They had my curiosity when it was announced that @misstamchiak was opening @tamchiakkopitiam in partnership with @chewchormeng, but they got my attention when they announced that Ru Ji Kitchen was opening their first (?) outpost outside of Holland Drive Market. Ru Ji Kitchen has been a firm favourite for fishball noodles for both my dad and I, but we did notice that they seemed to be falling off in terms of the quality of their fishballs.⠀
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Ru Ji Kitchen are one of the few remaining hawkers who still make their own fishballs, and my dad has sworn by them for decades now. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, their fishballs seemed to have declined in quality, and that decline doesn’t seem to have been arrested since I last had their fishballs. Sure, Ru Ji’s fishballs are tastier than the average, but the texture has been changed for the worse. It’s probably a change in ingredients or recipe, bur we’ll never know.⠀
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The easiest way to tell a handmade fishball from a mass produced one from a factory has always been the texture. Good handmade ones tend to give after an initial resistance, and retain a bounciness akin to a pudding. Ru Ji’s fishballs used to be that way, but they’ve been constantly been getting more rubbery. Unfortunately, in 2023 at Tamchiak Kopitiam, Ru Ji’s fishballs were a bit on the rubbery side.

It ain’t all doom and gloom for Ru Ji though, as they still remember how to cook noodles perfectly, and their chili is as sweat provokingly violent as I remember it being. To be fair, at just $4.50 flat a bowl for fishballs, fish cake slices and noodles, I can’t pipe up all that much.