Nanay's Kitchen (Yishun Central)

Yishun does seem to be probably the more exciting spot for interesting F&B establishments to appear up here in the Northen area of the entire island and it does seem that a wave of Filipino dining establishments had found their way to making a presence within the said neighbourhood in recent times — Nanay’s Kitchen is a pretty new addition to the Kedai Kopi coffeeshop at Blk 925 Yishun Central 1. For those whom find the name Nanay’s Kitchen familiar, this would be the very same establishment with the same namesake that is located at Blk 301 Ubi Avenue 1 — they have been in operations there for quite a long while and is also notable to be one of the very few Filipino dining establishments that is halal-certified around the entire island. Nanay’s Kitchen within the Kedai Kopi coffeeshop in Yishun is an expansion of the brand — their location at Ubi still being in operations; their stall at the Kedai Kopi coffeeshop in Yishun takes over the former premises of the now-defunct Sangwoo Street, which is also one of the larger-sized stalls within the coffeeshop. The food menu at Nanay’s Kitchen at Kedai Kopi Yishun is segmented into sections dedicated to Lunch Set, Silog Sets, Regular, Soup, Street Foods, Boodle Fight, Noodle, Grilled and Dessert.

Our previous attempts on giving Filipino cuisine a try has always been pretty limited to their rice dishes — considering so, we had decided to give a noodle dish a go this time since Nanay’s Kitchen does serve up a very limited section of noodles. We decided to go for the Pancit Canton — this does translate into Cantonese-style noodles with “Pancit” referring to noodles. Whilst the menu at Nanay’s Kitchen does not describe the elements that goes into the making of the dish, we did notice elements such as carrots, cabbage and chunks of chicken which had been wok-fried together with the noodles. It does seem that the Pancit Canton is inspired by the Chow Mein (Hong Kong-style stir-fried noodles); the noodles used here are pretty similar to that of the Filipino Odong (i.e. yellow flour noodles) which looks similar to that of the local Ee Fu Noodles — we did like how the noodles didn’t carry any alkaline-y note while having been coated with all that savoury sauce that gave the dish much of its flavour. There is also a peppery hint that is pretty similar to that of black pepper sauce that runs at the back of the tongue for a bit of spice — one that should still be manageable even for those whom are tolerable to lower levels of spiciness. The vegetables such as the cabbage and carrots does add a bit of a crunch for a variance of textures.

During our visit, we also given the Oxtail Sinigang a go as well. It can be observed that the Oxtail Sinigang came with oxtail, long beans, cabbage and other elements within the same bowl. For the uninitiated, Sinigang can be described as sour broth — there is some resemblance between the Sinigang and the Chinese-style Szechuan Vegetable Soup, though the Oxtail Sinigang here does come with a slightly gamey finish. The oxtail itself also comes with a gamey note that some may find it a little heavy, though we liked how tender the meat was without needing much effort to chew and came off the bone easily. The vegetables also does come with a soft crunch to provide a slight variance of texture. The Oxtail Sinigang would be best paired with a serving of white rice on the side; a vehicle to drown all that soup in to have them soak up the flavours altogether.

Noting how Nanay’s Kitchen is a Muslim-owned establishment, the Sisig is offered either in Chicken or Tofu variants — we went for the Chicken Sisig and we did find that the meat for the Chicken Sisig was a little bit tough and dry; perhaps an attempt to somewhat bring the dish somewhere closer towards the texture of the original variant of Sisig that features pork though not quite ideal where the meat used is chicken. That being said, we quite liked how the egg yolk was still runny and mixing everything in the hotplate up does bring together the sweetness of caramelised onions and the spiciness and fragrance of the chili padi altogether — gelling up with all of the other components.

We also ended our meal at Nanay’s Kitchen with the Halo Halo with Leche Flan; Nanay’s Kitchen does also serve up a version of the Halo Halo without Leche Flan for those whom would like to opt out of the additional topping. The Halo Halo can be described as the Filipino rendition of our Ice Kachang though the elements featured are a little bit different from what we are familiar with — think crushed ice coming with a Ube (purple yam) paste, toasted desiccated coconut, boba pearls, different types of jelly, corn nibs, banana etc.. We liked how the mix of elements weren’t overly sweet, with each element seemingly adding a different contrast of sweetness and a variance of textures that goes hand-in-hand as a whole for the dessert. Nanay’s Kitchen’s expansion is one that we didn’t really quite expect given how these folks have been operating in Ubi for quite a good while; their move to expand to Yishun definitely gives them a lot more visibility as a F&B establishment whilst operating within an environment that is known for being a ground for halal-certified eateries to be situated within. We hadn’t been to the Philippines to experience true-blue Filipino cuisine, but it does seem that dishes like the Chicken Sisig do come a little short from the non-usage of pork, though it still does present itself as an interesting dining choice where the Muslim community can get to explore a different type of cuisine not commonly found across the entire island.