Breakfast @ Cheng San market - Bee Hoon (和發) & Coffee (天天茶室)

Many moons ago, it was during one of the rare occasions that I had a weekday morning off and I decided to pop by the Cheng San market for breakfast. The Cheng San market is located at Blk 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, quite accessible if you drive and exit from CTE AMK Ave 5 exit.

I tried the 'Fried Sotong Bee Hoon' from Hwa Huat 和發 (because 1 key aim of visiting the Cheng San market is to try the coffee next door) and I was pleasantly surprised by how good and cheap the bee hoon is. The uncle would fry the bee hoon on the stop, i.e. hot delicious breakfast instead of pre-cooked portions. I added a Soon Kueh just to top my breakfast quota. 

 

和發

Of course for coffee I had the kopi from Everyday Tea Stall - 天天茶室. They were featured in the TV programme before, where the uncle (seen in the photo below) was commenting that he suffered from backaches due to long hours of making coffee. Nonetheless his coffee is damn good (for hawker fare) and there are often queues. 1 chap who was being interviewed even said that he would buy extra to keep in the fridge, so that he could enjoy the coffee when he couldn't come to the Cheng San market to buy from 天天茶室. Being a typical hawker fare, the mug is just a nice flower-design mug, i.e. not those nostalgic looking cups from the more famous kopi chains.

天天茶室

天天茶室 Uncle

天天茶室 Kopi 

So for those who have the morning off, and would like to try out good local hawker fare, drop by Cheng San market for a little culinary adventure. :)

Popiah @ Albert Centre Hawker aka Queen Street Market

Popiah is one of the standard hawker centre dish, and there are times when folks organised popiah / Kueh Pie Ti party as gatherings during the festive seasons. There are only a limited number of places where one could get the entire 'popiah set' with popiah skin, turnip / carrot, sauces etc packed nicely to go. It used to be that I need to drive to the Marine Parade hawker centre to get such sets.

So I am quite happy to see the appearance of not just 1 but 2 popiah stalls at the Albert Centre Hawker Centre (aka Queen Street Hawker Centre). Actually both stalls are licensees of the Fortune Food franchise (I believe), and there are a total of about 7 such stalls spread across the island. Those who are interested to get their popiah or kueh pie tie sets can visit the Fortune Food website.

The popiah from these stalls cost $1.30 each and there are also Kueh Pie Ti (5 for $3). The popiah is quite nice, and the chilli is just spicy enough. There is even some form of 'government endorsement' since there is a photo of President Nathan with Fortune Food's employees, pasted at the stall. 

There were reports that popiah is one of the healthier hawker food, at least it is healthier than cha kway teow or hokkien mee. Thus for those who are interested to eat more healthily, try out the popiah at these hawker stalls (Albert Centre Hawker)!

Strawberry Beancurd @ Old Airport Road Market

Many of us have tried soy beancurds and we know of the more popular ones e.g. Rochor Beancurd. But have you tried other alternative flavours of beancurd before? Well if you are interested, there is the strawberry beancurd that could be found at 51 Soya Bean @ Old Airport Road Market.

The taste of the strawberry beancurd is quite refreshing. Unlike the texture of other traditional soya beancurd, this strawberry beancurd is more like a custard dessert. The chilled beancurd is not too sweet, and there is no additional sugar syrup added. The aroma of strawberry is not too strong either, which makes it a a good complement to the other hawker fare.

The price is a bit steep for chilled beancurd found at a hawker centre - $2.50 per serving. While there are two prices stated ($1.50 & $2.50), the lady offered only 1, i.e. $2.50 version. So if you are at the Old Airport Road market and want to try out a different version of beancurd, there is the strawberry beancurd at the 51 Soya Bean stall.

Upgrading - Fengshan Hawker Centre (aka Bedok Blk 85 market)

Fengshan hawker centre, or more colloquially known as the Bedok Blk 85 hawker, will be closed for upgrading from Feb 2012. The upgrading will take about 11 months, which means the hawkers (and good food seekers) will be affected for a long period.

Fengshan hawker centre is the place with a great selection of hawker fare. The famous ones include their bak chor mee. The bak chor mee is sold by two stalls located side by side with each other. Unlike other bak chor mee, the version here has no vegetables or mushrooms, but only the bak chor and pork meat balls. The soup is excellent, and the meat balls are very flavourably seasoned.

Other than the bak chor mee, I personally think that the chicken wings, western food (Pete's Grill) as well as the pork porridge are also great selections at this 'Bedok Blk 85' hawker. The chicken wings are comparable to those at the East Coast Lagoon or the Old Airport Road market. The porridge is done cantonese style, with almost dissolved rice grains. The pork liver is often cooked just nice, i.e. not too hard. Their mixed porridge version (mix of pork, cutlefish and others) is a good choice for those who can't decide what porridge version they want.

For those who don't fancy the chicken wings, porridge or bak chor mee, Fengshan hawker also has nice alternatives that are different from other hawker centres. One example will be the peranakan curry. One can find both peranakan chicken curry as well as the peranakan pork rib curry at this hawker. The portions served as well as the price are very reasonable.

After a heavy meal, food goers can choose from the desserts. I personally like the ah baling in sweet peanut soup, that is delicious and yet cheap. Bowl of 4 ah balings (ah baling is glutinous rice balls with fillings) with a mix of flavours (black sesame, peanuts, red beans) is a good way to end the meal.

Hopefully the same hawkers will stay on after the upgrading of the Fengshan hawker centre, and the good food selection (and prices) remains the same. During the upgrading of the Fengshan hawker centre, the news report mentioned that the hawkers will be re-located to a temporarily market nearby. Of course the temporary market will not accommodate all the hawkers. In the mean time, I think I will patronise the hawker stalls more often.

People's Park - 豪记 Hokkien Mee (Chinatown)

We were at the Chinatown yesterday for lunch and I ordered the 豪记 Hokkien Mee (People's Park market). The hokkien mee was fantastic! I had a $5 plate. Yupz the Hokkien Mee (a.k.a. fried prawn noodle) is more expensive compared to normal hawker food, but since this is a 'branded' stall, so I guess the price is expected to be higher.

The auntie at the stall generously put in 4 prawns and lots of sotong. She didn't put in lard pieces though (or they were too fine to be seen). Well I think all fried prawn noodles would have some lard in one way or another. Luckily the queue was not long and I waited only a short while before I had my plate.

Here's my plate of the Hokkien Mee. The dash of lime juice and the spicy fragrant chilli further enhanced the aroma of the Hokkien Mee. The soup stock was a bit thick, and thus I must say that the $5 plate was somewhat too much for me. Perhaps the $4 plate for a single serving would be better.

P.S.: 豪记 is actually a 高记 (the hakka yong tau foo company) franchise. Surprisingly, fried prawn noodle can also be a franchising idea, wow!

Dunman Road Food Centre - Popiah & Satay Mee Hoon

It is increasingly hard to find good hawker food in Singapore, and thus it is always a good idea to share with others where to find good hawker food.

One such place is the Dunman Road Food Centre. There are a number of good local hawker fare, and I've snapped photos of the satay mee hoon as well as the popiah.

The popiah costs $1.30 per roll. The nice or unique part about the popiah is that deep fried lard bits are added into the popiah. That adds to the fragrance of the popiah with more crunchiness.

The other stall worth trying is the satay mee hoon. The satay sauce has a certain 'spicy curry powder' fragrance and more importantly there is a lot of ingredients in this plate of satay mee hoon! The uncle added liver, meat, cockles, kang kong etc, that ensured each mouthful of mee hoon would be accompanied by some ingredients.

The other stalls at the Dunman food centre that are worth trying include the rojah (i.e. mixed salads), fried kway teow, and the frog leg porridge. Nope I don't have any photos of these dishes to show, but yes I've tried them before and found the food tasty. So for those who missed such hawker food, make your way down to Dunman Road and try these stalls out!

East Coast Lagoon Hawker Food - Stingray & Chicken wings!

We all have our own different favourite hawker food in Singapore. I would think some of the popular ones would be located at the East Coast Lagoon hawker centre.

The place is quite famous for the 民记 satay mee hoon. Often there are long queues and frankly speakign the uncles cooking the mee hoon aren't very fast either. What is very very surprising is that there are even people queing up for the food before the stall opens for business! I saw about 10 odd people queuing the last weekend we went there (those folks queing in front of the centre stall). Amazing!

The hungry me of course didn't queue and wait. I ordered the part chilli / part garlic stingray from the stall next to it (right most stall in picture above). I think that is a good decision! This part chilli (right part in picture below) / part garlic combination actually taste great. The garlic portion has both garlic and also bean paste, and gives a good contrast compared to the spicy portion.

We also had chicken wings, and yes the chicken wings were good. I think the food from the stalls at the East Coast Lagoon are generally satisfying. The satays are good, but we were too full to order any more food.

This is the stall that we ordered the chicken wing from (亚辉). Oh, it is also nice to have a full coconut to help wash down the oily food (nope no pictures cos' it is, well, just a coconut).

The New Tekka Wet Market - Opening on 1st August 09!

Finally the renovated Tekka Wet market (Zhujiao) is going to be opened on 1st August 2009. After the long renovation which started in May last year, this hawker centre with fantastic food is going to be back! So this weekend they will start operations again, yeah! Some of the stall owners are back as I recognised familiar stall names.

Originally the renovation is slated to last 16 months from 1 May last year, and so that means they finished everything about 1 month earlier. I guess that is good for our hawker friends. The wet market section also seems to look better, with proper gates and such.

I am sooooo looking forward to the food again.

See also: - Temp Tekka Market at Race Course Road

Teo Guan fish porridge @ Haig Road market

There are many good food to be found in markets and hawker centres. In these economic trying times, good value for money meals are especially welcome.

One such stall is Teo Guan fish porridge located at the Haig Road market. It seems they have won some awards in teh past (the two certificates shown in the picture).

The fish slices they served are fresh and succulent, while the soup is tasty without MSG (or I didn't detect any). They also added in sea weed, and a bit of 'bian yu' (flatfish) in the soup to give the soup more flavour.

I ordered both the porridge as well as the noodles, and both are equally satisfying. Prices are about $3plus, typical hawker centre prices. If you are dropping by the area, give Teo Guan fish porridge a try!

Queue of Haato Free Gelato Day @ Suntec

Haato was giving away free gelato on Thursday 12 Feb, in celebration of their new outlet at Suntec (1st floor and right outside Carrefour). The end result was the forming of a super long queue.

Well, the gelato is not exactly 'free' since customers could give some money when taking the gelato. Seems like Haato will give proceeds from this event to Community Chest. Haato had recently opened an outlet in Marina, and now there is this Suntec branch. Not sure how substantial would the crowd be to sustain two outlets within such close proximity.

I think Suntec people generally like to queue. Earlier when the toto Group 1 prizes were huge (New Year draws, and an earlier August draw), long snaking queues of people would be formed around the area. Here is a photo of the toto queue that I captured sometime back. The location is the same within Suntec, i.e. the Haato outlet and the Singapore Pool outlet are quite near actually.

Oh well, I guess in this climate, anything that is free is good!

Happy Pot @ Esplanade's Glutton Bay

It's back to food time again! We were at the Esplanade hunting for food when we decided to try the Happy Pot. BBQ and claypot food during a rainy and cool evening should be nice.

The price is alright, with $13 for a BBQ and claypot set. The owner will pass you a plate and you can heap as much vegetables as you want onto the plate (including noodles). The $13 set also comes with two more plates of meat (1 marinated for BBQ, and 1 'plain' for the claypot), and a bowl of rice. I chose tom yam based soup for the claypot.

Here's the spread of food we had. While there is also a buffet option, we thought we would order other food if we are not filled enough. Frankly the $13 set can feed two persons quite well.

Grilling the food over charcoal takes a while, especially the pork ribs. The food had to be turned often to avoid them sticking to the grill. Overall the taste of the food is good, and quite value for money. They had marinated the BBQ plate nicely, and the tom yam soup tasted quite good. I would recommend to go there during cool evening since the charcoal flame could be quite warm on other days.

Fried Carrot Cake at Albert Centre Hawker

Ever wonder where you can get good and cheap fried carrot cake, aka cai tao kuay? There is one near Bugis Village!

I was walking home one day and dropped by the Albert Centre hawker for my dinner. It's located right opposite Bugis Village and Fu Lu Shou complex, and some folks remember the place as 'si mei lorh market' (四马路 market) cos' it's right opposite the 四马路观音堂.While I was there thinking what to eat, i remembered the cai tao kuay at that hawker. The cai tao kuay tastes good, and is cheap! Anyway the queue was too long so end up the hungry me ate some other stuff...but I took pictures of the stall (Guan Kee Cai Tao Kuay) with the long queue. From memory, the queue for this stall has ever been long, day or night. Can never figure it out why it is known as 'fried carrot cake' when honestly I don't see any carrot in it... it's radish right?

The price is about $2-3, though I'm not sure if the uncle has increased the price. While the food is good, and in large quantity ( 1 packet can feed 2-3 pax!), the uncle has a bit of an attitude... lolz but well I think it's alright... good and cheap food in good quantity so cannot 'comprain' right. :)

Temp Tekka Market @ Race Course Road

The Tekka wet market and hawker centre had been closed since 1 May for renovation. It seems a bit strange now when I pass by the place to see a deserted location where it used to be bustling with life. I do miss some of the food there, especially the cheap chicken rice & nasi bryani. So I'll be without good hawker food for the next 16 months. The only good thing is that parking spaces are easier to find now. :p

Just for curiosity sake, I went to take a look at the temporary market located nearby at Race Course Road. It's a bit far to walk in from the main road. I took a few pictures of the stalls.

I took a walk inside and found a number of the familiar foodstalls. Looks like business is still not too bad. Of course, this is sunday, so I'm not so sure about the normal weekday crowd.

永记 Chicken Rice @ Tekka Market

I would miss the hawker food over at Tekka Market (i.e. hawker centre near Little India MRT).

Lolz, the hawker centre is slated for renovation and I'm not sure how many of the nicer food stall will remain after the renovation. So, decided to note down some stalls... for remembrance sake.

I used to eat chicken rice alot, the roasted version, cos' I used to buy the roasted chicken rice from this stall at teh Tekka Market: 永记. The chicken rice is above average, not totally fantastic, but worth eating. Afterall, where else can you find decently good chicken rice for $2 a plate? His steamed chickend rice is also very good! Guess the trick is in the chili sauce. The rice itself used to be better, cos' there used to be an auntie frying the rice with ginger before cooking them. I think the effort is too much so the practice stopped.

Here's the $2 plate.



I bought the $3 plate too.



I took a pic of the stall (without the owner's permission... oops :p ). The owner is the guy with apron standing on the right of the stall.




Yah, there are many other good food in Tekka Market. When I have the time I wld try to take pics of them. Some stalls like the soup prawn mee, and briyani, would close by the time I wake up... lolz... so a bit tough lah :p