Source: PinkyPiggu
Hey Hive!
Apologies for replacing last week's foodie post with a travel one, but tbf it was a special travel post for a contest where we had to recommend 3 places in our hometown! If you're interested I wrote about 3 places in Singapore for food, sightseeing and shopping!
Anyway, we were at the newly refurbished Funan mall which if you didn't know, is a hip new mall in downtown Singapore known for its IT retailers and high-tech lifestyle and sporty offerings like a cycling path, climbing wall and various e-bike charging stations.
Source: CapitaLand
So naturally Funan was one of the first places we thought of to check out electrical appliances. And while we were there last week, we decided to grab dinner at the spiffy new food court called Kopitech!
Kopitiam is a chain of food courts in Singapore and I guess this Kopitech was a high-tech version of a regular Kopitiam, fitting for Funan. It definitely looked very modern that's for sure. The interior looked clean with contemporary furnishings and digital touchscreens at every stall for you to order and make payment.
Some of the stalls were already closed by the time we got there. I guess it's to deter people from crowding in the food court due to the virus and all. Thankfully it wasn't crowded when we went there to eat.
We took a walk around checking out the various stalls until I smelled something very aromatic and came across the holy grail - the Mini Wok stall!
I haven't had Mini Wok in the longest time and just looking at the menu made me hungry so we decided to go for it! And what a menu it is! They have so many options available!
It was tough to choose, but we couldn't ignore their signature salted egg chicken/pork rice. Sean decided to get the pork while I tried the cereal chicken rice.
After ordering and paying using the touchscreen, we took a seat and waited for our food to be ready. There are also screens showing the queue numbers from all the stalls around the food court so you can sit and relax while waiting! How convenient!
Man I remember I used to hate eating by myself and having to stand at the stall waiting for my food and then scramble to find a seat back in college. We didn't have these fancy systems there and could've really used it when you only have half an hour to chow down your lunch before rushing off to class!
Anyway, after waiting for a bit, our food was ready!
This was my cereal chicken rice:
And this was Sean's salted egg pork rice:
Both our meals came with a cucumber slice and a fried egg and of course rice. And they were both sooo goood!
My chicken was crispy and juicy, and the cereal meshed well with the sour cream sauce. It's been a long long time since I ate cereal anything (as in tzi char dishes) but it tasted just like how I remembered it.
Sean's salted egg pork rice was really yummy too! The pork was still a little crispy and the chef was really liberal with the salted egg sauce which I appreciate. And it tasted so good with white rice.
What a hearty and satisfying meal! We were both really hungry by then and quickly polished off our respective mini-woks. We promptly brought them to the high-tech tray return station, where it sits on a conveyor belt into the wash area!
I'm not entirely sure when the whole mini-wok thing came to be, but from what limited info I could gather it first originated in 1997 where it was backed by countless media accolades and is now well loved by both the young and old.
But I'd definitely say Mini-Wok stalls are not as ubiquitous as regular tzi char stalls in hawker centres outside, and only typically found in malls. I don't think I even ate out of a mini-wok until college. But every time I try a mini-wok stall it doesn't disappoint. And neither does this one at Funan!
The food court itself is also just a nice place to sit and chat with friends (provided you practise social distancing at this time), so if you're ever in the area, give it a try!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
