Rayyan’s Waroeng Penyet – Balinese Japanese Fusion Food in Amoy Street Food Centre

In the melting pot that is Singapore, fusion food is a dime a dozen. But have you heard of a Balinese Donburi?

I arrived in the bustling Amoy Street Food Centre around lunchtime, and had to jostle with the CBD lunch crowd for a bowl of “Balinese Donburi”.

I spent a good 5 minutes deciding what to order. There are so many options! I eventually ordered the Honey Glazed Chargrilled Boneless Chicken Thigh Balinese Don ($6.5) and the almost essential ¼ Cut Fried Chicken Penyet ($5.5).

The Honey Glazed Chargrilled Boneless Chicken Thigh Balinese Don ($6.5) looked really promising. The glaze on the chicken thighs was eye-catching, to say the least. The bowl was topped with quite a variety of ingredients which include chilli padi, serunding (fried coconut flakes), green peppers, onions, spring onions and, of course, the gently cooked egg any donburi would have.

The chicken thighs were sticky, tender and smoky.

I was most intrigued by the sauce, which tasted like a hybrid of tonkatsu sauce and the usual black sweet sauce that would accompany an Ayam Panggang dish. I found it an incredibly clever idea to tie both cuisines together.

Be careful of these small little dynamites that are peppered in. I can take spicy food pretty well but these little chilli padis still challenged me.

The egg, which was cooked well, together with the Japanese rice and lightly cooked onion wedges gave a definite donburi feel to the dish.

My ¼ Cut Fried Chicken Penyet ($5.5) came with a huge piece of chicken, I was delighted! Also decorating the plate was serunding, sambal, and an assortment of nicely cut vegetables.

The ¼ Cut Fried Chicken Penyet ($5.5) was as crispy as it could be, thanks to its bread crumb coating. I found it pretty well marinated and seasoned as well. I especially liked the sambal which had an obvious hit of lime, absolutely delicious!

The side of vegetables provided a nice refreshing crunch to an otherwise quite heavy plate of food.

A love for Japanese food brought about the creation of the Balinese Donburi, as I got to learn from chef-owner Nizam.

“In Singapore, it is hard to get halal Japanese food. Mirin is a big part in Japanese cuisine and we cannot use that as it contains alcohol.”

Nizam then took it upon himself to study Japanese cuisines such as the tempura and donburi, in an effort to incorporate them into his own food. The result, as I have tasted, was certainly worth the investment.

P.S. If you’re dropping by, be sure to try his Bami Goreng Set ($5) which is another crowd favourite!

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

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