Shio BBQ @ Yishun Park Hawker Centre – Nasi lemak with pork belly satay, anyone?

At Yishun Park Hawker Centre, you're really spoilt for choice. Apart from the popular Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang, there is also Shio BBQ. The stall serves nasi lemak with a twist, adding ingredients like grilled pork belly and satay. They also have bbq chicken wings at $1.30 per piece with a minimum order of 3 pieces. 

I went for the bbq nasi lemak with grilled pork belly ($6.50), but you can also opt for chicken or salmon. As I visited the stall during the no-dining-out phase, I had to dabao my food. 

They certainly didn't scrimp on the size of pork belly given; look how chunky they were! There were the usual ingredients consisting of half a hard-boiled egg, peanuts and ikan billis, and sambal. 

For $6.50, I thought the portion given was pretty generous, though some more peanuts and ikan billis would have been nice. 

The stick of thick pork belly was nicely charred, giving each bite a sweet and smoky flavour. The meat was a tad tough and did require a bit of chewing, which could have been due to the travelling time. I assume that it would be more tender if I were to eat it fresh off the grill. 

The rice was also clumped together, and took a bit of mixing to loosen them up. Again, I'm sure it would have been much better when eaten freshly prepared. Taste-wise I could detect some coconuty-ness, but I would have liked a bolder flavour. 

The side of peanuts and ikan billis were crispy and enjoyable, but as mentioned earlier, a handful more would have been great. 

Unlike the sweet type of sambal I usually get with my nasi lemak, Shio's version is on the savoury side, and perhaps a little too salty. I found that it had a decent spicy kick, but overall, I didn't reach for the chilli much.  

I wasn't too blown away by my nasi lemak, but I'm sure having it fresh at the stall would make a huge difference. While I will probably stick to my other go-to stalls, I've bookmarked Shio's grilled salmon on my to-eat list!