This is 根叔 (Gen Shu). He was a former chef in Shang Palace Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. For the past 8 years, he has been dishing out his Cantonese style of breakfast and lunch specialities at a hawker centre in Toa Payoh neighbourhood. Now we can get “atas” (high class/upmarket) restaurant food at hawker prices. Yay!!!
still wasn’t feeling well after my Kukup trip and my makan kakis compromised by eating somewhere closer to my home in order that I need not spend too much time traveling.
The cab fare from my place to Toa Payoh is normally below SGD7 but I do not know why this one way trip at non-peak hour cost me SGD17.10. The cab driver had the cheek to ask me for 10 cents after cheating me SGD10! I was not in the mood to argue so I paid up and got off.
Eat it with the boatman’s porridge. They are a perfect match!
The springy texture of this dish was to my liking although it was a tad bland.
Mix with some chilli sauce and it should be delicious.
I didn’t add any chilli sauce as my cough was still bothering me.
I had it with the porridge and it was good.
If there’s such thing as “Officer and Gentleman” then my version for 根叔 would be “Chef and Gentleman”.
Meeting 根叔 (Gen Shu in Mandarin meaning Uncle Kun) is a humbling experience. I did not sense any snobbish attitude from him. He was so friendly and sincere, I thought I was visiting my uncle’s stall. Not that I’m very much younger than him,
I saw a lady dabao (orders for food to go) about 20 packets of food and asked 根叔 where most of his customers are from. He said that his customers come from all over the island but the majority of them work in the area. Since the Housing Development Board and a lot of real estate agencies are also situated in Toa Payoh, many property salespersons frequent his stall to dabao food whenever they have a conference meeting or seminars.
Gen Shu advised that big orders from an organisation should call in advance so that he could prepare the necessary ingredients and estimate the cooking time to match its collection. He dislike turning away other walk-in customers when he had to sell in bulk to those who do not pre-order saying it wasn’t fair to the rest who’d traveled all the way there. Considerate groups that call in advance can create a triple win situation for all – they get their food without much waiting time, the walk-in customers don’t have to go away without being able to taste his fare and Gen Shu gets the sales.
That said, I’m planning to go back to try Gen Shu’s steamed rice (S$3.80 a pot) and there are plenty of yummy flavours to choose from! His Steamed Rice Pots definitely looked better than the Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Fish and Rice 鹹魚蒸肉饼饭 I had at Macau Airport.
Kun Shu Food Stall 根叔美食世家
Unit 01-03, Blk 74,
Toa Payoh Lorong 4.
Singapore 310074.
Tel: 85567133 (please call ahead for big take-away orders or you may be disappointed).
Operating hours: 6am to 1.30pm. (Closed on Mondays.)
By the way, my cab fare back was SGD6.70!