Gourmet Garden

Song River is located right smack on Gurney Drive, just a few doors up from Evergreen Hotel. We usually don’t patronise the place but because of its grilled fish, we have put in some time to try the other hawker stalls and their offerings available for the dinner and late night crowd.

Charcoal grilled chicken parts are one of the attraction in Song River, especially for the beer drinkers and those looking something snack on while they chit chat. So far our favourites are the chicken wings and bishops’ nose, the whole thigh is not our cup of tea. The chicken wings when prepared properly (depending on luck) offers a taste of smokiness, caramelization, savouriness and sweetness (sometimes slightly too sweet for us). When it has the balance of the flavours, no further chilli sauce is needed (but that depends on individuals) as it would overwhelmed the natural sweetness of the chicken and the taste of the marinates.

Tip:

• Order one piece to try, if it is up to standard on your particular visit, only then ask for more.
• One serving 10pcs of bishops’ nose is more than enough for 2 persons.

Another stall that one may like to try is the “Fried Oyster” which is manned by an old uncle. The servings that we had were rich in egg flavour and the oysters were nicely cooked (tender and neither under nor over cooked). The spices added some aromatic fragrance to the omelette without overpowering the eggy fragrance and the sweetness of the oysters. The sprinkle of spring onions gave it a touch of freshness and sweetness. The usual fried oyster omelette would constitute the usage of some form of starch to give it “extra body” and act as a binding agent, this stall uses it sparingly, and thus one would not feel overwhelmed after a serving or two.

Tip:

• Order the smallest serving and request for crispier omelette.
• Spring onion and coriander gives some freshness to the omellete.

Our favourite stall here would be the Grilled Fish which opens for business at around 10:30pm on week days and 8:00 plus on Sundays. This stall has the usual stingray and other local fishes ready for the pan, but the prize selection is the meat from the belly part of a fish(鱼腩). We frequent this grill fish stall because of the marinate that is uses for its grilling. The marinate consist of lots of raw garlic and birds eye chilli, fermented bean paste, sugar and “asam”. It is different from the usual grill fish stalls in other hawker centre and food courts. The after product would taste rich, sweet, spicy and nutty with slight acidity, but yet would not overwhelm the flavours of the fish.

Tip:

• Be there early for the fish belly(鱼腩).
• Ask for less bird’s eye chili padi if you could not take spicy
• Ignore the chattering of the stall owner.
• The asam deep also goes well with the BBQ chicken wings and bishops’ nose.

The bah kut teh stall is one that we won’t be going back for seconds after our first try. We have tasted better ones. The soup base was blend and the portion for was little compared to price we paid for.

Overall rating for Song River and its hawker stalls:

Taste & Texture: 3.0/5 (lacks consistency, except the grill fish stall that has a higher ratio of hitting the right balance)
Money Value : 2.5/5 (above average pricing due to its location)
Service: 2.5/5 (average unless you know them for some time)
Cleanliness: 1.5/5 (open air places near the sea normally gets visits from more than two legged friends)
Atmosphere: 2.0/5 (open air kopitiam, can’t ask for much)

Popularity: 13% [?]