Sambal Stingray, Sotong Rice Bowls By ITE Grad At Hawker Stall Named Sambae

After getting his Nitec cert in Asian Culinary Arts at ITE College West, Noel pursued a diploma in Culinary Arts & Management at the same school – but found the course too academic for his liking. “I think that [actual] cooking is more important for growth. The diploma was all about studying. Whenever there was a practical [exam], I would get into the top three – but if it was a theory exam, I’d be in the last five,” he admits with a chuckle.

So he dropped out of the course to work in a couple of restaurant kitchens instead. He later landed a gig at his brother-in-law’s donburi hawker stall, Fukudon, in Marine Parade Central Market & Food Centre, where he worked for six months.

“Being a hawker is a very Singaporean thing. Everybody can enjoy [the food that you serve as a hawker],” Noel explains. “I talked to my brother-in-law and found out more about things like costing, creating a menu, and so on before setting up my own stall.”

The new hawker decided to combine grilled seafood like sambal stingray, stir-fried lala and sotong with the trendy rice bowl concept. “I wanted to [add fusion influences] to a local dish,” he explains. “Sambal is a great sauce that goes along with many dishes and I know Singaporeans love their spice,” he adds.

This explains the stall’s playful name, which he shares was suggested by his actual bae. “My girlfriend told me, ‘Since you like sambal so much, name your stall sambal is bae lah’,” he says with a laugh. “I thought it might work, but I shortened it to Sambae,” he adds. His girlfriend’s original slogan can be seen on the stall’s cute signboard – which, interestingly enough, instructs you to pronounce the name as “sam-ba-eh” instead of “sam-bay”.

Apart from sambal seafood rice bowls, he also sells Din Tai Fung-style fried rice, which can be gussied up with his signature sambal. “[Fried rice] is very popular. Whenever you don’t know what to eat, you just get fried rice,” he says. “A lot of people like to order [my] sambal stingray [a la carte] with the fried rice, so I think it’s a good pairing.”

Though we wanted to sample Noel’s cooking, he’s unfortunately down with Covid-19. As he runs Sambae solo, the stall will only reopen sometime later next week (check out Sambae’s social media pages for updates).

Here’s what you can expect when it reopens.

To make his sambal, Noel stir-fries shallots and hae bee over low heat, before adding ground chillies, brown sugar and turmeric. This concoction goes over all the stall’s seafood dishes, including this grilled stingray fillet. An onsen egg, pickled cucumber and raw onion slices on short-grain Taiwanese pearl rice round off the bowl.

Grab some sambal stir-fried sotong, if you can’t be bothered to pick out any bones in your seafood. Sambal prawn with kang kong is also available for $6.90.

Ever-trendy Din Tai Fung-style fried rice, also using pearl rice, from $4. Add $0.50 to have it fried with the stall’s sambal. Toppings like chicken are also available – sorry, no DTF-style pork chop here – along with sambal stingray ($2.50), sotong ($2.50) or prawns ($2).

You can also get larger plates of grilled sambal stingray or sotong, minus the carbs.

These Japanese-inspired fried chicken thigh chunks with house-made tartar sauce are a departure from the sambal theme.

Sambae is at #01-2823, 721 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8, S560721. Tel: 8770-0255. Open Tues - Sun, 11.30am - 9pm. More info via Facebook and Instagram.

​​​​​​​Photos: Sambae

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