They have to buy fresh chilled pig intestines from Indonesia, gingerly cut and peel the membrane skin without damaging it, manually flush the insides, patiently marinate and prepare fresh lean pork cubes mixed with a dark pink flour and spice batter, then gently pipe it into the long intestine membrane skin, ensuring it fills up consistently well and not have tears (other wise it’s wastage of ingredients and time), let it set, boil and cool. Only thenafter, one item on their ngoh hiang display rack, the pink pork sausage roll, is ready.

And yet, it is not their best seller.

And if you bear in mind the equally tedious to prepare Hokkien ngoh hiang offerings like the ngoh hiang roll, liver roll, egg and lard cakes, you won’t need to have half of Einstien’s perception to figure out why only two decent hand made Hokkien ngoh hiang stalls are left in Singapore (most ngoh hiang hawkers sell the Teochew version which uses more tubers like yam and flour and offer the crispy prawn crackers.)

Conveniently, both are located comfortably at the Maxwell Food Centre and coincidently, both have roots at the old China Street, or were they remnants of that old famous stall there, or did they both jump in on the street food name brand association bandwagon of China Street and Hokkien ngoh hiang. The area, near Telok Ayer, used to have an old coffeeshop that housed a very famous ngoh hiang stall way back in the 70s.

Blur, was my conclusion after speaking to both.

“That was my grandfather’s stall. He was originally an Indonesian Chinese and had eight of our relatives toiling away each day in the coffeeshop.”, asserts Mr Teo Ho Soon who remembers too, that “ we also had special stewed stuffed pork leg rolls and many other items I can’t even remember and our gooey dip is not pink and sweet but brown with a savoury hint inside. Today, because of time and manpower problems, we can only hand make four items, the pink sausage, ngoh hiang, liver rolls and egg-lard cakes.”. Mr Teo runs the Hup Kee China Street Ngoh Hiang stall (no 01-97), with his wife, son and brother-in-law. They moved to various locations before settling here.

“My uncle used to partner the old man at the original China Street stall. They later parted ways and he set up another stall there. My father helped out and passed the business down to us. We have been at Maxwell Food Centre for over twenty years now. The other stall came here only about five years ago.”, clarified Mr Ng Kok Hua, who runs the China Street Ngoh Hiang stall (01-64) with his bother Richard, just a row (no pun here) away from Mr Teo’s. They also handmake the four similar items in similar manner. Heck, they even taste similar. You have to be quite discerning with your Hokkien ngoh hiangs to tell it apart.

Both uses sticks of boiled lard for texture and as a “skeleton” to hold the liver and chives roll and both does not mince the liver for “better texture”. They still use the old technique and similar ingredients in making the pink sausage, ditto for the ngoh hiang and egg-lard cakes. Even the chilli and gooey dip has similar heritage.

Okay, so far the alley down this interview and investigation is getting dark and off tangent and the heavens reminded me why I was there stuffing my face with their rolls, cakes and sausages.

Thankfully, the brand confusion does not affect food quality.

The lowdown…

Hup Kee China Street Ngoh Hiang

Address 01-97 Maxwell Food Centre

Opening Hours 9am-8pm, closed Mondays

I adore their liver rolls. It has enough air pockets inside to let the flavour and texture breathe as you chew. Their pink pork sausage is softer (if that’s you cuppa tea, like mine is), their chilli is a tad sweeter and has a generous hint of garlic. They gooey dip is appetizing on its own. They also handmake their own spring rolls which is not original but clever, from a business perspective. Altogether, the offer up to fourteen items and their freid beehon is loose and long as they toss fry it with chopsticks, which does not tear the beehoon.

 

China Street Ngoh Hiang

Address 01-64 Maxwell Food Centre

Opening Hours 10am-8.30pm, closed on Mondays

Their egg-lad cakes has a tastier and crispier edge and their pink pork sausage comes slightly drier and firmer to the bite. They only offer seven items as “we concentrate on our best handmade items and not worry about inconsistent supplies” says Richard. Overall, their items are fried a tad crispier which is pleasant to the bite but can sometimes look overdone. But dip it into their spicier garlic laden chilli, it’s a sensation. Their liver rolls are packed solid inside and is firmer.