Lao Ban Soya Beancurd (Old Airport Road)

(Note: Simple pictures can be found at http://wildchildurbancity.blogspot.com/2012/02/lao-ban-almond-flavoured-soya-beancurd.html)

Delicate, fine, silky, slides down your throat. Place a spoonful in your mouth, and it will literally melt / disintegrate on your tongue. I have never really liked tau hway, but place this new kind of silky tau hway in front of me, especially the almond-flavoured one, and I can do three bowls at one go (even though I am Paleo!).

Lao Ban's soya beancurd is my silky tau hway of choice. I have tried other stalls' versions, but Lao Ban's has the best taste and melting texture.

People talk about eating jelly and ice-cream when their tonsils get removed. If mine ever got removed, it would be Lao Ban almond-flavoured beancurd for me.

$1.50 for plain tau hway. $2.00 for almond-flavoured tau hway.

For pictures and more, visit my blog at ms-skinnyfat.blogspot.com.

Lao Ban Beancurd is currently the craze in the tau hway circle right now. People have been raving about the milky and smooth fluid texture of the soy bean curd. 

And the queue was INSANE. We waited for 30 minutes for our turn! 

Everyone in the queue bought at least 4 bowls of beancurd at a go, not surprising since it doesn't make sense to queue for half an hour just to get a bowl of dessert. The original flavor costs $1.50 while the almond one costs $2 and we went away with a grand total of $17 worth of tau hway. 

Perhaps the bar was raised too high with all the roaring reviews but i don't think i would be queueing for this anytime soon. I have to admit that the texture is really intriguing- the curd simply melts into a milky liquid upon consumption. When i first lifted the cover, i thought that it has yet to solidify because the pudding is so wobbly. I could see why people would queue for hours for this. 

This is definitely more milky than the usual tau hway. It's made from fresh soy bean milk, tamed with creamer and malt before it's curdled with gelatin. Perhaps i'm still thinking about my favorite Yee Shun steamed milk pudding (read about it here), which some reviewers have likened this to, but honestly this is not the same. And there's no level ground for comparison because they are essentially different (other than the fact that they are both Chinese milky desserts). 

The almond one has a bit more character to it. I was afraid that the almond powder/essence would be too overpowering but it lends a nice subtleness to the otherwise bland curd. 

I wouldn't mind having this IF someone decides to be nice and buys it for me but certainly no more queueing for this. 

I do not like tau huey. I do not like the 'plainness'. However, when my colleague offered me a bowl of Lao Ban the other day... I decided to just give it a try since I had heard so much about it.

It was worth the try and I have to say that I have finally found a tau huey that I will like! I think it is because that the pudding itself is sweet and really tastes like soya bean milk, compared to others where the pudding itself is tasteless to me.

This is a must try even if you usually do not like tau huey. Oh wait, maybe you shouldn't try, so I can ACTUALLY BUY SOME without increased competitors!

Have been going to the old airport road hawker centre since many years ago.  Passed-by this beancurd stall, there was queue.  As always believing and only in Singapore, whenever there is a queue, something must be good.

This was my first time having such a smooth beancurd without the adding of soya drink or any syrup.  For this stall, it's tastes as nice and sweet and smooth.  No wonder, some of the customer bought 15 tubs.

Please drop by http://rollingwrites.blogspot.com/2012/01/lao-ban-dou-hua.html for pictures! 

This is the beancurd ($1.50) from Lao Ban Dou Hua (老伴豆花) from Old Airport. Unless you have been living under a hole, you would have heard of this new food phenomenon. Queues snake around like nobody's business and everybody snaps at least 20 bowls of beancurd at one go.  

So how's this different from other soya beancurd? Makansutra tells us that they use fresh soy bean milk, tame it with coffee-mate like milk and malt mixture with some gelatin. Then it's steamed, cooled and chilled for a few hours. Some even claim that they have found the recipe to this stall that attracts insane queues.

Maybe because expectations were too high, or maybe because yesterday I had tried something like this at Amoy Street Food Centre already. But my first response does not match the hype that it deserves. Yes, it's incredibly smooth, push it through your teeth and your teeth becomes an instant soya bean machine making beancurd into soya bean milk (new function for teeth). Unfortunately, it was a tad too sweet for me. Unlike the normal beancurd where you can adjust the sweetness level by telling them how much syrup to put, you can't tell them to adjust it here simply because there's no syrup!

It's lovely to try the beancurd form of soya bean and to participate in the national activity of queuing. Here's just an idea, but maybe they could sell different sugar levels (thereby adjusting the sugar level before refrigerating it) so that it can cater to different tastes, just like bubble tea. That said, here are just my two cents worth and in any case, you should give this new food phenomena a try!

Okay I've never been a fan of Soya Beancurd. I don't see how people can take a liking to eating the plain Soya Beancurd + sugar syrup. It's sucha forced combination haha. So naturally I was a lill skeptical when my Mom kept shoving this Lao Ban Soya Beancurd in my face.

But THIS, this Lao Ban Soya Beancurd has it done perfectly. It is actually sweet Soya Beancurd without that foul artificially sweet sugar syrup. I actually found myself stuffing my face with this Sweet Soyacurd goodness. It was soooooo good. The sweetness level is just right. Soya Beancurd was in a semi solid state. Just the correct state of firmness. Plus it didn't taste overly processed. My only gripe was that the container was a lill small.

YUMMIEST SOYABEANCURD EVERRRRRRR!!!!!!!

I love Lao Ban! It is really a must try and must have whenever you dine at Old Airport Road. Even though there is always a queue, you will never regret queuing after having a delicious bowl of soya beancurd. It is very different from the traditional beancurd, which has the sweet syrup. Lao Ban Soya Beancurd is more of a pudding type. I love the almond flavoured beancurd A L O T, and I often buy 3 bowls for myself :) And the best part is that, I feel more 'healthy' after eating it as compared to having ice kachang, chendol etc for dessert. 

Lan Ban has 2 stalls (units) that sells exactly the same thing except one's (#01-127) the main supplier of all the original tau huay, gui lin gao, almond tau huay and soya bean milk. Queued at #01-104 because the queue was seemingly shorter. Wrong choice...original tau huay sold out. Time is 815pm.

Walked back to #01-127, the queue's long...but hey..it's past their operating hours! Double or nothing. Queued for like 15min, finally laid my hands on the tau huay and gui lin gao. Fresh out of the wok? Uncle said, "cannot eat now, must put in refrigerator for a while then can eat" WHAT?! At least the soya bean milk was good - no sweet aftermath taste. Pure addicitves...

Tuck them into the fridge, forgot about it, found it the next day and voila! Smooth, soft and melts in your mouth. The only thing you need is the strength to scoop it and drop it into your mouth, it just melts. Not too sweet.

Gui lin gao was normal though. Worth the wait? Not worth the wait? You decide.

Lao Ban Soya Beancurd 老伴豆花 is a must try if you ever step into Old Airport Road Hawker Centre.

As I am writting this, I got to know of an article which was written by KF Seetoh about this stall. Click here for the link.

This was taken when I was there the first time during lunch time on a weekday. It was sold out, there was only almond favour left. (not a fan of almond) Instead, we went to try its competitor ‘51 Soya Bean‘. Will do a separate review at a much later time. The comparison is that Lao Ban Soya Beancurd is so much better/nicer.

On the 2nd visit, also during a weekday lunch time. My colleague went to queue for it. At least 15-20 minutes wait. I was told by my friend who went over during weekend that he queued 40minutes for this! If you notice carefully as you queue or eat in the hawker centre, some customers can buy 20 packets of this!

Their soya beancurd comes in original or almond flavour. The more popular favour is original which gets sold out first.

The beancurd looks so ordinary, plain. But well, looks can be deceiving! This beancurd is so soft, smooth, silky and looks like a jelly pudding. And unlike the normal beancurd (Tau Huay) that most Singaporeans are familiar with, this does not comes with sweet syrup. This beancurd practically melts in your mouth and liquid seems to burst out in your mouth. Moreover, it is just slide down your throat. At $1.50, this is a relatively cheap dessert!

Trust me, give this a try and you will not regret it.If it is sold out in the afternoon, there will be another batch out in the evening.

Warning: once you eat this, it will never be the same eating other type of beancurds. 

Full review and photos: http://foodiefc.blogspot.com/2011/09/lao-ban-soya-beancurd.html

For full review and pictures please visit knockonfood

I had Original, Almond was sold out. Don't expect tau huey like I did, its more like a soya pudding. It was good, sweet and wobbly soft but I won't queue more than 10mins for it. Give me market tau huey with soya milk anytime.