Ah Lock & Co – forget the tagline & just Munchi the Min Jiang Kueh

Ah Lock & Co is a newly opened eatery in Tanjong Pagar Centre offering Hakka Tofu Rice Bowl & Min Jiang Kueh. The tagline “Eat My Tofu” is on one of its walls as well as on the t-shirts of the staff  –  witty or inappropriate? Having actually eaten Ah Lock’s Hakka tofu, which was not bad, we would prefer to eat the stall’s min jiang kueh.

Eat My Tofu

According to a China Plus article, “吃豆腐” or  “Eat Tofu” means “to take advantage of woman physically or verbally through actions bearing sexual connotations. Eg: through inappropriate flirting”.

The article explains that the Chinese saying “吃豆腐” (eat tofu) is related to the story of “Tofu Xishi” who is a character from the novel “Guxiang”, written by Lu Xun. The story tells of the owner of a tofu shop who is young and beautiful and has flawless skin because she eats tofu all the time. She entices and flirts with men in order to sell more tofu. Many men go to her tofu shop under the pretext that they are just going there to “eat tofu” in order to flirt with her.

In the face of the #metoo movement, is Eat My Tofu a witty tagline for a restaurant selling tofu or is it an inappropriate one? We are not social commentators and thinking about deep issues like political correctness and freedom of expression only makes us hungry. So we will leave it to you consider whether it is appropriate for Ah Lock to invite you to eat tofu and we will just tell you about what we ate at Ah Lock & Co.

Ah Lock & Co.

Ah Lock & Co. is a collaboration between Munchi Delights and Ah Lock Tofu, 2 hawkers stalls operating in Yishun Park Hawker Centre. Located in the basement food hall of Tanjong Pagar Centre, the small self-service casual eatery offers old school min jiang kueh and pancakes of Munchi in various flavours and Ah Lock’s signature dish, Hakka tofu rice bowl. There is a lunch set for $9.90 and also an All Day Breakfast set comprising Classic Min Jiang Kueh, Coffee/Tea and 61°Deg Sousvide Eggs for only $3.

Below are pictures of the Menu Boards of Ah Lock & Co. in Tanjong Pagar Centre.

Min Jiang Kueh

The pancakes at Ah Lock & Co. come in different sizes and have a wide variety of fillings. There is a choice of skins – traditional, charcoal or green tea.

We tried the Green Tea Pancake with Red Bean filling, which came with the Set Lunch. We also had the Charcoal Pancake with Peanut filling ($1.60 per slice).

The pancakes or min jiang kuehs were quite thick and had soft chewy texture. Both the fillings were good – moist, tasty and not too sweet. We would happily pay $1,60 for a slice of the min jiang kueh at Ah Lock & Co.

Hakka Tofu Rice Bowl

We had the Ah Lock Lunch Set ($9.90). The good value set comprised the signature Hakka Tofu Rice Bowl, a choice of a slice of min jiang kueh and cold or hot green tea.

We could see that the rice bowl was carefully prepared each time an order was received. The bowl of rice was drizzled with a soybean-based sauce and topped by meatballs, stuffed tofu, seaweeds and a variety of vegetables. The chilli, which was quite spicy, was served separately on a small saucer.  We liked the meatballs and tofu. On the whole, it was a nice rice bowl but not something which we would get really excited about.

Ah Lock & Co. in Tanjong Pagar Centre offers those working in the area a good alternative for breakfast and is a good place for a one dish meal. We thought the Hakka Tofu Rice Bowl was not bad but we would not go out of our way to eat Ah Lock’s tofu. However, if we are in the vicinity we would be happy to make a detour to eat the min jiang kuehs.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: NA (Self-service)
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 2
Overall Ratings: 3 TOPs 

 

Ah Lock & Co.
7 Wallich Street #B2-22/23/24
Singapore 078884

Tel: +65 8780 8703

Opening Hours
Mon-Fri: 7:30am–8:30pm
Sat: 10am–4pm
Sunday Closed

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog