04 February 2020

Check In Street Food Bar ~ Thai, Eating World Food Court, Chinatown

There's something special about the stall in Eating World Foodcourt where Check In Streetfood Bar resides. Maybe it's the eye-catching corner location. Or maybe it's a bit of foodcourt magic.



Whatever the reason, this stall has been the home of some legendary stalls including Tiger Cave and Singapore Shiok. Way back in the 1990's, in this very stall, we recall eating great little cheap, filling snackages like tofu stuffed capsicum. Can't remember what it was called though.

We were deeply saddened when Tiger Cave left. Not just because the name reminded us of a favourite cartoon character, but they had a kooky Thai\Western menu and attracted a lot of Thai customers.

But we like Check In even more than Tiger Cave, mostly because the chef takes it much much easier on the sugar, just a personal preference. Check In also draws a lot of Thai folks in, so you know it's going to be good. And the menu is just that little bit different so if you're a Thai food nerd it's worth checking out. Or in.




Braised fish maw in gravy soup - $9.90. A thick lor mee style soup/gravy that is superburny hot on first sip. Best let it cool at bit. It's filled with lots of little bits of mushroom, pork, quail eggs, bamboo shoot, blood cubes and fish maw, which Google tells us is a fish bouyancy gizzard, and tastes quite offaly.  There's no noodles in this version, so it's just protein'n'veg, a pretty healthy lunch, some would call it medicinal.



Stewed pork leg with egg noodle - $12.90. Lovely mouth-melty slices of slow stewed swine on top of egg noodles, with pickles, delicious Chinese greens, shallots and hot sauce. This is a favourite version of a favourite dish, we love the mix of ingredients in the bowl and the chef takes it easy on the sugar. Yay.

BTW - If you are into gluttony challenges, while eating this we saw three burly dudes hooking into the Mega meal stewed pork leg ($28.90), which was a huuuge version of our lunch above.



Hainanese chicken rice - $12.90. A classic chicken rice with Thai touches - a hot spicy sweet Thai style sauce and some blood cubes.



Chicken and ginger rice with pork (or chicken) katsu - $12.80.  Crunchy deep fried pork fillet with rice that's good enough to eat on it's own, we think it's the same stuff you get with Hainanese chicken rice.



Chinese broccoli with crispy pork belly - $13.90. Fried fatty pork is always good, and it's even better countered with fresh greens (and some rice and soup on the side). We particularly love the way they sauced the leafy greens - a little sour-salty-sweet, just right. The chef dudes have a great touch we reckon.



In the tradition of the former tenant, Tiger Cave, Check In's menu has a bunch of fun nightmarket type stuff, along with regular Thai staples.



Check in Street Food Bar is the glorious Eating World Food Court, top of the Dixon Street Mall, Chinatown.




This post was brought to you by Mr Boo J. Pussycat, who will shed his cloak of invisibility (ie come out from lazing under a car, where cats always seem surprised that you can actually see them) and stand between your legs for as long are prepared to scratch him. In this case a good four minutes, in 35 degree heat we might add. An under-the-collar scratch is Boo's particular favourite.



1 comment:

  1. This looks delish. Thanks for the stellar reporting as usual.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).