Entree Kibbles: 吃饱先 Sik Bao Sin (Desmond's Creation) - Take Your Pick from 13 Tze Char Dishes @ 592 Geylang Road [Singapore] #michelinbibgourmand

Saturday, September 10, 2022

吃饱先 Sik Bao Sin (Desmond's Creation) - Take Your Pick from 13 Tze Char Dishes @ 592 Geylang Road [Singapore] #michelinbibgourmand

Sik Wai Sin is a restaurant I considered legendary, as I heard of its big name when I transitioned from "eat to live" to "live to eat" yet never had a chance to try its signature Cantonese dishes as the queue was said to be bad with limited choices on the menu.

Even though Sik Wai Sin is no longer around, there is Sik Bao Sin (Desmond's Creation); an eatery helmed by the second generation. By the way, Sik Wai Sin means "food comes first" whereas Sik Bao Sin means "let's fill our tummy first".

Waiting time was indicated as between 45-90 minutes during peak and between 20-30 minutes on off-peak periods; not exactly a place to grab a quick lunch! We reached at about 1.00pm on a Saturday and was praying the queue wouldn't be too bad.

There was a line and we decided to walk around a bit before returning to find an empty table to sit the three of us! Setup was pretty basic and I guess the operators' main aim was just to satisfy the palate, which I am fully agreeable with when it comes to F&B.

Super old school red table with red chopsticks, red packets of wet wipes, white plates and plastic cups! This would have been the norm for a Chinese restaurant in Singapore back in the 80s.

Any decent tze char stalls would have more than 30 dishes for you to choose from and even a simple ingredient like prawn can result in four to five dishes; like prawns with wasabi, salted egg prawns, deep fried prawns etc. Here at Sik Bao Sin, you only have 13 dishes and do note they didn't have the pricing on the menu!

p.s. Sik Bao Sin has been awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand since 2018; 2020 was a gap year as Michelin cancelled that year's award due to long closure from COVID-19 pandemic.

There was a cover charge of S$1.00 per person and aside from the wet wipe, you get free flow hot Chinese tea which didn't taste bland; I think I drank like four cups. Anyway, let's now touch on food.

Steam Pork with Salted Fish - While this featured a strong stench of salted fish (good for lovers of salted fish), the meat didn't absorb the flavor unless it's on the parts that touched the salted fish. Meat was hard and chewy and you would need white rice to complement it.

Tofu Prawns - the messy, mish mash of ingredients covered in thick sauce didn't do justice to its taste. And to be totally honest, I was expecting a plating that was, well, more visually palatable.

Nevertheless, the sauce was so appetizing; I was tempted to get a bowl of white rice so that I can lap it all up! Tofu was soft, and the prawns were large and amazingly fresh with bites of 'crunchiness'.

Steam Fish Head - I think I have mentioned multiple times before that I am not a huge fan of fish, unlike my mom, and the head is not worth it in my opinion as I have lesser meat to indulge in.

No complaint about the fish meat although there were quite a lot of fish bones; quite a hazard for fast eaters like me. It's also said to be more difficult for the chefs, to ensure no "muddy" taste when it comes to freshwater fish.

For me, I only remember the generous sprinklers of crispy pork lard.

Of course, anything with pork greaves would taste better!

Sweet and Sour Pork - gu lu rou is so closely associated with tze char and economical rice in Singapore that when one sees it on a 13-item menu with a star next it; I figured it's a requirement for us to order it.

Contrary to most sweet and sour pork, these ones from Sik Bao Sin were the biggest I have seen so far and felt more like chopped up, deep fried pork cutlet.

Meat contained within the thin, crisp batter was juicy and sauce was not overly sweet, with a flavor that was surprisingly quite addictive. Delicious when eaten hot!

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Before and after. We only managed four dishes, of which two were must order in my opinion! Another nine more dishes to go even though I am less likely to order four vegetable dishes.

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