WHENEVER Bishan resident Paul Crinis greeted his neighbours with
a boisterous: 'Hello, how you doing?' they would mutter in Hokkien,
'Siow ang mo'.
So he's gone and named his Western food stall what they call him:
Crazy Ang Mo.
The three-week-old stall, located in a bright, clean,
recently-refurbished coffee shop in Bishan Street 24, has been
packing them in with its Australian-style menu.
There's sausages and chips, chicken schnitzel and chips, fish and
chips, steak and chips and burger and chips.
A word about the chips: Unless you order the steak, which comes
with proper steak chips, you get crinkle cut fries.
Forget crinkle. Add $1 to the main meal and get the steak chips
instead. They are the most crisp-on-the-outside,
fluffy-on-the-inside thick cut potato chips ever to emerge from a
deep fryer. You can also order a basket of them for $2.50. I urge
you to do it.
The steak ($11.90) was overdone when I had it and the chicken
schnitzel ($6.90) was dry and hard, but I'm still going back
there.
For one, the fish and chips ($6.50) is delicious. Dory fillets are
encased in a thin, very crisp shell that manages not to be
oil-logged. The tartar sauce tastes pretty good, although I'd
prefer a more vinegary kick.
And instead of the obligatory Western food stall scoop of dodgy
coleslaw, I got a proper salad with tomatoes and upmarket
radicchio, a red-leafed, slightly bitter vegetable.
Mr Crinis, 34, who is also a tennis coach, came here from
Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, about seven years
ago.
Now a Singapore permanent resident, he is married to Singaporean
Ong Bee Ling, 33. They have a five-year-old daughter, La-Mia, who
sometimes shouts out to customers when their orders are
ready.
He says: 'I miss eating Aussie food and I knew there was a market
for it. If people will eat McDonald's burgers, they'll eat
mine.'
They should order the Crazy Burger With The Lot ($7.90), the best
item on the menu.
The 'burger with the lot' is practically an Australian institution,
with a beef patty, bacon, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, cheese and
- here's what makes it so fun to eat - slices of canned beetroot
and a pineapple ring.
I like Crazy's juicy patty, made in-house with Aussie beef.
Everything comes together perfectly - the beetroot provides a zingy
footnote, and the pineapple ring, with cheese melted into it, some
sweetness.
Don't leave without ordering the Banana Pudding ($3.90), which is
light, full of ripe bananas and crunchy walnut pieces and topped
with gooey caramel.
This dessert is served with some sliced kiwi fruit and the biggest
scoop of vanilla ice
cream I've ever seen.
It is literally the size of a tennis ball. And it is sprinkled with
crunchy chocolate pieces. You'd be crazy to miss it.
Crazy Ang Mo
Block 279,
Bishan Street 24,
01-62/64,
(S) 570279
Open: 11am to 10pm on Mondays to Thurdays, 11am to 11pm on Fridays,
8am to midnight on Saturdays and 8am to 9pm on Sundays.