti trotter is chilled and then sliced salami style before serving, usually as one of the items in Quan Xiang Yuan's 梅花拼盘 combination platter (cold appetiser dish). The Fen Ti slices were meaty with its savoury taste complemented by 5 spice flavour and aroma. The "salami" slices were tender with a slightly crunchy fringe from the pig skin.
Braised Sea Cucumber Duck 海参鸭. Where's the duck?
The duck is buried under the heap of sea cucumber, dried pork tendon, mushroom, celery and gooey stewing sauce.
The braised duck was fork tender and juicy. The natural duck taste was complemented by savoury herbal flavour of the thick dark gooey stewing sauce. It's really tasty. The sea cucumber and dried pork tendon added their respective textures to the dish.
Roast Chicken 脆皮炸鸡. The fresh bird is bathed in hot caramelised malt sugar which cooks it partially and then hung up to air dry for a few hours. It is the deep fried to crisp the skin. Yes it is fried - fried chicken is often referred to as roast chicken in Singapore.
The savoury sweet skin was crisp. The meat was tender and juicy sweet savoury. It's a very good roast / fried chicken. One of the best, actually.
Kong Bak Bao or Braised Pork with Steamed Buns 扣肉包.
The savoury sweet stewed tender pork belly between sweet puffy pillow soft buns. The pickled julienned cucumber and fresh lettuce added a bit of mild sourish zing and soft crunch to the tasty kong bak bao - a quintessentially Hokkien dish.
Hakka Fried Meat 客家南乳炸肉, a popular Hakka dish found its way into Quan Xiang Yuan's menu. In this rendition, the pork belly is marinated with fermented bean paste 南乳 for a couple of days till the fibres are deeply infused with savoury saltiness. It is then deep fried to crisp the outside and seal in the savoury sweet flavours in the tender, juicy meat and fat. It's nice.
A mixed platter of meat rolls (hae cho 虾枣) and spring rolls. From left, Hokkien style meat roll, spring roll, Teochew style meat roll.
Inside, the Hokkien and Teochew meat rolls are basically the same - minced pork, prawn, carrot and water chestnut. The Hokkien roll is lightly battered and fried, while the Teochew version is tightly wrapped with tofu skin.
The moist minced pork and prawn in the Hokkien roll is savoury sweet while in the Teochew version the fried tofu skin introduced another layer of quite assertive savoury and spice flavour.
Personally, I prefer the Hokkien version of hae cho 虾枣 as I don't quite like the pronounced taste of fried tofu skin over the pork and prawn - but, needless to say, taste is subjective lah.
(I didn't taste the spring roll. Too much food lah.... .)
Fish Maw Sea Cucumber Stew 鱼漂羹. Quan Xiang Yuan's version of this Hokkien classic is full of the rich good stuff, full of the "ho liaw 好料" as they say in Hokkien.
Traditionally, shark fin was a key ingredient but is omitted nowadays. Tho Cheng Kia pioneered shark fin less stew in his mass catering service, replacing it with fish maw in the 1990s. The idea caught on and this dish is mainstream in Chinese restaurants nowadays.
Finally, the last dish of the evening 😅
Eat at a Hokkien restaurant must of course wrap up with a Hokkien Mee.
And, so I asked Mr Tho the question I always wanted to ask. "Why is it that Hokkien mee of today tastes nothing like those, up to the 1980s?" You see, Hokkien mee is one of my favourite dishes and I remember that it was cooked with mussels but now it is done with prawns.
Mr Tho explained that the species of mussel with that particular flavour used for Hokkien mee is no longer available. So, other ingredients are substituted in its place, hence the old taste is gone 😓 So, there I have it, the answer I was looking for, for years since coming home after school in Canada in the 1980s.
👉 Quan Xiang Yuan is the place to enjoy and learn about the cuisine that excites our forefathers. It is the place to take Ah Kong and Ah Mah to, to reconnect with the flavours from their time. I am sure they will thank you for it.
Disclosure: Thank you Mr Tho Cheng Kia for your hospitality and insights.
Ming Chung is another heritage restaurant of the same vintage as Quan Xiang Yuan. Ming Chung represents Putian Hokkien cuisine which is also from Fujian province (Putian being to the east, adjacent to Quanzhou city). Check out the traditional Putian (Henghua) dishes at Ming Chung👈 click
Restaurant name: Quan Xiang Yuan 泉香园(清记)海鲜菜馆
Address: 252 Jalan Besar Singapore 208925
GPS: 1°18'34.9"N 103°51'29.4"E 🌐 1.309690, 103.858165
Nearest MRT: Ferrar Park
Tel: 6294 6254 / 6292 9251
Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm | 5:30am - 11:00pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 31 May 2019
