Craving Asian dry or soup noodles for weekday work lunches in Singapore? You can create DIY noodles bowls at Chiak with soba, vermicelli and kway teow
As you probably already know, Singlish is a complicated yet colloquial slang beloved amongst Singaporeans, especially when it comes to lexicon involving food. Derived from the Chinese dialect of Hokkien, “chiak” simply means to eat, and it’s been adopted as the name of this hot new table at Mapletree Business City. A salad and noodle bar, Chiak comfortably caters to the lunchtime crowd in this office-concentrated area of Pasir Panjang. But even if you’re not slogging away in this Southwestern part of Singapore, I’d strongly urge you to give this place a shot, especially if you’re a nutter for noodles.
Admittedly, noodles is a guilty pleasure of mine (pho and ramen, come to Papa), and I was eager to get my slurp on in this sleek space designed by Fuur (Terra, Mex Out). But here’s a word of caution: if decision-making puts you on tenterhooks, Chiak might easily overwhelm you. Stroll over to the self-service counter, and you’ll notice dozens of options available to design your own bowl. For $8.80, you get to select one noodle base, one protein, two sides, three toppings, and one dressing if you opt for a dry bowl. I like both my soupy and dry noodles, so I decided to go for one of each – good thing I came hungry.
Like a kid in a candy store, I assembled a vermicelli in slow-boiled chicken broth, with chicken cooked in Shaoxing wine, broccoli and garlic and grilled eggplant as my sides, topped with corn, edamame, and five-spice peanuts. The broth here was light and mild in taste, and my copious selection of veggies made this a healthy, nutritious bowl; together with the thin, slippery vermicelli, and the herbal, slightly-sweet steamed chicken with meat that slipped off the bone, this combination left me satisfied without being stuffed.
Which is why I then concocted yet another creation consisting of dry soba, belly pork char siew, juicy shimeji mushrooms, and topped with fresh onions, grilled pumpkin and seaweed flakes. And because this was a dry bowl, I picked a sweet, thick Beanie Hoisin dressing to blend all my ingredients together. Bear in mind that if you’re ambitiously having two bowls to yourself, like me, eat this second, for the intense, umami taste of the hoisin will essentially drown everything else out. However, when paired with the fatty, crispy char siew, you get a sweet-savoury duet that will have you addicted instantly.
But in case you’re not confident about your ingredient-mixing prowess, you can always resort to Chiak’s pre-selected signature bowls – these include the spicy chicken basil, pear beef stew, teriyaki chicken, and red miso ginger salmon. These are much more convenient to order if you’ve trouble figuring out whether your spicy lime dressing goes well with toasted coconut and wakame fungus salad. Or if you’re looking for a fuss-free takeaway, you can also order local-inspired snacks like man tou sandwiches (try the prawn otah), assorted cookies (the pandan chia is heavenly) and gula Melaka rolls that are worth sharing with your colleagues.
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Chiak is definitely a noodle heaven where the possibilities are endless; customisation is a cinch, ingredients are bountiful, and flavour profiles are either light and healthy, or robust and sinful, depending on what you’ve added into your bowl. So the next time your workmates ask “Chiak simi?” (“What shall we eat?”) – especially if your food squad’s packing all sorts of fussy preferences – you now have one more lunch spot that will satisfy ’em all.
Chiak, #02-37 Mapletree Business City, 40 Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore 117383, p. 6358 2313. Open Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, closed weekends.