Hawker spotlight: gourmet rice bowls at wallet-friendly prices

Only, there is nothing simple about the offerings. Rice Bowl Boys has three signature creations to choose from, alongside a customisable option. And most ingredients are prepped in-house without the usage of additives and MSG. But the main factor that sets the rice bowls here apart from others, according to Jeremy, lies in the “imaginative” sauces.

Thunder sambal is at once sweet and spicy, thanks to the addition of pineapples and mangoes. It comes served atop rosemary-scented striploin in Strip Love ($8), together with a bed of wild mushroom cous cous and tea sous vide egg.

In another bowl, chicken is layered with apple wasabi, which tempers the pungent spice with sweetness from the fruit. In the Side Chick ($7) comes a layering of flavours: rice pilaf is accompanied by brown sugar shimeiji mushroom, salted edamame, and juicy tomatoes that have been pickled overnight. Equally well-constructed is the Omega Bae ($8), where salmon fillet comes with a slathering of miso beet sauce. The sweetness echoes the spice-scented base of pasta tossed in aromatic zhug.

These special sauces help dress up simple ingredients, turning them into one-bowl meals that are as hearty as they are healthy. “We found that a lot of the grain bowls out there are very bland due to the health aspect,” notes Jeremy. “But why must eating clean be boring? Why can’t it be exciting and flavourful? That is what we are bringing to the table – health and shiok-ness.”

An added bonus: almost everything on the menu comes affordably priced at $10 or under. He shares that most grain bowl eateries charge a hefty price to make up for high overhead cost, but the small hawker set-up at Rice Bowl Boys allows them to keep prices relatively low. Jeremy adds: “We were thinking: What is wrong with doing it in a hawker centre? Why must it always be served in a café?”

That despite the uncomfortable working environment (“we are constantly perspiring”), Jeremy also appreciates the camaraderie that comes about with working in a hawker centre. He likens adjacent stalls to next-door neighbours, and even counts an uncanny group of elderly folks as customers. “People here are really nice,” he adds. “And this is something I don’t want to lose.”