White carrot cake ($2)!
Thursday hawker — white carrot cake (chai tow kway) at $2. The light version with eggs, preserved radish, no dark sweet soy.
Thursday hawker breakfast with BB — white carrot cake at $2. The light version of chai tow kway at honest sub-$3 pricing.
We ordered:
- White carrot cake — $2
Carrot cake (chai tow kway, 菜头粿) is the Singapore-Teochew dish that has nothing to do with carrots and everything to do with white radish (daikon). Steamed rice cake mixed with shredded radish is cubed, then stir-fried with garlic, preserved radish (chai poh), egg, and seasonings.
The “white” version (白菜头粿) is the original Teochew preparation. Different from the “black” version which uses dark sweet soy throughout (giving the cake the mahogany colour and the sweet-savoury profile), the white version uses no dark soy — only light soy or salt as the seasoning. The cake stays its pale-cream colour, with the slight golden-brown from the wok-frying.
The white carrot cake is the lighter and more savoury version. The flavour profile is cleaner — radish and egg and chai poh provide the primary flavours, without the dark sweet soy masking the underlying ingredients. Eaters who find the black version too sweet usually prefer the white version.
The cubes of rice cake were the foundation. Steamed properly so they had a soft pillow texture inside with a slight crispy edge from the wok cooking. Each cube held its shape without falling apart, with the radish dispersed evenly through the rice cake.
Egg was scrambled through the wok at the right stage — early enough to bind the cubes together, late enough to stay soft rather than going dry. The egg-and-radish combination is the binder that ties the white version together.
Chai poh (preserved radish) provided the salty-umami punctuation. Tiny chopped bits scattered through, releasing their concentrated flavour with each bite.
Wok hei was present — that smoky edge that comes from a properly seasoned wok over high flame. The aroma off the plate hit before the first bite.
At $2 this is the kind of hawker pricing that’s getting harder to find. Sub-$3 carrot cake stalls are increasingly rare; most have moved to $3-4 territory.
Some hawker dishes work better with the lighter preparation. White carrot cake is one of them — the dark soy version is the more popular variant but the white version has its purists.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid white carrot cake — would re-order at the sub-$3 pricing.
