I love big gatherings. Cause that means we can order a lot. Like a lot! Haha. And so… With a ‘half day’ from crossing over from 2014 to 2015 (I love public holidays. Even if it’s just half days! Keke), my colleagues and I decided to get together for lunch. Yes, it’s not easy for us to meet for lunch since we are not stationed together.

And with that, reservation was made to dine at Keng Eng Kee because we were intrigued by their 月光河粉. And reservation is a must if one wishes to dine in the air-conditioned room. Basically, Keng Eng Kee is a tze char stall within the coffee shop of block 124. But cross a short linkway and they have a fully air-conditioned room at Blk 123 for patrons to eat in comfort. But do note the food is delivered from the kitchen at block 124 to block 123. Food were covered for hygiene, of course.

And from the menu, we ordered:-

1) Mingzhu roll, $12 (8 pcs) (above) – Fried tau pok stuffed with salted egg yolk, prawn, ham, mushrooms and parsley. This was said to be one of their signature items. However, I thought it was a overload of too many ingredients. Served in various servings. $9 for 6 pieces, $12 for 8 pieces and $15 for 10 pieces.

2) Mixed vegetable (vegetarian), $8 (small) (above)

3) Fried horfun (月光河粉), $8 (above) – For a group of 6, we were recommended to get the $8. Of course, out of curiosity, I asked how many yolks would a $8 be given. And for the 4 prices available, $5 and $8 has 1 yolk while 2 are given for $12 and $16. And this was so good. Sinfully oily. I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite. But now that I think (back) about it, it might not be that sinful. The ‘oil’ that coated the noodles could be the raw egg. Nonetheless, a must try!

4) Salted egg sotong, $18 (small) (above) – Calamari are pretty addictive on its own. But with salted egg mixed the batter? So good! A must try.

5) Prawn paste chicken, $10 (small) (above) – One of the dishes I always order when I do tze char. And these were good. Skin was crispy and fragrant while meat was tender and juicy.

6) Marmite pork ribs, $10 (above) – We originally wanted to order coffee pork ribs and marmite chicken, but the staff advised us not to as the two would be almost similar. Hence, heeding her advise, we ordered the marmite flavour, but requested for it to be done with pork ribs (since we were already ordering the prawn paste chicken). And this was so good. I quickly preferred this flavour (marmite) over coffee. And the pork ribs were meaty and juicy. A must try.

So yes, Keng Eng Kee is one place I will recommend for tze char. Even if one can’t come in a big group, one may want to buy their 月光河粉. It’s almost like our Chinese hor fun, but cooked in our char kway teow style.

And I was impressed with the staff who was stationed in the air-conditioned room. We had originally booked for 7 people. So when she was taking our orders, she placed ‘medium’ sizes for all our dishes. However, when we updated her that there was a change from 7 to 6 people, she took the initiative and changed the sizes of our dishes from medium to small before sending the orders to the kitchen. So nice!

But cause the kitchen was in a different block, the only con was that when she was away (sending order slips to the kitchen), there would be no staff to attend to the customers within the air-conditioned room. But we were fine with that cause she was back in a jiffy.

Would definitely try their salted egg crab on my next visit.