Cze Char Food Gathering @ JB Ah Meng, Geylang

Time flies, it seems just a few days ago when we had our monthly Food Gathering at Old Airport Road Food Center (read more HERE) and yet last Saturday evening we had a enjoy gathering again for the month of April. This round we set foot at a Cze Char Stall near the alley of Geylang Lorong 23. It was such a fun and exciting night where we have food, dessert and excitement seeing some Police Officers patrolling around the alleys as well as chasing a prime suspect.

When Maureen(Miss Tam Chiak) first told me about going to “JB Ah Meng” for month gathering I was kind of shock as in I thought she was planning a food trip to Johor, Malaysia (JB). But it was till then I realize that JB Ah Meng is actually a Cze Char stall along a street at Geylang Lorong 23, Singapore.

This is one of the Menu from JB Ah Meng Cze Char Stall. They also have some other in-house special dishes which are written on pink paper which pasted in front of their stall.

For starter we have Deep Fried Fish Skin(香炸鱼皮)with serve with Green Papaya Salad and sweet chili sauce. The fish skin was quite crispy and not very oil but the papaya was rather too little, hard and big pieces in size. Perhaps they could improve on the papaya salad like those julienned Thai style version.
Price: Deep Fried Fish Skin(香炸鱼皮) @ $13.00 for Medium serving

This Stewed Chicken with Liang Fen(粉皮焖鸡) comes with chicken pieces, shittake mushroom, black fungus on a bed on liang fen (mung bean noodle sheets). The translucent liang fen is hidden underneath the chicken pieces which appears to look like those soon kueh skin. The gravy is prefect to go with steamed rice with hint of sesame oil fragrant and this is indeed a very home cooked style dish.
Price: Stewed Chicken with Liang Fen(粉皮焖鸡) @ S$15.00 for Large serving

Nothing fancy about this Fried Fish Head(炒鱼头) which is just some fried red snapper fish head pieces that stir-fried with ginger, spring onion and etc. Although it has some wok fragrant but it might be too salty if it is to be eaten alone without any steamed rice. And moreover there is much "meat" pieces which makes it quite expensive for it's price.
Price: Fried Fish Head(炒鱼头) @ S$18.00 for Medium serving

Here comes their famous pancake style fried bee hoon known as J.B San Lou Meehoon(新山三楼米粉). It has a slightly crispy top and a bed of choy sum hidden underneath the bee hoon so the best way is to give it a toss to mix it well before eating so that the choy sum will be evenly spread out.
Price: J.B. San Lou Meehoon(新山三楼米粉) @ S$10.00 for Large serving

This Vegetable with Golden Mushroom(豆根金针菇) was well received at our table with it's soft and silky fried tofu that braised in the oyster sauce gravy together with cuttlefish, shittake and enoki mushrooms. At the side there are still some generous amount of balanced baby bok choy to accompany it.
Price: Vegetable with Golden Mushroom(豆根金针菇) @ S$12.00 for Medium serving

Maureen's must try Brinjal Potato with Chilli(地三鲜) dish which consists of brinjal, potato and green capsicum. For this dish, the brinjal are cut into long and wide pieces which then coated with batter and fried till golden brown together with potato cubes. These ingredients are then toss in the wok and blend well together with green capsicum and gravy. Although t his might look a bit greasy but it is sure taste great and you won't even notice that "brinjal" in it.
Price: Brinjal Potato with Chili(地三鲜) @ S$15.00 for Large serving

Not much of Fermented Beancurd taste on this Deep Fried Fermented Bean with Belly Pork(腐乳炸花肉) dish and the pork meat was rather tough and dry. This dish could have be better if the key ingredient "fermented beancurd" taste is stronger or even more tender meat that suits everyone in the family.
Price: Deep Fried Fermented Bean with Belly Pork(腐乳炸花肉) @ S$12.00 for Large serving

According to Alice who is one of the regular who patronise this Cze Char stall, this White Pepper Crabs(白胡椒螃蟹) is one of her favourite dish when taking orders. For about S$24.00 you get to enjoy 3 medium size crabs(some still have egg roes) that cook in fragrant white pepper sauce that is a great deal not to be missed. 
Price: White Pepper Crabs(白胡椒螃蟹) @ S$24.00 for 3 crabs

This Snake Bean with Lotus Root(蛇豆炒莲藕) is one of our favourite veggie dish with different layers of "crunchy" texture. They use snake beans (long bean), tossed with celery, salted fish, pork bits, dried shrimps and crispy lotus root chips. Although the lotus chips seems to be a bit over fried but still everyone of us love it's thin and crispy texture.
Price: Snake Bean with Lotus Root(蛇豆炒莲藕) @ S$15.00 for Large serving

The last was supposed to be the best as we are having high expectation for this Salted Egg Prawn Ball(咸蛋黄炒虾球) which was highly recommended by Makansutra and ieatishoot forum. These salted egg yolk prawns with fried battered corn kernels are supposed to be sweet, crunchy and crispy but what we had on that day was rather hard, salty and dried. So most of us were quite disappointed with this dish.
Price: Salted Egg Prawn Ball(咸蛋黄炒虾球) @ S$24.00 for Large serving

JB Ah Meng

新山亚明小橱
No. 2 Geylang Lor 23
Telephone: 6741 2418
Opening Timing: 5.30pm - 3.20am

DESSERT - DURIAN FEAST!

After finishing our 10 Course Dinner at JB Ah Meng, we then proceed to our Durian Feast Session at "Wonderful Fruit Enterprise(旺德福)" which located at 147 Sims Avenue upon recommended by the lady boss at JB Ah Meng.

This is the "horrify" scene when you put "18 Durian Lovers” together with their favourite Durian. As you can see everyone is eager to “rip” off the fruit despite of the spiky shell in order to have a seed of these delicious fruit. Honestly we don't really find the Durian is of good grade at this stall, example the "Hong Xia - 红虾"(shown on the bottom right photo above) that we had is totally lousy with sour, tastless and funny combination of taste which cost us more than S$30++ for just 1 durian.

For Durian lovers out there, do you have any good location or stall to enjoy Durian feast? Do share with us your experience.


Lastly I would like to thanks everyone who join us for this month Cze Char Food Gathering. You can proceed to their fabulous blogs below for more read up too.... So what's up for our NEXT gathering.... stay tune :p

1. Maureen (Miss Tam Chiak, our outing organiser)

2. Lobster (Lobsterpaints)

3. LeRoy (The Hungry Cow)

4. Justin (Gourmetestorie)

5. Charlene and Charles (Foodoshoot)

6. Derrick (SG Food on Foot)

7. Meng Cheng (Jessie Food Trip)

8. Priscilla (I Lov My Scooter)