Food Centers: where cheap meals means good meals: Bukit Timah Food Center

Some of you, dear readers, have sent me some emails. Yes, I like those...emails and comments. Please do continue to send and make suggestions.

And there have been numerous requests for simple, hearty food. I do agree...Man does not live by Michelin stars alone. And especially in Singapore (and Malaysia, Hong Kong) cheap food does not mean poor quality or bad tasting. Sometimes the opposite is true. The least expensive hawker stalls are the best.

First off, the incredible meatball soup...typical Teochew home made style

Truly superb. The meatballs are hand made..and two varieties are included in the soup...one deep fried and another steamed. The broth is very nicely made. Very savoury. And the meatballs are to die for. Typical home made style, and it is evident that they were made by hand. Large, irregular. But very tasty. A real treat.

I had meant to write about the 133 Penang Authentic for a while. The char kway teow is rather authentic

The uncle fries them plate by plate, meticulously doing each. The look is rather authentic as you would get in most markets in Penang. Indeed, I have heard the cook speak to his assistants in Penang Hokkien (actually a different accent, some find to be more melodious than the one we speak here in Singapore). Taste wise, it passes the grade for me, but does not rival the best in Penang. Would have preferred a bit more wok hei.

They serve a rather authentic Penang Hokkien Prawn mee too, but as we already had some soup that day, we did not order it. I have eaten the Hokkien mee before, and find it rather good as well.

And we also sampled some pure and simple chee cheong fun

These days, the Hong Kong style Chee Cheong Fun is more common...those which are stuffed with either char siew, or prawns or scallops. But some of us who are older long for the traditional CCF...the type where most in Singapore/Malaysia were too poor to afford stuffings...CCF was just a well made rice noodle concoction, with just sauce and sesame seeds.

This CCF brings back memories. Rolls uncut. Drizzled with sweet sauce and chilli. And sprinkled with sesame seeds. Simple, inexpensive, but divine.

Da Zhong Delicious Yong Tau Fu for the meatball soup. 02-196

183 Chee Cheong Fun, 02-183

133 Penang Authentic for char kway teow, 02-193

Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre

116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

Singapore Food Trail at the Flyer

I recently dropped by the Singapore Flyer for a visit to the much touted food court...called Singapore Food Trail, it is yet another food court where the operator claims to bring only the very best of each variety.

Indeed the decor on the place is excellent. Looks like we just stepped into Bugis Street in the 1970s...even the floor was not spared, and dressed up to look like the road, complete with street markings.

A cursory walkaround revealed that the organizers are probably quite good to have collected this group of hawkers. Indeed many of them represented the best of breed. The Adam Road No 2 Nasi Lemak was there. The Old Airport Road Satay Beehoon was in residence. As was many other famous hawkers.

But a look at the prices might frighten one away. The Full House nasi lemak meal in Adam Road costs S$5, and what was also called Full House, I am not sure if portion sizes are different or if additional premium ingredients are used in the Flyer version, but it costs a whopping $7.50.

I ordered some hand made popiah at this stall:



At $2 per roll, and $4 for this plate, rather expensive:



I must say the popiah was rather tasty. It remained dry, and the skin did not tear at any point...which goes to say the maker is rather skilled. The mix of ingredients - the usual radish, eggs, deep fried shallots, diced prawns were nicely done.

I also tried the "famous" Old Airport Road Satay Beehoon:



At $4 a pop, again rather pricey:



But I must say the pinch of paying $4 for the dish vapourised on tasting. This is very good satay beehoon. The sauce was rich, smothering. Excellent flavours, good fragrance, and a great mouthfeel. The bee hoon was done just right, al dente, and provided some bite the richness of the sauce. The sauce also contained some nice ingredients - prawns, squid and slices of lean pork. I enjoyed this dish.

Overall, I think the food court is rather touristy, than gourmet. Though some of the better hawkers are present dishing out their best. The food was rather good, and representative...so I would highly recommend a tourist to drop by and have a taste of Singapore in one fell swoop. But for me, I would rather pay less and travel to the origins of these stalls and sample them at source.



Singapore Food Trail
Singapore Flyer

Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore

Hawker degustation...this is an experimental post with no pictures. Just cross referenced back to the ieat blog. I have been following the blog for about a year...without knowing Dr. Tay who runs the blog, I identified with his taste, and generally agree with those of the places he recommends. Lately, I joined the forum, and finally met with the ieat gang, and including Dr. Tay...interesting bunch, I think I have found a foodie home...and I look forward to many makan sessions with them.

So after church this Sunday, the family decided to go try out the many hawker places recommended by the blog and forum.

We started at ROC Pizza, but when we got there at noon, it was not opened yet..."come back at 12:30"...hmm...hungry, we strolled downstairs and ordered 2 plates of Fried Hokkien Prawn mee. This was not the same HKM as I blogged before in Beo Crescent, nor like that one found in Kims. But the method of preparation was different. No gravy, but it looked like the noodles were cooked in gravy, which had time to be infused into the noodles. The plate looked like fried bee hoon mee...dry. Each strand was tasty, and full of flavour. Nice. Highly recommended.

By the time we wallop 2 plates, yes, the chilli also packs a punch, and unusually they included slices of raw chilli padi which provided extra oomph, it was half past, and we strolled upstairs to ROC. Ordered a Pizza Margarita and Pizza with ham and mushrooms...both 12 inchers - $15 for both was reasonable.

While he baked the pizza one at a time...we were the first and then only customers, Kin walked over and bought a plate of Char Kway Teow...it looked like a plate of fried chye sim, with some crispy silver fish...but within the folliage was some CKT...sweet, empowered with some nice see harm. The store was very popular, perhaps because it proclaimed in a large sign that no pork, no lard. The taste was ok, sweet. Reminded me of the CKT you get in the morning breakfast fried noodles store...the one which is ready prepared. I liked the use of the crispy silver fish in lieu of crispy lard. But a real CKT needs some lard to taste right. Eat again index? Not really.

By then the pizza arrived. The dough was very thin...the sides bloat up into a crispy balloon at the edge of the pizza. The ingredients were quite thin as well. The consistency of the bread was crispy. It was more like eating crackers with topping. The family rated this pizza as ok, no great shakes. The ingredients used...the ham, cheeses used in were not exceptional...the Quartro Formaggi at Modesto's was my reference standard...four kinds of superb cheeses, parma ham...etc...but, of course at a different price level. The ROC version could not compete. For the low prices charged, it was ok, but I won't return just for this pizza. Our favourite at Modesto's was not threatened.

By then, we were almost full...and not yet sampled the chilli mee, the pasta at the other end, and the beef hor fun...which had a very long queue and looked wonderful. Next time.

But wait, we were not done yet...we next went to the Ice Queen and ate some gelato. Made in-situ, the gelato claimed to use only fresh milk...less sugar, less fat, no eggs. We had 2 triples ($3.90 each triple) - Black sesame, Peanut, Rum n Raisin and Durian, Green Tea, Hazelnut chocholate. The Black sesame was nice...can really taste the sesame. The Rum n Raisin was rather strong with rum...the way we liked it. The Peanut tasted like cold peanut butter. Durian was quite strong tasting and pleasant (incidentally we had durian the evening before...tapow from the fruit store next door to Two Chef in Commonwealth Crescent...one Mao San Wang and another the seller claims to be better than MSW - he calls Tek Kar. Both were excellent.) The Green Tea was lesser than those I have tried in Tokyo, and the Hazelnut choc was forgettable.

This Food Centre was an interesting to do a tasting...many great stores, and good mix of old style, traditional looking hawkers with new, yuppie like hawkers. Worth another visit if just to try out the other stuff mentioned above.

Golden Mile Food Centre
Various stalls.

Ghim Moh Food Center, Singapore

After church, we headed off to have lunch. We intended to consume fish noodles at the famous XO Fish Noodle place in Holland Village. When we arrived it was under renovation. I may blog about it another time. So, for now I present ye, oh faithful reader with a rather mediocre meal. We went to Ghim Moh Food Center, latitude: 1° 18' 39", longitude: 103° 47' 17".


Wanton Mee


They were quite generous with the ingredients but the wanton and the char siew quality was very ordinary.



The noodles were firm to the bite and were covered with a black sauce reminiscent of the gorgeous wanton mee found in Kular Lumpur, but this was just a poor cousin of it. The noodle tasted very strongly of kee the ingredient that gives it its characteristic yellow colour. It was accompanied by a bowl of shui kau dumpling soup.



The dumplings were large but unspectacular in taste. The skin was too thick and the filing was bland. The stock could have been tastier and would have improved with some pepper.

Ipoh Hor-fun


This hor-fun was nothing like the variety found in Ipoh. I didn't like the noodles as I felt that it was very plain. It was not as smooth and soft as the genuine noodles you would get in Ipoh and in some specialist stores in Singapore. The sauce was very uninteresting also.

Char Kway Teow


We thought this was a good find because of the loooong queue. We were impressed by the old man frying so we imagined that the food would be great. It took a total of four shifts (dad, then me, then mom, then me again standing in line) to buy one plate of $3 CKT. It came full of lard and cockles, which usually is a promising sign.


Huge pieces of lard were spread out randomly in the midst of the noodles. Looks yummy!


The cockles were equally large and once again spread out in a random order in between the noodles.

Despite the great looks, the taste was a letdown. The chilli was not hot, therefore defeating its purpose, the noodles were not salty enough. My father preferred the Outram Park Char Kway Teow now at Hong Lim Complex and my mother the one located in Amoy Street Food Center. I agree with both of them. I may blog about these another day. This plate simply wasn't worth the heart-stopping cholesterol and ultra long wait.

Roast Meats


At last, a dish worth writing about in this food center. We ordered the triple meats, comprising of roast duck, pork and char siew.

I liked the char siew the most.


My father shared my view, and declared the sweet, crispy char siew a winner.


There was a nice juicy layer of fat (blue arrow) sandwiched in between the meat that was encrusted by a sweet, crispy, roasted and charred outer layer(red arrow). The mouth feel was incredible. As you bite in, the fat would burst in your mouth and the crunchiness of the outer layer added to the pleasure. This is char siew as it should be. Sinful but tasty.

Roast Pork


Though a little bit on the salty side, the skin was super crunchy and the meat was leaner than the char siew yet it was still tender and juicy.

My mother enjoyed the duck the most. It was roasted a little on the dry side, but the skin had the same beguiling black sauce as the char siew. Dad and I thought the Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint at Paya Lebar was superior.

Wanton Mee stall


Char Kway Teow stall


Roast Meat stall