Mixed Veg Rice ($5.20)!
Bugis coffeeshop cai png plate with sweet sour pork, kung pao chicken, egg with tomato, vegetable, and curry gravy rice. $5.20.
Lunch at the Bugis coffeeshop. Mixed veg rice (cai png), $5.20. 😋👍🏼
What was on the plate:
- White rice with curry gravy ladled over: the orange tint comes from the curry sauce mixing into the rice
- Sweet and sour pork: orange-red glaze, lightly batter-fried pork chunks
- Kung pao-style chicken with cabbage: brown sauce, diced chicken with cabbage chunks and dried chilli notes
- Egg with tomato: scrambled eggs folded into tomato chunks, the classic Chinese home-style dish
- Stir-fried cabbage with carrot and egg: shredded cabbage with carrot strips and scrambled egg
- 5 picks total on the plate
This was a particularly generous lunch pick. The standard cai png algebra is 2-3 vegetables + 1-2 meats + curry gravy = $4.50-$5.50 in 2022 prices. Loading up with 5 picks usually pushes the bill toward $6, but the coffeeshop here came in at $5.20 which is fair.
The egg-with-tomato dish is the Chinese home-style comfort dish that doesn’t get enough attention outside Chinese family kitchens. The mechanics:
- Eggs beaten with a pinch of salt + sugar: the sugar caramelises slightly in the wok
- Tomatoes cut into wedges, briefly stir-fried to release their juice
- Eggs scrambled into the tomato pan: the egg pieces are soft scramble, the tomato pieces still hold shape
- Light sauce: just the tomato juice + a touch of soy + sesame oil at the end
The dish hits the table at every Chinese family meal in some form. Cantonese version is more egg-forward, Shanghainese version is more saucy, the cai png hawker version is the simplest of the three.
The kung pao-style chicken with cabbage is the wok-fired cai png staple that justifies the gravy mix on the rice. The brown sauce drips down to bind everything together.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid Bugis coffeeshop cai png. The 5-pick variety made it. Would re-order.
