’s eye with its unusual set-up. At the front of the stall, a large black kettle grill brims with golden-brown flatbreads. Bold Chinese characters on the eye-catching signboard inform us that these
, complete with amusingly clunky slogans like “Crispylicious Burger” and “Crispy Crust Tasty Meat”.While the dough for the bread may look similar to local prata, in China, the bread is often baked in a clay oven rather than pan-fried. Opened since January this year, Zhong Hua Rougamo offers pork, chicken, beef, fish and vegetable fillings for its signature dish. It also sells other classic Chinese snacks likeThe stall is run solo by Sarawak-born Singapore PR hawker Michael Lim, 44, who learned to make these dishes from a consultant chef from Xi’an, Shaanxi province, hired by his boss, the owner of Zhong Hua Rougamo.
To assemble the ‘burger’, Michael slices the pastry in half and stuffs it with the meat filling of your choice, followed by shredded lettuce and tomato. “Traditionaltypically use green peppers, but we’ve opted to use vegetables that are more popular with the local crowd,” he explains.The bestseller is the pork, fragrant from an overnight house-made braise with star anise, cloves and other spices that Michael says are “similar to local braised pork”.
During our visit, we observed a diverse range of customers visiting the stall, including a primary school student and a Caucasian tourist. Michael says more than half of their customers are locals, followed by foreign tourists. Mainland Chinese patrons make up “around 15 percent” of their clientele. “I think most of them prefer to eat at the nearby People’s Park Food Centre , whereas we get more locals and tourists here,” he speculates.