Katong seems to be a perennial makan battleground. Perhaps folks believe that if your recipe can pass the fussy Nonya’s palate there, then you’ve got it made. First, there was the infamous laksa war, then the chicken rice showdown, the bak chang confrontation and the Peranakan food row.

And quietly undetected for a while now, there’s been a tau kua pau battle going on at a junction just a stone’s throw from the Katong laksa war junction. Where Joo Chiat meets East Coast Road, two coffeeshops house two rather popular tau kua pau stalls. Sure, it’s not some top ten Singaporean favourite dish, but it is a rare and soon-to-disappear makan here. You can count in one hand just how many decent tau kua pau stalls there are in Singapore. This is the tau kua pau war junction.

Hey, remember, all I want to do is to recommend good makan and weave in a good story to facilitate the experience. And boy oh boy, did I get woven into a web of intriguing information. Speak to most old fogey foodies about this tofu burger and they’ll inevitably recall the “Haig Road tau kua pau” old man. He was the undisputed legend of this Teochew dish in Singapore.

One stall claimed that they inherited the Haig Rd master’s recipe and that the old man is still up and about. I recall eating the Haig Rd tau kua pau in the late 70s…it looked and tasted nothing like what these stalls are selling now. For starters, the old version comes stuffed with chopped bits of a pig's heads like ear, skin and tongue. “Oh, but we’ve improvised, Katong people don’t like it too porky so we’ve made it meatless, except for some eggs and fish cake.”, explains Ms Mary Seah, who runs Mary’s Corner. She does not know the name of this old master at Haig Rd.

They now occupy a spot vacated by the other stall four years ago after the Tau Kua Pau folks shifted across the street. It also has a very similar recipe to the original Tau Kua Pau stall, which has been in business for over 25 years. They used to cause little traffic jams at the junction when regulars would just pull up by the stall to buy and pick up their phone-in orders. “I moved across the street because the new owners did not provide a space big enough for me to prepare my ingredients after renovation”, says boss Mr Khoo Lian Hwa, who inherited his late father’s business after his national service because “I needed a job”. He says the Haig Rd master had long been recalled by the almighty makers.

Of all the ingredients providence blessed us with that can be stuffed into a tofu, both the stalls have a hauntingly similar recipe…a fried tau kua, slit in the middle and stuffed with chopped cucumbers, fried crispy yam bits, fish cakes, mashed hard boiled eggs garnished with coriander and smothered with duck sauce and/or a stingingly tangy chilli sauce.

Part of the mystery lies with the fact that both bosses were once associates in the same coffeeshop operating different stalls before Mr Khoo shifted. Of course, there isn’t much banter and conversation between them now.

The makan lowdown:

Mary’s Corner

Address Orange Katong Coffeeshop 125 East Coast Rd

Opening Hours 8.30am-9pm daily

When she first began selling it some four years ago, it was pathetic. The inferior tau kua was sour and damp. But of late, they wised up a used a better grade tofu and fries it fresh when you order. She is generous with her stuffing and it includes a special chopped fried fish flour cake but overall it’s weak in the flavour department. If you like you tau kwa pau soft and not too complicatedly textured, hers is your choice. Her chilli has more sting as she injects a kick of hae ko (prawn paste) in it.