Every country has its own food trends, but did you know that the huge fad in Southeast Asia since around 2016 is the use of salted egg yolk? Salted duck eggs have featured in Chinese cooking since who knows how long. Preserved in a brine, they are then cooked and used to season other dishes. While the whites taste predominantly of salt, it’s the yolks that are prized for its rich, umami flavour.
Arguably kick-started by the addition of salted egg to a fried fish-skin snack, the use of salted egg has exploded in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, giving rise to a myriad of fusion dishes and unlikely pairings. Because of our obsession with the dim-sum classic liu sha bao (流沙包) which features a sweetened salted egg custard in a fluffy steamed bun, we decided to hit up as many establishments in Singapore that we could to sample all the latest sweet and savoury mash-ups.
RESTAURANTS
TART BLANC – Salted Egg and Peach Tart
Starting off with a delicate but very imaginative use for salted egg, we purchased a tart from the online store Tart Blanc. A typical order usually consists of more than one mini pastry, but they were kind enough to meet us at a predetermined time at Kembangan Station.
The tart pastry was crisp and crumbly, holding together its fillings well in a very balanced ratio. Not too sweet and very lightly salty, the salted egg was barely noticeable. Instead, its addition served as a light savouriness to bring out the flavour of the peach, in the same way a salted butter or a soft cheese might. A great start, though not for the pursuers of that explosive salted egg flavour.
Tart Blanc
Peach and Salted Yolk Tart SG$7.50 (US$5.60)
https://www.tartblanc.com/en_SG/
TIM HO WAN – Salted Yolk Sesame Balls
While sesame balls normally hold bean or sesame pastes, Tim Ho Wan recently introduced sesame balls with a salted egg filling. With Tim Ho Wan’s Michelin-starred reputation on the line, we had fair expectations for this sweet option. The skin is everything we expected with its crispy exterior and delightfully chewy beneath the surface. The filling left some room for improvement; while it was not too sweet, its salted egg flavour was lost amongst the custard.
Still, it was hot with that delightful oozy flow, so it was not a ruined experience. It was a commendable start to the day, a good option for something sweet following brunch but not something to pursue in the hunt for a perfect salted egg dish.
Tim Ho Wan
Multiple Locations
http://www.timhowan.com/country/singapore/
TWO WINGS – Salted Egg Fried Chicken Wings
While salted egg seafood has existed since long ago, its addition to fried chicken is somewhat more recent. Two Wings, a Singapore-based fried chicken chain, offers wings seasoned with Singaporean flavours. Their wings are delicious: a thin yet crunchy exterior with juicy, tender meat, Two Wings serves up some delicious competition to some of the famous chains out there.
But it’s the salted egg we’re after, and they only delivered it partway there. The addition of chilli padi and curry leaves is common with salted egg yolk dishes, and this one helped to brighten a solid plate of wings, which sadly lacked its yolky star. Forget finger-licking, even finger-sucking only yielded a fleeting wisp of the flavour we pursued.
Perhaps the chilli crab seasoning would have been more satisfying. A great shop to stop by if you’re near one of the branches, just don’t expect it to be part of your own salted yolk tour.
Two Wings
6 wings ala carte SG$8.90 (US$6.60)
Multiple Locations
https://twowings.com.sg/
BIG STREET – Salted Egg Prata Bomb
You know that Singapore is fully immersed in a trend when the Indian community becomes involved with a Chinese ingredient. Prata, also known as roti canai, is a flaky flatbread sometimes filled with sweet or savoury ingredients. In the case of Big Street, they truly went big. The famed Prata bomb is around the size of a baseball and served with a handful of sliced apples.
The prata is not perfect, it is flaky with a chew that you don’t have to fight. The custard is not too sweet, with the graininess that is common of salted egg sauces. While the flavour is light, much like the case of the sesame balls it disappeared much too quickly after eating a couple of bites.
Still, an impressive prate, not as thick as expected despite holding a solid quantity of liquid. Worth a try? Again, only if you’re in the area. Don’t make room in your plans just to go.
Big Street
Prata Bomb SG$6 (US$4.45)
104-106 Jln Besar, Singapore 208828
10.30am-11pm
https://www.facebook.com/bigstreetsg/
CREAMERY BOUTIQUE ICE CREAMS – Volcano Lava Cookies
A chain originating from Bangkok, Creamery Boutique sells molten-centred cookies baked fresh to order. These are topped with unique ice cream flavours, of which you can select one with your cookie order. Creamery Boutique offers a salted egg-stuffed cookie appropriately named the Volcano Lava cookie for its addition of charcoal in the cookie batter.
For our ice cream we decided to go with the mild milky milk, so as to not disrupt the flavour of the salted egg. The cookie? Delicious. The salted egg? Like a broken record, we say, unnecessary to enjoy the dish. With a flavour similar to the other sweet dishes we tried it was not as if we didn’t like it. Rather, the cookie was rich with the taste of golden-brown perfection (despite its black colour), crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, its searing heat balanced perfectly with the cold ice cream.
Let’s be honest – we’d come back for the cookie. There are a myriad of other options, half of which sound significantly more interesting after you’ve been eating the same taste several times on the same day.
Creamery Boutique Ice Creams
Volcano Lava Cookie (with 1 scoop ice cream of choice) SG$9.90 (US$7.35)
139 Tyrwhitt Rd, Singapore 207557
12.30pm-10.30pm
https://creamerysg.business.site/
SALTED EGG FISH SKIN
A strange idea to many, fish skin snacks are comprised of just that – deep-fried fish skin. Unexpectedly mild in flavour, it has a slight umami from the fish and a surprisingly light crunch, making for a low-carb alternative to potato chips. Since the rise of the salted egg version, dozens of brands have arisen in attempt to overthrow the original Irvins. We try two of the alleged best.
IRVINS SALTED EGG – Salted Egg Fish Skin
The company that started it all! Hailed by many as the best salted egg fish skin around, it comes at a premium price that many are willing to pay. Though they also produce salted egg-flavoured potato chips and now cassava chips, their fish skin is still inarguably their most popular product. Despite having locations in Terminals 1-3 of Changi Airport and various outlets around Singapore, it’s still common to see queues during high season, and outages nearing the end of the day.
Irvins set the standard, and they set it high. Crunchy skin, well-seasoned with salted egg powder, accompanied by curry leaves and chilli padi, the generous addition of sugar makes it even better. Somewhat sweeter than its competitors, it is enough to keep your tastebuds jumping back and forth between salty, sweet, and rich, eggy umami, making it, as claimed, dangerously addictive.
Our family can easily consume the large bag in one sitting. The best parts, undoubtedly, is when you reach the crumbs of seasoning at the bottom. Dig it up with the spoon and you’re all smiles for the rest of the day.
Irvins Salted Egg
Salted Egg Fish Skin 230g (large) SG$16 (US$11.85)
Multiple locations
https://irvinsaltedegg.com/
EAST OCEAN TEOCHEW RESTAURANT – Salted Egg Fish Skin
Rated the best salted egg fish skin by Straits Times, it also comes with the highest price tag we’ve seen amongst its competitors. Needless to say, it piqued our curiosity, enough that we went out of our way to buy them.
Paler in colour and thinner than Irvins, it has a more delicate crunch and a lighter coating of the salted egg powder. Its flavour is milder in every way. It is a little more expensive with fewer locations, but East Ocean fish skin is possibly a better alternative for those who find other fish skin snacks much too bold. The both of us, however, prefer the salt-laden, face-slapping punchiness of Irvins.
East Ocean Teochew Restaurant
Salted Egg Fish Skin 200g SG$19 (US$14.10)
#05-08/09 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238872
Lunch: 11.30am-3pm; Dinner: 6pm-11pm
https://www.eastocean.sg/
THE VERDICT
Salted egg is a craze, and it’s one that I believe Southeast Asia should be proud of as it is both unique and delicious. Still, a craze is a craze, and many people consider it understandably overhyped. For the most part, it is. We both agreed that while the addition of salted egg made a dish unique, it did not really increase the enjoyment of eating it.
That did not, however, stop us from trying every salted egg product we came across in Singapore. Products that we came across in Singapore and Malaysia which did not make it to the video can be found here.
