Watch my video review here: https://youtu.be/Da6y0nM0J44

Also known as loh kai yik, Lo Mei Specialist is probably the only stall in Singapore which has been consistently selling this old-time Cantonese dish since the 1990s. You usually find this dish home made but commercially the dish does pop up in stalls here or there but it usually closes down shortly after, or they stop serving it because its not popular.

The central ingredient to the stew is nam yu a red fermented soybean paste that has a very distinctive taste. The name of the stall “lo mei” is a general term referring to any sort of braised meat or tofu, so presumably even among those who speak predominantly dialect, “loh kai yik” is very fast becoming a forgotten dish.

It was actually a common hawker dish in Singapore In the 1950s and 1960s. Back then you would see many street hawkers on bicycles, typically elderly cantonese selling it in the HDB estates, shouting “loh kai yik” “loh kai yik”!

People will remember hawkers selling it in joo chiat and tiong bahru.
That has since fallen out of favour probably due because it is time-consuming to prepare ( so many ingredients) and people being more health-conscious perhaps.

The beauty of this dish lies in the sauce which has a robust bean taste so you scoop a bit of it with your rice and it balances out the taste nicely.

Sadly, the standard of the dish from this stall has been falling over the years. The gravy used to be thicker, had a redder hue and a stronger fermented bean curd taste to it but it seems that they use a lesser amount of nam yu (red fermented bean curd) in it, probably because of cultural changes, people don’t like the strong taste of nam yu.

They also used to sell intestines but that’s gone now.

But do patronise this stall because, it’s so hard to find this dish and it probably won’t be long before you won’t find it any more.