Mushroom Bak Chor Chai Tow Kway 香菇肉脞菜头粿 @ North Bridge Road Market

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Ke Shuang Xing Fried Carrot Cake (柯双兴菜头粿) has been dishing out fried carrot cake (Chai Tow Kway) for five decades but just this month, they have roll out a new offering which is a marriage between Chai Tow Kway and Wah Kueh.

Wah Kueh (碗糕), as its name implies, is a bowl-sized rice pudding (imagine a giant Chwee Kueh) with toppings and sauce drizzled over it.

Unfortunately, this is a fast disappearing dish in Singapore. I myself have eaten it only once at Bukit Merah Food Centre while on my way to CMPB from Redhill more than 10 years ago. I have even forgotten how it taste like now.

Ivan, the owner of Ke Shuang Xing Fried Carrot Cake decided to bring this old favorite back and merge it with their Chai Tow Kway.

Ivan's new brainchild is called 香菇肉脞菜头粿 which is essentially Chai Tow Kway topped with Wah Kueh toppings like mushroom, bak chor (minced meat), minced garlic, chili and their special salted vegetable.

Simply put, it means Chai Tow Kway served Wah Kueh style.

Not many people from my generation onwards have eaten or even heard about Wah Kueh so, if you are interested to know what it is, you should really give it a try.

For $3, you get quite a substantial amount of Chai Tow Kway. The bak chor reminds me of the Taiwanese Lu Rou Fan (滷肉飯) style of meat sauce which is really tasty. Even the mushroom goes exceptionally well together with the Chai Tow Kway. As for the salted vegetable, it is on the sweet side since the bak chor and mushroom are already savory so that really balances everything out. I have to mention that the chili really packs a punch!

The portion is really good for two person to share as I almost could not finish it myself.

Ivan has a business partner Alvin and there is actually a very noble story behind this partnership. They welcomed ex-offenders who had difficulty securing jobs to come to them and they are willing to share the recipe so the ex-offenders can start their own business.

According to Alvin, he even hopes the ex-offenders can rope in their family to help out at the stall so in the event that something untoward happens to them, their surviving family can still make a living.

Isn't that the nicest thing to do?

When I found out about this, I actually traveled all the way there to support them. Thank goodness for the Downtown Line which shortened my traveling time compared to if I had taken the East West Line instead.

Ke Shuang Xing Fried Carrot Cake is located at North Beach Road Market behind ICA Building (you know, the place where you make passports?). From Lavender MRT Station, walk to the back of ICA Building, cross the bridge and the market is on your left hand side.