There are days where you wish for hot soupy food like when you are sick or it is a rainy kind of day. On days like these, Steamboat is always a good choice but can be too heavy for lunch. One perfect alternative for days like this is the yong tau foo which is steamed or boiled beancurd filled with fish paste. Other than bean curd, there is also a variety of vegetables and fresh meatballs for choice. At usual yong tau foo stalls, you can pick the items you wish to eat and the stall will cook them for you either with soup or dry with sauce. I discovered this Bai Nian stall which is apparently very famous and has a few outlets throughout the island.
Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu is one of the stalls at Viva business park food court at Chai Chee and it is also the stall with the longest queue during lunch time.
From the glass wall plastered with food reviews and different accolades, you can understand why there is a never-ending queue for a simple dish like yong tau foo. Curious about how different Bai Nian is from other yong tau foo stall, I joined the queue which took me about 15 mins.
Instead of the usual rows of ingredients for customers to pick, the yong tau foo here is served in standard sets like the traditional ones served in Chinatown. The main set comes with a mixture of the items they have which includes; prawn balls, pork balls, beancurd rolls with different meat. These items are also sold ala carte or as top-ups to your set.
Since it is my first time trying their food, I ordered the most popular set which came with 2 pieces of fried chicken wings. The kitchen is an open concept so you can see the staff hard at making the bean curd ingredients as well as boiling and scooping your order.
The fried chicken wings are fried freshly in batches to ensure that each wing is always crispy and juicy.
There are various bowls of cooked ingredients as well as the ones cooking inside the broth. Depending on the order, the staff will scoop the required ingredients into each bowl before topping it up with soup. For customers who ordered noodles with their soup can also see their noodles being cooked by another staff.
This is how the standard set looks like with 2 pieces of wings priced at SGD 5.80. Utensils, chilli and sweet sauce are available for customers at the side of the stall.
The ingredients are very fresh and the prawn and meatballs are springy and juicy. The soup is also very clear and light without any obvious msg taste since I did not get thirsty from drinking the soup.
Overall, I like the taste of the ingredients of Bai Nian and it makes a good meal when you prefer something light. I recently tried the outlet at People’s Park and is glad to note that the quality is similar across outlets.
Address: #01-25 (Viva Business Park), 750 Chai Chee Rd, Singapore 469000
Operating hours: 7.30 am to 9 pm
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