Yummy Tummy Asian Bistro

SINGAPORE 🇸🇬

For many years now, the businesses at this Northern Blvd address, almost exclusively Korean, have come and gone quickly, never taking a foothold. As another year ticks by, 2019 brings a new tenant and a new cuisine behind a bold green facade. Yummy Tummy Asian Bistro has a menu full of Southeast and Far Asian foods, but focuses its heart on the cuisine of Singapore, a nation with an incredible mashup itself.

Anyone who has traveled to Singapore comes away with an awe from the food. Simple eateries are everywhere, but most pack such an immense amount of deliciousness. There are collisions of culture that make the food so satisfying, as if it is growing and evolving right before your eyes. No matter what ethnicity a resident of the country might be, it is the cuisine that is an immediate unifier.

It is nice to see the emergence of another casual Singaporean eatery since the closing of wonderful Chomp Chomp in the West Village. While you may not walk out of the doors like you walk out of the food courts and hawker stalls of Singapore, skipping and whistling after amazing meals, the mostly Chinese-influenced Singaporean standards here are done pretty well and worth seeking out.

It is possible to eat a very odd and eclectic meal here, full of pasta and calamari and Taiwanese BBQ squid tentacles, but stick to Singaporean standards rare in New York City like the Hokkien fried noodles ($16, above), a mixture of egg and rice noodles with shrimp and fish cake served slippery with a seafood-based "broth" that is not quite pooling.

Take your cues from the front awning, which promises "Asian comfort food," and combine those noodles with an order of cai tow kueh ($8, below), thick hunks of radish cake with egg that can be stir-fried either sweet or spicy.

Behind maybe only chicken rice and air conditioning, soft shell crab might be the third most loved thing in Singapore, and you cannot go long without being invited to join new friends to eat it. One of the most popular ways is to deep fry it and smother it in chilli sauce, which they do here as well ($28, below). I remember being overwhelmed with heat in Singapore, and while this dish is served with a slow burn that eventually comes up, it may be worth asking for some extra heat to eat the dish as intended.

Unfortunately Yummy Tummy does not offer alcohol, so the match made in heaven of this with a Tiger Beer is not possible. Plenty of the sauce should be left by the time the crustacean is devoured, but you can order extra buns ($4) if necessary.

Hainanese chicken ($18 for half chicken, below), another regional specialty and half of that "chicken rice" mentioned earlier, is available here and served with a red chilli and green "pesto" sauce.

The Indonesian and Malaysian influences on Singapore might not be more obvious than in the dish otah otah ($8, below), two steamed fish and shrimp cakes grilled inside of banana leaves. In those countries it is usually transliterated to otak otak, but this is the same dish. A tapioca starch is used with the ground seafood to give it the fluffy texture.

At our table of five, I overheard at least one person say the Singapore bah kut teh ($12 small, below) was their favorite dish, and another say it was their least favorite. This photo unfortunately does not show the tender pork ribs ready to fall off their bones, but does give a sense of the herbal quality of the soup. If you directly translate the name, it means "meat bone tea," which about sums up everything you need to know.

As sides for our meal, we ordered both the achar ($4, above), spicy pickles more commonly eaten by the Indians in Singapore, and marinated chicken gizzards ($4, below), thinly sliced and soaked in vinegar. Both of these added crisp and tart counterpoints to otherwise mostly savory options.

Bandong ($5), a sweet drink with jelly.

At the end of the meal we could not turn down the call of a slice of durian cheese cake ($7, above) and a cup of coffee just like they love it in Singapore: full of Carnation condensed milk.

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MURRAY HILL Queens
161-16 Northern Blvd

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