Sinpopo Brand – Local Favorites Reinvented!

I love all things old school. Sadly, our traditions, heritage, and even our local food are slowly disappearing. A wave of sadness never fails to engulf me whenever I ponder about the disappearance of what’s uniquely Singapore. This is why I admire the neo-traditional who puts in an effort to preserve what is fast fading. And, Sinpopo Brand happens to be one of them. 

A step into Sinpopo Brand transports you back to the 60s. Rattan chairs, white and green tiles, menu presented as an attendance list, food descriptions with elements of local slang – there’s everything to love at Sinpopo Brand.

With local dishes and flavours at the heart of their menu, expect to find things like har geong gai, nasi lemak, gula melaka, and kopi, with a twist, of course. Ordering from the menu was no easy feat, with so many quirky options drawing me in.

I really wanted to order the Sinpopo Sliced Beef Horfun ($18) which comes with crispy deep-fried hor fun in a rich broth, but it was SOLD OUT for that day! Not letting my grief and disappointment get the better of me, I picked the Sinpopo Crab Beehoon ($16), which was just plainly described as “Shiok! And got wok-hei”.

My first bite of the crab bee hoon swept me off my feet. The broth was so flavourful, so rich, so intensely crabby. I think this is my favourite dish of all. No wok-hei, unfortunately, but this dish is still very shiok – wayyyyyy better than your typical white bee hoon and definitely not for the faint-hearted.

The Nonya Kiam Chye Arg! ($16) is a rendition of the traditional salted vegetable duck soup. Instead of pieces of boiled duck, this came with a deep-fried duck confit. The skin was really crispy but the meat was tough, hard and dry.

The soup was a perfect harmony of sourness, saltiness and spiciness. The flavours balance each other out and it tastes as good as the soup my grandma used to make. The addition of tang hoon was smart too – it is perhaps the best noodle for this dish since it has the ability to absorb the flavours of the soup. 

I have a sweet tooth, so I couldn’t resist the array of desserts, done the Sinpopo way.

Since I was a little girl, I’ve always loved Horlicks more than Milo. I got really excited when I saw Horlicks and Maltesers Milkshake ($8) on the menu, and ordered it right away. However, much to my disappointment, it lacked the authentic milky-malty taste of Horlicks. This costs about 6 times the price of my Horlicks C peng. Worth it? I think not.  

Despite some hits and misses, I enjoyed my time at Sinpopo. Not so much the food, but the nostalgic ambience really left an impression. 

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

**********

Let’s build a food community that helps to update the food news in Singapore! Simply comment below if there’s any changes or additional info to Sinpopo Brand. We will verify and update from our side. Thanks in advance!