Hong Khim

This is about as good as it gets for me. I’m not sure how long this is going to keep going, but it’s always Uncle that kneads, rolls, fashions and cuts the dough which gets dropped into hot oil which Aunty tends, turning each slowly browning fritter till it’s ready to sing an aria for an audience of just one, you. Like I said, it’s Uncle and Aunty and they’ve been doing this since I was knee-​high to grasshopper and they’ve got to be getting on in years. The product however remains as consistently indescribably good, which is a virtue that I extol whenever I get a chance. The concept of «One stall, One master, One dish, One legacy» should define Singaporean roots cuisine.
There are of course laid out for inspection, the usual suspects, ham jin peng, butterflies, and jin tui, but you notice that only one item keeps being snapped up by each and every member of the eerily quiet and patient queue snaking out in front of you. This is because Aunty only has one rule, «You queue, you order, you pay.» Any trouble and you’ll never be welcome here again, because Dear Reader, Aunty is possessed of a deceptively keen eye and elephantine memory. So you patiently stand in line, have your order all worked out before you get to the front of the line, which is more quickly than you think, and order the you tiao (dough fritters, yau zar kwai), preferably 5 as this works out to a nice round number and you don’t have to worry about change.
Scurry away with your bundle of bliss if you must, but try one immediately. You tiao has its proponents and fans at every stage of the aging process. And truly, over the course of 24 hours, it slowly takes on a different character and is good in different ways. A complete discussion of the joys of aging You Tiao is beyond the scope of this review. Ask me sometime… Ok, as I was saying, Hong Khim’s is quite the other thing, when enjoyed fresh out of the hot oil. This is a treat likely invented and enjoyed even before baguettes were even conceived. The original concept of a diaphanously crispy exterior which gives way to a chewy, doughy center, the experience punctuated by the air pockets which release a miasma of steam, oil and earthy raw dough seemingly directly into your reptilian midbrain. You react instinctively by closing your eyes and breathing in short circular breaths, it’s hot, it’s greasy, it’s oh so good.
Ok, food porn aside, this is one maharajah of a dough fritter, and I’ve told you where to get one. So have one already.