Stall Name: Fu Lin Fried Yong Tau Fu

福林炸酿豆腐

Pricing: $$/5 (From S$5.30 onwards)

Food: ♥♥♥♥♥/5

Ambience: ♥♥♥/5

Service: ♥♥♥/5

Location: 112 Katong, 112 East Coast Road #04-01, Marine Parade, Singapore 428802
Operating Hours: Daily 10:00 - 22:00

112 Katong is considered one of the newer malls in Singapore. Formerly known as Katong Mall, 112 Katong is the revamped shopping mall which comprises of 6 storeys of retail shops including restaurants, 2 levels of basement car park and a rooftop landscaped garden with wet playground on level 4, just outside the Food Republic food court.

112 Katong is a mall ideal for dining with family especially those with kids as the kids will get to play and enjoy the wet playground at the rooftop :)

Da Rabbit usually will have her dinner with Sweetie Muffin @ 112 Katong on Friday evenings before the church service starts as our church is located nearby. This time round, Da Rabbit finds her makan (food) findings in 112 Katong "musable" and hence decided to muse about her favourite food places there.

As usual, Da Rabbit will give a brief background information about the food that she is about to muse on -- Yong Tau Fu or known as Yong To Fu, Yong Tau Foo ... (too many variations zzz)

Introduction

Yong tau foo ( also spelled yong tao foo, yong tau fu, or yong tau hu, yong tofu; yen tafo in Thailand) is a Chinese soup dish with Hakka origins commonly found in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. There are also Teochew and Hokkien variations.
Essentially the dish originated in the early 1970s in a restaurant called "Foong Foong" as tofu stuffed with a meat paste of fish and pork, thereby earning the dish its name "Yong Tau Foo", which means "stuffed bean curd." Since then all variety of vegetables and even fried fritters have been similarly stuffed, and the name Yong Tau Foo has thus been used liberally to apply to foods prepared in this manner.
Yong tau foo is essentially a clear consomme soup containing a varied selection of food items, including fish balls, crab sticks, bittergourds, cuttlefish, lettuce, ladies fingers, as well as chilis, and various forms of fresh produce, seafood and meats common in Chinese cuisine. Some of these items, such as bittergourd and chili, are usually filled with fish paste (surimi). The foods are then sliced into bite-size pieces, cooked briefly in boiling broth and then served either in the broth as soup or with the broth in a separate bowl. The dish is eaten with chopsticks and a soup spoon and can be eaten by itself (served with a bowl of steamed rice) or with any choice of egg or rice noodles, or bee hoon (rice vermicelli). Another variation of this dish is to serve it with laksa gravy or curry sauce. Essential accompaniments are a spicy, vinegary chili sauce, originally made with red fermented bean curd and distantly similar in taste to Sriracha sauce, and a distinctive brown sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce for dipping.
In Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, the Malay Muslims have taken to yong tau foo in a big way. As pork consumption is prohibited for Muslims, halal yong tau foo is generally soy based or stuffed vegetable fritters or steamed bean curd with fish paste stuffing. To prepare the dish, these, a steamed rice-flour roll (similar to that used for chee cheong fun) and a vegetable called kangkong are boiled to heat and soften them. The food items are drained and eaten with sprinkled toasted sesame seeds, chili sauce and a hoisin based sauce. Another version commonly found in Perak state is the soup type where the food items are served in a broth and provided with chili sauce and hoisin based sauce dipping. Halal yong tau foo is normally sold by Malay vendors at night markets (pasar malam) and at halal food courts by non-Muslim vendors.

~ Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yong_Tau_Foo

Fu Lin Fried Yong To Fu (YTF) is of Ampang Style whereby they serve the dish with lots of starchy gravy which Da Rabbit fell in love with instantly.

She was first being introduced to Fu Lin's YTF by her colleague - Felicia as their office was situated very near Hong Leong Finance Building in the CBD area. There is a Fu Lin food court located in the basement of HLF Building which mainly sell their famous Ampang YTF together with a variety of other foodstuff like vegetable rice, laksa, lor mee etc.

In Da Rabbit's honest opinion, Fu Lin's YTF is the BEST YTF she has ever tasted in Singapore.

How to order your Yong Tau Fu

Ordering YTF may seem to be a little complex to foreigners and hence Da Rabbit feels that she should explain the procedure to her viewers...

When Da Rabbit was very young, she always shunned stalls selling YTF as the ordering process seemed difficult and she was too shy to order by herself in case she disgrace herself in the process. However as years go by, Da Rabbit has become more gluten and hence mustered the courage to find out how to order.

First, you must read the menu / notices on the stall. They will specify the minimal number of ingredients you must choose in order to proceed, and how much each item will cost etc. For YTF, you get to choose the ways you want them to be served:

Dry / Immersed in Soup; Da Rabbit recommends eating it dry as she enjoys eating fried food. Fried ingredients will be soggy when soaked in the soup :( If served dry, a complimentary small bowl of soup would be provided
Served with Noodles (noodles have different types) / Served with Rice / Or ONLY the ingredients

Its something like a buffet. You have to reach out for a bowl - usually located at the counter where you see the food ingredients are being dIsplayed. Next you have to use the tongs providd to get the ingredients. For Fu Lin, you must obtain at least a minimal number of 6 pieces of ingredients. After getting all the ingredients you want, you proceed to join the queue and tell the counter staff how would you like your YTF ingredients to be prepared. Afterwards, if the queue is really long, you might need to join the 'collection' queue or be given a number tag whereby they will call your number when your food is ready to be served. Then, you can proceed to take the dipping sauces (commonly located near the counter) - normally YTF is served with chilli and sweet sauce.

Le' Stall

It is situated in Food Republic Food Court in 112 Katong.

Sweetie Fin was spoilt for choice. He spent 5 minutes choosing his ingredients.

So many colorful ingredients to choose from...

Da Rabbit has selected her standard 6 ingredients.

Her favorite ingredient here is the fried dough fritters as only Fu Lin provides that so far. So it is unconventional for YTF stalls to provide fried dough fritters.

Le' Food

Don't be deceived by the looks of the foodie. It tasted really heavenly with the gravy as it matches the fried ingredients perfectly.

Da Rabbit LOVES the thick noodles served together with minced meat sauce. This method of cooking can only be found in the Ampang Style...

Overall

The standards of Fu Lin Fried Yong To Fu has been well kept throughout. Be it at Hong Leong Finance Building or at a small corner of the Food Republic in 112 Katong. Da Rabbit strongly recommends everybody to try this Ampang YTF if they are already a YTF fan. It is really special and different from the rest of the normal YTFs ♥♥♥~

Next, we walked to another part of the 112 Katong mall for desserts...