Help @GB!
Please recommend a few hawker markets. Do you have a favorite stomping ground?
Thanks.
42 Comments On “Bitch Talk: Hawker Markets in Singapore”
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Help @GB!
Please recommend a few hawker markets. Do you have a favorite stomping ground?
Thanks.
Comments are closed.
@Packmule3, it isn’t exactly a hawkers’ market, but I enjoyed shopping in Singapore’s Kampong Glam neighborhood, and loved the street art there!
Thanks, @Welmaris.
Do you have food recs, too?
LOL @pkml3 Looks like you’re coming over to our humid, sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy island. I have to admit that I’m not a foodie, and so I’ve asked my friends if they have recommendations.
What I do is I go to wherever is near me and eat anything I fancy.I find the food everywhere generally good. I do not keep returning to just 1 place to eat the same thing like some people do. I also avoid queuing up for ages to just get a specific dish or meal, however the length of a queue is usually an indication of how popular a stall is, so if you’re curious and happen to see a long queue for some food or other, join in the queue or ask the people there what they are waiting for LOL.
These are for hawker centre meals (not air-conditioned restaurants) so be prepared for the heat and humidity!!
Quite famous and for quite good food:
Chomp Chomp (Address: 20 Kensington Park Rd, Singapore 557269) for Hokkien Mee, Carrot Cake and the Sugarcane Drink.
Satay by the Bay (Address: 18 Marina Gardens Dr, #01-19, Singapore 018953) not only for Satay but for ordering food that they will cook for you on the spot (We call it Zhi Char food LOL ie Cooked-Fried food which can be Egg Omelette with Prawns, Steamed or Fried Fish, Veggies of choice etc) .
Official Foodie Recs Enjoy the photos…food porn galore!!
https://eatbook.sg/chinatown-complex-food/
https://singaporefoodie.com/top-9-stalls-you-must-try-at-newton-food-centre-2023-guide/
https://danielfooddiary.com/2022/08/23/tiongbahrufoodcentre/
https://guide.michelin.com/sg/en/article/michelin-star-revelation/singapore-bib-gourmand-2023
https://www.misstamchiak.com/
There’s more of course but I may ‘drown’ you in eating places. LOL
Dear @PM3 and @GB, as someone that will have a hard time getting out from the place I am in, if possible let me recommend for you to meet.
Life is way more fragile and unpredictable than anyone can fathom, so uncertain that letting the opportunity to meet a dear friend slip by could be letting the opportunity to create great memories pass by.
Would love to meet you both in real life.
Love you both,
FGB
Hello all! And an advance welcome @packmule3 to Sunny Singapore (it’s really warm and humid these days…)! I’m from here too @GB! I live in the east of Singapore, and I’d recommend Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, Lagoon Hawker Centre and Bedok85 Hawker Centre 😬.
All these three places have great satay (it’s meat skewers bbqd over charcoal fire)!
For OAR, I like their chendol (a kind of shaved ice dessert dressed in coconut milk, black sugar called gula melaka and green “worms”) and rojak (a savoury salad made with sweet prawn paste).
For Bedok85, their minced pork noodle soup is a great comfort supper food.
Lagoon is also where East Coast Park is, so it’s by the beach and a good sea breeze comes in.
I also second @GB’s recommendation for Chomp Chomp. I used to live in that neighbourhood so all that she said is absolutely right.
Hi swiss_postscripts, glad to know that you’re another compatriot on this blog. 🙂
Good recommendations. I know that when I go to the East Coast (that was years ago!!!), I go for the gong-gong LOL. Yes those sea snail like things that one has to unwind from the shell and eat in chilli. I guess I’m liking the chilli and the fun of taking them out of the shell! I see fresh gong-gong at Geylang Serai Market but I don’t know how to make the chilli.
I find it so hard to recommend a place as I seldom eat out, and when I do, just about anywhere is good to me! 😂😝🤫
🍜 🍚 🍤 🍛 🍗 🥩 🧆 🍖 🍲 🍴 🥣 🥢 🍤 🍚 🍜
@GB- I love gong gong too! And yes, it’s a must to have them with the sambal chili that it comes with (slurp). How are you with blood cockles? and sambal stingray on banana leaves?
A friend of mine said if you’ve not tried before or if you’re a first-timer here, should at least eat chicken rice & chilli crabs.
Chicken rice can be found in many food centres and ‘coffee shops’ (they don’t just sell coffee!). Chilli crabs are usually where those ‘coffee shops’ also sell Zhi Char and seafood.
However if you want to go to the recommended chicken rice and chilli crab places, these are not the ones in the hawker centre or coffee shops but in restaurants. Here are 2 lists among several:
https://www.thebestsingapore.com/eat-and-drink/best-chilli-crab-in-singapore/
https://sethlui.com/best-chicken-rice-singapore/
My husband says go for the food by the culture. For the Malay food try the stalls at Geylang Serai. For all kinds of Indian food try the restaurants in Little India. Chinese food is everywhere. More and more hawker centres also include Japanese, Korean, Thai etc countries’ food.
@swiss_postscripts
I do eat cockles in small quantities, with lots of sauce LOL. I don’t mind other raw seafood but the half raw blood cockles are not exactly up my alley. However I don’t mind them.
As for sambal stingray, yes. Love it. It’s not just the meat but the sambal, lah!!!
Kalimera Ladies and Gent!
It is good to see so many recommandations and I will try to save this thread for future knowledge! @Packmule3 I do hope you will have a blast!
@GB Unnie If I ever come to Singapore, I will most likely let you know!
My dear @FGB, you never know what Life brings you. Something that seems impossible now, may become possible some years later. I do hope that you will meet us… Have Faith! 🤍
@Packmule3, Boat Quay, Clarke Quay, and Robertson Quay along the Singapore River are teeming with restaurants and pubs. We enjoyed eating dinner at a waterside restaurant in Boat Quay while watching water taxis puttering up and down the Singapore River.
@Cleo, @FGB, I would love to meet you if you come this way. Prepare your tummies to eat yourselves silly, LOL.
@pkml3 Here’s one more link which I held back at first because it covers 300 food centres all over the island and that seemed like overkill LOL.
https://sethlui.com/top-hawker-2022/?category=
This compilation is dated 2022, but most of the stalls should still be going strong.
Singapore!!! you are coming to Sunny singapore!!!
Everyone has had great recommendations.
If you manage to make it to Bedok 85 market, @swiss_postscripts made a good recommendation there. It’s in the heartlands so it isn’t so touristy there but you can get a vibe of our neighbourhoods. The evening market food there is more happening.
There’s the stingray, chicken wings, satay and my one and only beloved minced pork noodle soup that I can’t find else where. (Ion Orchard has a store selling it actually but doesn’t beat the original)
If you can’t travel out of the central area, to save on travelling, Ion Orchard hawker street has many things they all mentioned, in one place, even my favourite mince pork noodle soup.
https://ordinarypatrons.com/2021/09/09/ion-hawker-street-orchard/
If you are in Raffles place. Go Lau Pa Sat…I’m trying to make sure you have everything you need under one roof.
https://laupasat.sg/
Min jiang kueh is my favourite there, it’s a classic in the heartland markets in the mornings. My favourite is the coconut and peanut. Don’t go for the exotic flavours, the classics are the best.
https://eatbook.sg/munchi-pancakes-lau-pa-sat/
Don’t go during the office lunch hour of 12-2pm, unless you want to experience the bustling crowd and use tissue paper to chope your table and queue for a long long time. It has everything Singaporean from YongTauHu to Chicken rice and non-local food.
Some history of Laupasat is that it was a fish market by the sea in the 1800s but reclamation pushed the land in front of it considerably. Also if you look carefully, you can see the coolie statue knocking the bells in the centre of the market.
Lastly, Satay by the bay is worth checking out too. Satay, prata, char kuey tiao (fried rice noodles), claypot rice, sugar cane drink are my favourites there. The night walk there is beautiful.
Heh! @Grace, I was wondering if you were going to join us and weigh in with your recommendations.
Yeah, all those places and all those dishes. I just had dinner so I’m safe from yearning to get out and eat… but thinking about them is making me consider what days I may be free to skip out for lunch LOL.
Welcome to our sunny shores! (the crazy swelter has abated somewhat so it should be bearable) but do pack light sundresses etc
Please eat authentic legit hawker food, not at the tourist traps.
https://mothership.sg/2023/06/singapore-michelin-bib-gourmand-2023-hawkers/
https://www.honestfoodtalks.com/best-hawker-centres-singapore/
I live in the South so I would recommend Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre & Maxwell Street Hawker Centre
What do you like though?
https://danielfooddiary.com/2014/08/07/singaporefood/
If you are adventurous, please try the top 10 list of iconic hawker dishes in SG. (not forgetting our official-unofficial king of fruits — DURIAN)
@GB!! Wait..how did I miss that you were from SG! We should meet someday since we are so near 😛 not separated by oceans.
I also agree that going where the food is with the culture is a good idea. Though good food is everywhere anyway! If you really need a quick meal, many food courts have common well loved Singapore dishes
Hi @empress new clothes, another compatriot emerges LOL!
I find that in the heartlands the food is just as good and the touristy places are really not all that great although they may not be bad. Likely to be pricier too, of course.
@grace you’re so funny!! I thought we knew we are in the same country when we were chatting about LBFD and those Cdramas. I’m just one of those weird people who never learned Chinese! Remember how our watch times suited so well because we are in the same time zone, and I always mentioned the SGT for a rewatch? LOLOL. I thought you knew! 😂
Sure we can meet up to eat some of the yummy food you mentioned. We can probably chat about that on MDL instead though, not here where it’s too public. 🙂
@GB: am definitely a sambal fan!
and on the topic of “food by culture”, @pm3, if you do have stomach space, and have not tried peranakan (or nonya) food, may i recommend you do? peranakan culture is quite unique to singapore, malacca and penang (the latter two being cities in malaysia). peranakans are of Chinese/Indian and Malay/Indonesian heritage and the communities date back to colonial times. classic peranakan fare includes babi pongteh, ayam buah keluak, and udang lemak nanas and a whole host of dessert cakes called kueh (kueh salat, kueh kosui, ondeh ondeh – the list is long!). it is a cuisine unto itself! And i haven’t mentioned eurasian food yet…
@empress new clothes: good call on the durian, especially since its durian season now!
@swiss_postscripts Yes to the ayam buah keluak. Love to suck out the lemak (rich stuff) from those buah keluak nuts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_buah_keluak
It’s supper time now, I’m getting peckish!!
@GB, Hahah…I suspected but so many places have same time zone as SG.
How did you manage to “escape” learning Chinese or you got to learn other languages instead?
What’s MDL?
I’ve been so busy that I am not watching any of the shows on speed with you all and so just not catching up on any of the threads.
@pm3, when will you be coming to SG?
@grace, MDL is MyDramaList. After you sign up you can go to ‘Friends’ and use the User Search to find me under ‘GBgrowingbeautifully’.
How nice to hear about the wonderful food in Singapore! I am very envious of @packmule3. A meet-up in a location central to all of you could be a lot of fun.
@packmule3, enjoy yourself.
@Packmule3, if you can’t get past the smell of durian to taste it fresh, I highly recommend durian-flavored ice cream. It is delicious!
@Cleo… Amén!!! (Amen) 😉
Never crossed the Atlantic. Sometimes I feel like the nephew in “100 Years of Solitude” that at the end of the book he has been reading and studying the world so much that when his aunt and her husband arrives, the well-traveled husband has someone to talk to.
Given that there are lots of Friends back in Singapore I think that should @PM3 decide to head my advice she would have the experience of a Local multiplied by as many Friends as she wants to meet 😉
Thanks everyone for the tips! Love them all!
Made a list. Will update you later when I ditch my staff.
If you happen to spot a lady in the crowd, wearing a linen dress and a wide-brimmed straw hat, light blue nail polish, and floral walking cane, that’s probably me.
Toodles!
Enjoy! 😉
This is hilarious!
Exactly where does everyone come from? I am now burning with curiosity now as to where various BOD members would jab their finger on the world map LOL (announce the flag of your house!)
Ok I was born and bred in Singapore, so am as local as it gets. What Grace said about the tactical tissue pack is true (useful survival tip at hawker centres!)
If you are bereft of tissue packs, use your brolly (on the table, not to spear your opponent lol).
1) There IS a reason why durian is one of the challenge items on Fear Factor reality show haha. Not for the fainthearted but oh-so-good if you get its appeal.
Agree with Welmaris that if you can’t bear the real McCoy, do at least try the durian-derived dishes like durian puffs, ice cream or durian penyet. Drink loads of cooling tea or beer with your durian binge (it’s a heaty fruit)!
https://www.ladyironchef.com/2018/05/durian-pengat-singapore/
2) When will you be here?
Heads up that next Thursday 29 June will be a public holiday here (Hari Raya) so great time to throng Kampong Glam (if you like to get some festive vibes). If you are here on a work trip, do be cheerfully brazen, get yourself invited to the open house of Malay colleagues and try their snacks.
3) and how can we forget Korean food?? (since we spend most of our column inches here finessing the plot points of K-drama)
Pls head down to the Tanjong Pagar stretch (which is practically a Little Korea) to binge on legit Korean fare.
https://eatbook.sg/korean-restaurants-tanjong-pagar/
A bit late to the party, but I’d like to add my two cents (corroborating existing suggestions):
1. Old Airport Road Food Centre (great variety!)
2. East Coast Lagoon Food Village (best vibes, chill with a coconut, satay, and sambal stingray!)
3. Tiong Bahru Food Centre (good vibes, but food isn’t so great these days).
Enjoy your visit to SG!
Oh my, this has me salivating that I have to comment!
Hello dear chingus! Miss you all!
Singapore travel is always a food trip! Although I do not know the hawker places (all I’ve tried were good), my must-have food are chili crabs with fried mantao (fried buns) to wipe the sauce off from your plate, satay skewers, chicken rice, cereal prawns, laksa. I also like kopi and Kaya toast!!
Have a gustatory fun time, @PM3!!!
Heheheh! Hi @Janey. I’m glad our gustatory posts have got you to delurk for a bit. Missed you!!
Yeah, I like me my kaya toast some mornings. As to the other dishes, I must say, that you have the same taste as me! LOL.
Hi @L, your corroborating post gets me wondering why I never tried the Old Airport Road Food Centre. I suppose I just get lazy about heading out in the heat for lunch or dinner. However, I’m feeling a bit inspired to go try more places. Now to sweet talk the hubby into a meal date! Heh! 😆 😜
Miss you much @GB! If I ever get to SG again, I’ll make sure to meet up so we can eat our favorite food! Looks like Taylor Swift will beat me to going there. Hehehe!
Kalimera @Janey!
What a surprise! I have missed you too! I do hope you are okay!
Kalimera @FGB,
I haven’t crossed the Atlantic either, but I want to! So, we can still dream that we will manage to do so. It is a blessing to be studying about the world, dear friend. It makes the experience much deeper when it actually happens!
Unnie,
Of course we are going to eat ourselves silly ! LOL!
As long you are with us eating all together! *grins*
Oh YES – you deffo must try the kaya & butter toast, 2 soft boiled eggs with dark sauce, and a cuppa (brewed with French sock no less) for breakfast.
1) There are Killiney Kaya Toast, Toast Box, and Yakun Kaya Toast outlets island-wide, but I would say my personal fav is Yakun (for their paper thin crispy toast)
2) Dim-sum: again, for breakfast. Outside of Hong Kong, I think SG probably has the best dim sum. (Red Star, Tim Ho Wan, Yum Cha – all good) not exactly in a hawker center BUT dim-sum is such a must-have!
Heh @Janey! Not only Taylor Swift (March 2023) but Coldplay (January 2024) too LOL!
@GB – Oh wow, Coldplay too? SG is the place to be!
@Cleo – hi there! I’m doing well, thank you! Greece is also on my travel bucket list and I would love to eat authentic Mediterranean food with you someday.
I plan to do some kdrama time again with Woo Do Hwan’s Bloodhound. Is there any thread on this show?
@packmule3: i wanted to just drop a note that if you’re in singapore anytime from now until 9 aug (our national day), there will be road closures on Saturdays in the civic district (where the national gallery, victoria concert hall/theatre, parliament house, city hall is) because of national day parade rehearsals. it makes for some transport diversion at the surface level, and inconvenience in getting around that side of town. for me, a treat is witnessing the displays of our airforce – jets and choppers in the sky. its fairly ear-popping as cannons are also fired. all in the name of prep for the national day parade. more info here: https://www.ndp.gov.sg/