Recently, my favourite handmade noodle stall at marine terrace disappeared, seemingly overnight. The loss pained me, so it was hard to even look at the new stall that had risen in its ashes. I decided it was finally time to stop avoiding it. It helped that the signage was bright and attracted your eyes.

The new stall, Tong ren tong xin, is a chinese vegetarian stall. Interestingly, there is already another popular vegeatarian stall opposite. Some competition is healthy I suppose.

The continuation of these overcast rainy days, means I constantly have cravings for noodle soup. I saw that tong ren tong xin had a vegetarian kway chap, which sounded intriging. Sadly, the hawker informed me that it was sold out for the day. But she insisted I try the special of the day, veegtarian chicken rice. Seems the stall cooks different specials each day, which is a neat way of increasing variety but keeping your menu simple.

The “chicken” was constructed using bean curd skin. The outer was a single piece of fried skin, giving it a roast chicken appearance. Visually it could pass for roasted chicken rice. I have always been fascinated by the skill of these chinese vegetarian restaurants in replicating the equivalent meat dish.

The rice was ridiculously fragrant. Blind tasting, you could actually think it was chicken rice, even if the chicken essence was not there. Very impressive. The tofu pieces were delicious and I’m not normally excited by fried tofu. The tofu was crispy on the outside, but the inside had the texture of scrambled eggs and it melted in your mouth. I wanted more.

Be careful of the chilli though, it might not look like much, but it packs a punch.

Price: $3.50

Hawker centre: Marine Terrace Market and Food Centre
Address: Block 50A Marine Terrace, #01-295
Hours: 6am - 1:30pm (closed Saturdays)