Monday, December 19, 2011

Singapore: Ngoh Hiang (五香)

Ngoh Hiang (Wu Xiang 五香) is not really a Singaporean dish but is quite popular in Singapore. According to Wikipedia, it is a Hokkien and Teochew dish which originates from eastern China and is served in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Now is where my food research goes a little murky. Wikipedia says that Ngoh Hiang refers to the five-spice powder that is mixed in with the filling. According to ieatishootipost, Ngoh Hiang, meaning five flavours, was thus named because there was initially only 5 different types of fritters. (prawn fritter, pork rolls, pork liver, egg rolls and pork sausage) What ultimate conclusion you arrive at is probably not important, because what's more important is eating it.

Anyway, my favourite ngoh hiang is from Hup Kee Ngoh Hiang at Maxwell Food Centre. Here's a youtube video by Makansutra. Note that ngoh hiang can be a generic term for all that deep fried stuff or refers only specifically to the food item wrapped in the beancurd roll.



As you would be able to tell from the video, the Hokkien version is sold at Hup Kee. The items sold at this store include the ngoh hiang made from porks and chives, rolled up in the beancurd skin and uses a stick of LARD to hold the ngoh hiang. Other items include liver rolls, pink pork sausages, egg and lard cakes, tofu, century eggs and fishballs.

Honestly, I have always eaten those dubious looking stuff, not caring what they really are, as long as they tasted nice. I only found out today that the egg thingy that I like is actually egg and lard cakes. Goodness gracious. Anyway, you can order them with or without the beehoon (fried noodles). Dip those random food items into the pink sauce and chilli sauce provided!


Besides Hup Kee, other places known for making ngoh hiang also include Five Spice Prawn Fitter and Lao Zhong Zhong.

Hup Kee Ngoh Hiang
Stall 97 Maxwell Food Centre
Tel No: 9004 0618
(Closed on Monday)

Five Spice Prawn Fritter
#02-04/05
Tanjong Pagar Plaza

Lao Zhong Zhong 
Lao Zhong Zhong Eating House
Cnr Tai Thong Crescent and Siang Kee Ave 

1 comments:

Should be referring to the dark coloured beancurd pork rolls seasoned with wu xiang. I believe originally the hawkers only sold the wu xiang rolls, which was eaten with beehoon, noodle, or rice. Thereafter other varieties appeared, but they are still collectively called Wu Xiang.

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