Hup Seng Duck Rice

Address Bk 22 Sin Ming Rd Eng Ho Hup Coffee Shop

Opening Hours 9am-2.30pm (Mon-Fri) 9am-1.30pm (Sat-Sun) Close on Thu

Some folks just cringe at the thought of duck. It’s stinky. Then there’s preserved and salted vegetables. It’s stinky too, especially if you have ever seen and smelled them in their natural habitat, the huge earthen jar where they hibernate in. Uurrgh…

But if you take this two “negative” ingredients and place them in the hands of some masterful Teochew cooks, these two wrongs will convert into one helluva righteous dish…kiam chye ark (salted vegetable duck broth.) Ooooh, yuuummm!

It is almost ironic that sixty year old Mr Tay Ah Tee never learnt nor ever cooked kiam chye ark before he began selling it. He just felt, some twenty five years ago, like selling it. He decreed, with his Teochew heritage, that his version should be laced and accented with prunes and a hint of pepper. No lime, no tamarind nor tomatoes to scratch away that fowl smell of the duck.

Sure, he adds some herbs and dried orange peel which serves as a quiet mediator between the prunes and the salted vegetables, but the eventual overwhelming prune-y flavour of the soup sits very well with the soft quartered duck. The chunky pieces of salted and preserved mustard leaves are not boiled till they whiter, but till a firm yet soft texture. The addiction with the smooth sourness in his soup is enhanced with a hint of pepper, which nibbles at the palate. All that is missing from the equation is a bowl of soft steamed and fluffy rice and a simple dark soy with cut chilli padi dip.

Mr Tay’s kiam chye ark looks and taste nothing like the pathetic versions that come out of a steamer of drawers in a cute little jar that taste like salt water with vegetables and a nuked piece of duck meat.

The quality of his soup comes from the respect and understanding he has for the fowl.

“I grew up rearing and selling ducks in the Ang Mo Kio area helping out my late father who used to sell only stewed ducks out of a basket slung over a pole on his shoulder. I had no choice but to all learn about fat and thin ducks and how best to cook them ”, said Mr Tay who comes from an extended family of stewed duck hawkers. His uncle runs an equally popular duck and goose stall at the Tekka Food Centre.

And on his other, very popular with the regulars, stewed duck, which flies off his display racks like bees off a hive on fire, he shares “ I can tell you the ingredients I use in my herbal sauce for stewing, like a good grade soy sauce, dried fruit peels, sugar, herbs etc…but it is hard to learn how to recognize the density and texture of the sauce”, which he says is crucial in the stewing process. The other important factor is fire control. His method delivers duck that comes sliced thinly and with very little fat and skin. It is slightly moist and the soy sauce stew flavour does not overkill.

Almost every table at this busy coffeeshop at lunch has an order of their stewed duck and kiam chye ark combo, and he clears “at least 30 ducks” each day.

He shares with me one final secret to his stew, “I’ve never changed that huge pot of herbal soy stew since day one. I replenish it every day with water and herbs and with each duck I cook, the flavour gets more intense over time. Every evening, I seal and lock up the pot.”

He has been replenishing that same pot of soy stew for the last twenty five years.

Uurrgh…but then again…oooh, yummmm.