Aspirasi Chicken Penyet Seah Im Food Centre Harbourfront

I was actually looking for reviews on the Chicken Penyet stall facing the bus interchange. Turns out it's not called Aspirasi. I just saw it this afternoon & can't recall the name. But it's not Aspirasi.

Aspirasi is on the other side of the hawker center, a stall that I haven't seen before.  I actually don't know these stalls exist.  Don't know when they started business. Seah Im has been around for many years.

Bro & myself seldom eat hawker food due to a few reasons, one of which is that we were raised on home cooking.

Both the service persons at these Chicken Penyet stalls are polite.  The one facing the bus interchange politely informed they ran out of Nasi Lemak when I asked. So I went looking for Aspirasi.

A blogger had mentioned she loves the sambal rice there.

First off, I like the name "Aspirasi". Don't know what it means, but it sounds very fresh & fizzy.  The name is a good sign.

Since bro wasn't in the mood, I ordered the $5.50 Tomato Fried Rice with Sambal Chicken. A dish that that blogger was afraid to try because she was scared it might be too spicy.

Short queue. Service very fast. The lady saw me standing there, asked for my order & started frying it the moment I said it.

So, it's made to order. I see.

While she was frying, a man asked me if I had already ordered (as I was looking up at the photos on their signboard to see what else they had).  But he asked me in Malay. I guessed what he meant & replied in English that yes, "I already ordered.".

Nice, on the ball service.

When I told bro that he had asked me in Malay, he said they could be Malaysians. Well, that would explain why they didn't seem to look like our local Malays (maybe they are, I can't be sure). Our downstairs Malay hawkers used to be rather rough in their service that can be quite funny due to their impatience & tiredness.

It took about 5 minutes for the dish to come out. But there was no queue behind me. I was thinking if there's a queue, won't the people behind have to wait whenever someone orders the Tomato Fried Rice?

The lady asked me if I wanted cucumber. I said yes & as expected 2 slices were put on the side of my plate.

Portion was big enough for 2 to share.

(why am I typing this for nothing? *sleepy*)  

The sambal chilli spread over the chicken is not hot (not spicy). I've eaten better or I'm sure there's better. I didn't even order any drink.

The chicken ... well, it's chicken. It's soft. Or softened. Smashed? Quite boneless although there are still 1 or 2 small pieces, be careful.

The tomato rice... not evident tomato. Even bro who hates tomato didn't even realize he was eating tomato fried rice when I gave him the portion I couldn't finish.  Rice grains have a little hardness to them that I don't like.

Overall... passable.  Those who love it are probably people in their 20s who missed the good times back when there were better stuff downstairs.

Bro with his typical high scoring that he gives to almost everybody, said we might go back to try other dishes.

After the meal, we walked across to the other side where I ordered the very nice & refreshing sugar cane drink for $0.70. S size with ice. For 2 persons, it's too little to share. Should've ordered the large.

Strangely, this sugar cane stall is always dark. No lights. As I walked to it,  I thought it was closed but it shouldn't be since I saw his glasses on the empty tables on my way there. The stall don't look bright & hygienic but the man seems like a nice solid guy with a nice solid quiet voice that I can trust.

Another older man was handling the flattened sugar cane stems behind at the machine.

I miss the sugar cane drink already. So thirsty...