Other than restaurants, cafes, and hawker stalls which are affected by the pandemic, the other one much overlooked place are stalls within industrial canteens.
While these canteens typically get captive crowd during lunch time, many are affected as office people work from home.
Wanted to lend some support, I ordered from Ya Ma 亞嬷 located within the Mapletree Industrial Estate at Redhill. (Also read: 10 Must-Try MEE SIAM In Singapore)
The same canteen also houses Western Kitchen, 88 Mookata and New Xiuyuan Vegetarian Eating House; with newly opened Burger & Pasta and Maddox (a yakiniku and beer house) on the next block.
Needless to say, all are affected by the “Heightened Alert” no dine-in measures.
Ya Ma 亞嬷 started with being a home-based business, and saw the opportunity to try out having a physical store.
The stall is so named as the dishes served are based on their grandma’s recipe (“Ma” means “grandmother” in Hokkien), with homely items of Signature Mee Siam ($4.80), Braised Chicken Leg Rice with Potatoes ($7.80), Braised Pork Belly Rice ($7.80) and Chicken Curry with Rice ($5).
Their grandma used to cook for the family every weekend, and they felt they should not let her recipes go to nought.
The Mee Siam ($4.80) is cooked tangy, sweet and spicy, “designed to make your tastebuds dance”. There are also versions with Prawns ($8.80) or Abalone ($9.80).
According to the hawkers, they wanted to make their Mee Siam well-balanced with different kinds of flavours.
The pastes are made from scratch, chilli base is made in-house, and also incorporate more premium ingredients such as dried shrimps – while keeping the prices low for customers.
What I liked about the Mee Siam was the nuttiness of the gravy, with quite robust flavours, though could reduce the greasiness by a tad.
It was a version that came without the usual fried beancurd cubes and crunchy beansprouts, so some people may feel ‘something is missing’. But it was overall a tasty bowl.
I also ordered the Braised Pork Belly Rice with Egg ($7.80), cooked not quite like the typical Taiwanese-style Lu Rou Fan.
This was more like the Hokkien Kong Tau Yew Bak, stewed with more intense flavours of the dark soy sauce.
Liked that the pork belly slices were cooked till tender, cut into relatively large pieces, with melt-in-the-mouth texture. I only thought that some greens or salted vegetables could have helped cut through some of the richness.
A better surprise was their refreshing Collagen Peach Gum Dessert Bowl.
Available via platforms of GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo. Islandwide delivery with minimum $30 order ($10 delivery charge). $80 order for FREE delivery. Enquire via their Instagram
Ya Ma Singapore 亞嬷
1001A Jalan Bukit Merah, Singapore 159469
Tel: +65 8909 6990
Opening Hours: 11am – 1.30pm (Mon – Fri), Closed Sat – Sun
Other Related Entries
10 Must-Try MEE SIAM In Singapore
10 Luscious Lu Rou Fan In Singapore
* Follow @DanielFoodDiary on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube for more food news, food videos and travel highlights. DFD paid for food reviewed unless otherwise stated.
