Choi’s - Good Old Skool

We came to seek some solace from the cold weather in some good old claypot rice but we were 5 minutes too late - we had just missed the last empty table and formed the first in the line that came after us. It was torture! We stood outside feeling a little cold and took in the sights and smells of the claypot rice that were being cooked to order.

The wait, thankfully, wasn’t that long and when we sat down – the food came fast and hot and it was really good.



Sweet and sour pork that is fried deliciously crunchy and glazed with a vibrant sweet and sour that well balanced in both sweet and sour rather than the ketchup dominated sauces that we generally get – it felt like I was re-discovering sweet and sour pork for the first time all over again.



The fried squid with white pepper also fried to perfection, light crisp and squid tender.



Their claypot rice sums up the cooking here for me. Each claypot looks deceptively simple but it takes experience and skill to cook everything to order precision that extracts taste from the ingredients and creates the right texture for the rice and a crusty bottom.

Good Cantonese comfort food.

Choi’s KitchenShop
A1, G/F, 9-11 Shepherd Street
Tai Hang, Hong Kong
Tel: +852-34850501

Maxwell Market - Maxed on Rice

Usually on a weekday, I try to watch the amount of carbohydrates I have for lunch as a preemptive for the next few hours at my work desk would be an uphill struggle. So since it was the weekend and there was nothing much planned for the rest of the day other than to stretch out on the bed after lunch to recharge for the next week, the limited carbohydrate rule didn’t stand but what took place for lunch today was a little too extreme.

I went to Maxwell and I totally maxed out on rice, 3 very delicious portions of it. The first was hainanese curry rice with a portion of pork chops. The pork chops were well seasoned and crisp, but I prefer the thick curry combination at Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice where it was thicker and richer. The second tasting portion of rice was claypot rice. Wonderful crunchy bits of burnt rice wearing a rich gloss of dark sauce with fresh tasting pieces of chicken and slices of sweet lup cheong, yummy! Finally, we had chicken rice from madam foo’s Tian Tian Chicken Rice stall, which legendary in terms of the number of accolades that she has gathered after for her 40 years of labour in this craft. Her chicken is succulent and has a lovely layer of jelly inbetween its skin and meat and the chilli is very punchy.

Rice, rice and more rice: Hainanese curry rice with pork chops, claypot rice and chicken rice. “Have you eaten you rice?”

Cooking á la minute

Geylang Claypot Rice
659 Geylang Road, Lorong 33
Tel: 6744-4574
Opening hours: 5pm – 12am
(Closed on Monday)


(I apologise for the out of focus picture, it isn’t your eyes, it is my shaky hands and the lack of sidewalk light)

Packed to the brim with the tables lining the sidewalk and the back alley, this corner shop is the place for many claypot rice devotees. As I joined the many, I experienced that sitting on the sidewalk for dinner had its perils. The sidewalk pavement is rather narrow, so a rectangular table is much better than a circular one, but if you were like us, who sat around a circular table and at the tail end of a pavement where there was a slight slope, dinner becomes quite a balancing act between trying not to accidentally fall into the drain or onto the road, and keeping the table at equilibrium with the help of a tiny bottle cap to prevent plates to slide off the table. However, once we settled down and worked out the balance, it was all good, then all we needed was the food to arrive.

The average waiting time here is 30 minutes, non-negotiable. No compromised is made on the quality of food here, the rice is cooked from scratch once the order chit makes it to the kitchen, so, you will just have to be patient. The owner offered one other alternative the last time we walked in but didn’t have the time to wait, call them in advance and give them a heads up of what time you will arrive and they should be able to accommodate you.

Once the claypot arrived, the three of us quickly divided the work that had to be done. One person took charge of the scoop and started scooping the “toppings” off onto a side plate, my other dinner companion took charge of the oil and I took charge of the dark sauce. Together we worked together and very efficiently flavoured our rice, transferred the “toppings” back, and distributed the food. The defining feature of this claypot rice is the al-dente rice texture, with a slight resistance when you bite into it. The salted fish also flavours the rice and balances the sweetish lup-cheong that is scattered around the rice. Simply put, it is good rice.