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Best Singapore Tze Char List. Unique Pot 煲正肉骨汤 Tan Boon Liat Blg

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Thanks to Edwin's recommendation, we enjoyed a sumptuous and scrumptious lunch at Unique Pot 煲正肉骨汤 near Tan Boon Liat Building along Singapore's Outram Road.

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Unique Pot is located at the ground level of this small 2 storey building beside the towering Tan Boon Liat Building (not in this picture).

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The ground floor is a spacious kopitiam (coffee shop) with just 3 stalls - Unique Pot, a drinks stall and Ali Nasi Padang. We like it here as there is plenty of parking and the space is open and breezy. (On a side note, we sampled Ali Nasi Padang while waiting for everybody to arrive. It was excellent and I plan to be back for a more detailed tasting 😃 )

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Unique Pot's kitchen is helmed by two Malaysian chefs, hence the dishes have the distinctive Malaysian tai chow 大炒 flavours.

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First dish served was Unique Pot's signature bak kut teh.

I like the fall-off-the-bone tenderness and juiciness of the pork ribs in this bak kut teh. The herbal broth is quite light bodied and the savoury-sweet-herbal flavours though well balanced is slightly too mild for my liking.

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But, I enjoyed the porky sweetness of the tender and juicy pork ribs a lot and helped myself to more than a couple of pieces 😃

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Asam curry fish head - the curry was mainly sweet from coconut milk with a little chili spiciness and traces of sourness. It's a fresh halved Ikan Merah (Red Snapper) fish head which was naturally sweet.

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The curry prawn dish, usually referred to as "Indonesian prawns" 印尼蝦 over in Malaysia, won over many of us today.

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The sweet-savoury-spicy curry with loads of belacan (fermented prawn paste) packed a good flavourful punch. The good sized prawns were fresh too.

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The Kam Heong La La dish was a heap of clams smothered in a thick, dark, gritty looking pasty sauce - not very pretty, but this was one of the crowd favourites of the day.

The "kam heong" 干香 sauce was robust savoury-spicy-sweet with the distinct taste of fermented shrimp paste (belacan). But still, it left some room for us to taste the natural briny sweetness of the fresh La La clams. Bravo.

We love this.

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We were quite thrilled to see this classic Hakka fried pork when it arrived at the table. But, alas, while the meat was tender and juicy and the outside layer had a nice crunchy crisp, the nam yue 南乳 marination was slightly too light handed. A little more of that savoury nam yue taste would have made us swoon over this dish.

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Roasted Crispy Chicken - this fried chicken dish has an interesting twist - beneath the crispy golden brown skin is a layer of mildly savoury-sweet squid and prawn paste. It's a popular dish often served in Malaysian banquet halls.

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Braised mushrooms on a bed of Chinese spinach splashed with a mild savoury-sweet sauce.

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The humble sambal kang kong stir fried with kam heong sauce. This was good! The greens were crunchy and juicy and the savoury-sweet-spicy sauce was flavoursome and yet left some room for the taste of kang kong to show.

I think the chefs here are experts in kam heong - so, next time I want to try their other kam heong 干香 dishes 😃

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Yuan Yang Hor Fun - this was the most elaborate plate of hor fun I ever had 😃

It's deep fried crispy hor fun (flat rice noodles) paired with stir fried hor fun served with large fresh prawns, fresh fish slices, La La clams and blanched greens, all bathed in a gooey savoury sauce with slight sweetness. The gooey sauce packed lots of flavours all flowing from the prawns, fish, clams and greens.

The fried hor fun had some toasty wok hei but I felt it needed a bit more to assert itself above the flavour of the flavourful sauce.

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Sweet Ice Jelly 愛玉冰 with subtle sourish notes. I enjoyed this cold dessert.

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👉 Unique Pot is a nice place for lunch or dinner. Location is convenient. Ambiance is casual and comfortable. The menu is extensive - it has all the Malaysian tai chow dishes. The ingredients are fresh. The delicious dishes are expertly executed by experienced chefs. Prices are reasonable. We were already discussing our next trip to Unique Pot to try their crab dishes 😃

Our total bill today came to SGD255.

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Restaurant name: Unique Pot 煲正肉骨汤
Address: 313 Outram Road, Singapore (MRT construction beside the building)
GPS: 1°17'13.0"N 103°50'05.0"E | 1.286943, 103.834719
Tel: 9840 6280
Hours: 10:30am to 10:30pm

Non Halal

Date: 14 Feb 2017

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