Perhaps I was feeling bored but anyway.... I joked on Facebook about cockles warming my heart... yeah that overused idiom is getting stale and passé.
Buddy: Tony, you wanna eat cockles issit?
Me: No lah..., I don't eat cockles anymore. (Only medium rare cockles are nice but at my age, I am kiasi extra careful about eating anything not fully cooked.)
Buddy: Don't worry, they can cook it all the way through and it is still nice.
So, here we are at 6 @ Holland coffee shop at Holland Close. It is "hidden" off the main road (Commonwealth Avenue) but just 5 - 8 minutes walk from Buona Vista MRT station.
From Buona Vista MRT station, walk to Commonwealth Avenue, cross the road using the overhead bridge, cross Holland Avenue, at the bus stop in front of BLK 8 along Commonwealth Avenue, turn left into the sheltered walkway, 6 @ Holland coffee shop is at the end of the walkway.
A queue formed soon after the tiny stall opened for business at 4pm.
Kin Hoi's menu overhead on the signboard.
Sylvia ordered and came back with nearly everything on the menu 😄 We had both the signature half shell cockles, juicy full shell cockles and a separate portion of full shell cockles over-done for my benefit.
Daniel Teo (the non-unker in this picture) created Kin Hoi less than 3 months ago and it was on a fast track to success. So fast that similar concept stalls have already popped up elsewhere in Singapore.
The signature half shell cockles came cooked to medium doneness and served smothered in a savoury spicy chili sauce. The cockles are medium size.
The full shell cockles are slightly larger than thumb size. Thoroughly cleaned and served simply blanched to medium doneness.
Kin Hoi's cockles come from Sabah, Malaysia. I have eaten large cockles from other places before and I recall that they tend to be chewy, in fact quite rubbery tough. They are also relatively tasteless, unlike the smaller Malaysian species.
Kin Hoi's meaty Sabah jumbo cockles, however, have a nice (almost fruity) crunch to the bite (believe me) and similar flavour as their smaller brethren. Even the over-cooked ones for kiasi (scaredy) Tony have the same crunch and flavour. There was not even the slightest hint of mud or sand as the cockles were very well cleaned - in fact, Daniel wants cleanliness to be a hallmark of Kin Hoi's cockles.
The meaty briny see hum tastes delightful with Kin Hoi's signature spicy sourish savoury sweet chili sauce.
This see hum Can Eat!
We also had gong gong sea snails which were also thoroughly cleaned and served simply blanched.
The meaty juicy delicately soft flesh come off the shell in a spiral with just gentle tugging. It was great with the chili sauce though in itself gong gong flavour is just subtly sweet.
Kin Hoi have a few non shellfish sides such as this tender juicy Thai Honey Grilled Pork which tastes sweet savoury.
I love this beefy savoury Melting Beef which is tender and juicy. Must get this besides the see hum.
Kin Hoi has jumbo cockles which even kiasi (scaredy) people like me Can Eat!
Written by Tony Boey on 27 Jan 2021