Xing Li Cooked Food (Old Airport Road)

You can’t go wrong with the fried oyster from this stall, which is cooked by an old uncle; who has been selling for many years.

Very fluffy and you really enjoy the taste of omelette with oyster.

The fried oyster is thin, eggy, cooked together with chilli (when I request spicy), quite oily 😅, served with plump oyster.
The one who cooked is the young guy, not the uncle so maybe standard different.
💰$5.
📍Xing Li cooked food.
Old airport road food centre #01-28.

Visited Old Airport road for a plate of oyster omelette as sadly there isn’t any nice ones in the West. Ordered a yummy version from Xing Li with fluffy, eggy, gooey omelette and plump oysters! Yay!
#burpple #burpplesg #stfoodtrending #straitstimesfood #sgfood #sgeats #foodsg #wheretoeatsg #whattoeatsg #sghawker #hawkersg #oldairportroadfoodcentre

When you watch the elderly uncle at the stall fry his “Orh Luak” (oyster omelette), it’s a huge clue that Xing Li Cooked Food does one that is unlike others.
Most hawker stalls that sell this popular dish have a massive wok or pan over a fierce fire and a cacophonous soundtrack of clang-clang-clang. Not to mention, they tend to also include fried carrot cake and sometimes, fried noodles in their repertoire. The oyster omelettes they churn out tend to be quite thin, broken up, and have loads of crispy bits (which is of course, enjoyable in their own way).
Xing Li Cooked Food’s on the other hand, is single-minded and serves just the one dish and it’s all about fluffiness. The uncle stands with his back to customers while cooking, his eyes mostly locked on the small flat round pan where a blend of egg and tapioca starch bubbles away. Time seems to slow down when you order from here because a relative calm and quietness reigns at the stall. He does the cooking in small batches, so patience is needed if you wish to try this. But let me assure you, it is worth waiting for because what you get is “Orh Luak” that is thick with an amazing soft and even light fluffy fullness (there are hardly any blobs of rubbery starch to be found). Elevating it further are the large, plump oysters tossed in towards the end of the cooking process, and the dip of a bold vinegary chilli sauce.

Xing Li Cooked Food’s orh luak has earned so many accolades from so many different people over the years despite the long wait times. That can only mean one thing. It means that it’s time to investigate those claims and see if Xing Li is the real deal, or if it’s just another case of “thank u, next”.

Long lines at the stall? Oh yeah, most definitely. That’s mainly due to the fact that the old proprietor has a tiny little flat wok that’s physically incapable of cooking up more than four portions at a time, and his practice of jumping on the gas valve to close it off and take his orh luak off the heat every few seconds.

With that much attention to detail given to frying up the fried oyster, I was expecting orh jian so indescribably indulgent that it could bend reality, but it fell flat on its face with a splat, just like the orh jian itself. If you like your fried oyster extra wet and gooey, boy you are in for a treat.

However, if you like it perfectly balanced as all things should be with the gooey goodness of the fried starch balanced out with an abundance of delightfully crispy chunks, you might feel somewhat cheated. I definitely felt that way despite the fried oyster being rather redolent and loaded with dazzling deliciousness.

But, there is salvation for this plate of orh luak. I‘m Mr Brightside as I always try to look on the bright side of food, and Xing Li’s orh luak definitely has quite a few redeeming factors. First of all, the $6 portion had a most agreeable abundance of plump, juicy oversized oysters hidden beneath the gooey globs of starch.

Secondly, their zingy, garlicky chili might easily be the best orh jian chili in Singapore. A good amount of heat, a delightful dose of garlic, a bit of acidity to break up the richness of the orh jian, and a solid smattering of spicy sapidity makes this chili the GOAT of chili sauces.

If Xing Li wishes to compete with the likes of Ah Chuan for the title of Singapore’s Orh Luak Overlord, then he must make his orh luak crispy again. A small price to pay for salvation.

Found out today that the 嚎煎 Mum and Brother love is a Burpple Hot 100 recipient! Another Burpple - telepathy moment. The indulgent hawker dish here is painstakingly prepared by an aged Uncle, who should easily qualify as a hawker master.
Think almost restaurant worthy oysters in a fluffy moist bed of starch and egg (of which the latter is a surprisingly significant proportion). You get a bang for your buck and should be slow to complain about the long wait when you witness the Uncle diligently conducting his one man show of taking orders and cooking without a break.