Ah Zhap Chai Peng! For me it is one of the most economical food in Singapore. I think maybe that's why it is called economy rice? You pay $2-3 and you get to choose from a wide spread of dishes which features almost anything and everything which you can order from an otherwise Zhi Char stall. I don't know why but recently(as in the last few years), I realised that more and more Zhap Chai Peng stalls are picking up tips in their food display techniques. I mean for one, a lot of them seems to install spotlights above their dishes nowadays. That obviously made the food looked more appealing. Or perhaps it help keeps the food warm as well? Look at the 2 pictures below, which one would you buy from if they were to sit side by side?


What I've also noticed is that most Zhap Chai Peng stalls nowadays are operated by youngsters who are supposingly Malaysians, well from the way they speak and the way they look, I can tell, not sure about you readers.


One of the things I look for in a Zhap Chai Peng stall is the kind of gravy they have. For me, I always like a mixture of whatever seafood stir fry gravy or stir fry tofu gravy or lor bak gravy to go along with the default curry gravy. I also realised that this is something that the elder people doesn't like, somehow the Zhap Chai Peng they grew up eating doesn't have all this sauces I guess and hence they prefer it all dry. Whenever my parents saw my packet of gravy filled rice, they would go 'Yucks, look like something for the pig!'

For me, Zhap Chai Peng is like a Zhi Char food but only in one serving and the best thing is you get to see the food first instead of Zhi Char the food you ordered can turn out to be quite different compared to how it looked in the menu. I usually will order a fried stuff like fried chicken or something similar followed by a stir fry meat and then top it up with any vegetables. So my rice really do need to have these 3 combination and also cover with lots of whatever gravy I can find on the display. My lunch today consist of prawn paste fried chicken, sambal kangkong and stir fry slice pork with ginger.


This is a fine packet of Zhap Chai Peng. I felt that this stall really can give me all the flavours I need in a shiokadodo plate of Zhap Chai Peng. Another thing about this stall is they have the lala(shell fish) and all I ever cared about this dish is the sauce and not the lala itself and hence consider the fact my plate of rice can grab the lala sauce for free, therefore undoubtedly this has got to be one of my favourite Zhap Chai Peng stall.