The weekend is near! With all the fuss over buffet brunches, Egg Benedicts and whatsnot, hawker centres still hold a certain charm for me, starting the day with a frills-free, delicious meal. For one of such morning, I joined the girlfriend and her mom at one of their favourite hawker centre for breakfast: Tiong Bahru Market!
I was told that the hawker centre was much more airy and spacious after a major renovation. Getting a seat could require a little waiting with the bustling morning crowd but shouldn't be a problem overall. Being my maiden visit, I left the ordering to the experts!
Soy Bean Milk and Fried Doughsticks
There wasn't any media or critic endorsements pasted on the store we bought this from, but you couldn't go wrong with freshly made doughsticks and thirst-quenching soy milk. Simple pleasures!
Sweet & Savoury Glutinous Rice, Turnip Kueh & Chives Kueh
The girlfriend's mom loved the glutinous rice from this particular Nonya store and I could quickly understand why. Each grain was steamed to just the right hardness, had a sticky texture and yet not in a messy lump. Psst, even though you could order a mix of both, the uncle will purposely give less of the nicer sweet variant because that's the better selling one!
Again, I didn't know where the kuehs were bought from, but 韭菜粿 happened to be one of my favourite kueh and it didn't seem to be easily available among kueh shops. Nothing particularly outstanding, but I liked how the skins were chewy and didn't stick stubbornly to my teeth.
Shark Meat Lor Mee
One of the more well-known stores in Tiong Bahru Market, each bowl was not stingy with ingredients and definitely a steal at only $2.50. The gravy had a good starchy consistency that didn't turn watery easily, though its selling point of shark meat tasted just like normal white fish.
Chwee Kueh
At long last, I have tried the (arguably) most famous chwee kueh store of all! And I was so glad that it didn't disappoint. Generous scoops of crunchy, savoury chai poh poured over soft, bouncy steamed rice cake. This was addictive!
Wanton Soup, Char Siew Noodles
There were two wanton mee stores that had very long queues, so we decided to try something from each! For the soup, the wantons were huge and stuffed full of water chestnut bits and minced meat. Glad that the ingredients felt very fresh!
The charsiew noodles was yet another famed one. Using the 不见天 (Don't see sky, literally) part aka armpit of pigs, each slice was incredibly tender, well marbled and very well glazed. Together with a good supply of springy yellow noodles, this was one amazing plate of char siew noodles!
So finally, the goodness of Tiong Bahru Market explored! The average quality of food here seemed to outshine plenty of hawker centres, with the hoards of visitors reaffirming its popularity among Singaporeans.
What's your favourite store in Tiong Bahru Market?
Tiong Bahru Food Market
30 Seng Poh Road
Individual Stores:
Soy Bean Milk, Dough Sticks and Kuehs - Unknown. Apologies!
Glutinous Rice - HarriAnn’s Delights #02-25
Shark Meat Lor Mee - 178 Lor Mee #02-23
Chwee Kueh - Jian Bo Shui Kueh #02-05
Wanton Soup - 华丰面家 #02-24
Char Siew Noodles - 忠于原味云吞面 #02-30
Taken with Nikon D70
4 comments:
TB food centre is one of my favorite food centres for breakfast & dinner. My favorite stalls & I'll highly recommend:
1. Tiong Bahru Lee Hong Kee Cantonese Roasted for their excellent roast duck, sio bak and char siew. In fact, this is my favorite roast meat stall in SG and arguably the best. I'll usually go for the rice with roast duck drumstick and sio bak combi, and sometimes roast duck drumstick & char siew. I just had their roast duck drumstick & wanton noodles yesterday and it was excellent too. I'm not a fan of roast meats but the roast meats at this stall, especially the tender & juicy roast duck! is a regular weekly fix for me. My family's favorite and we eat here at least 2X a week. Try this next time you're there Daniel. Their double boiled soups are very flavorful too. Where else can you get an excellent plate of roast duck + sio bak + char siew rice combi for just $5 in SG?!?!
2. TB mee chiang kueh. Used to be favorite mck stall till I found an even better one from Tanglin Halt last week.
3. Jian Bo Chwee Kueh. Grew up eating their chwee kueh, my favorite and my weekly weekend breakfast fix. Excellent & very generous savory-sweet chai por studded with fragrant sesame seeds.
4. Tian Tian Yuan for their cheng tng. Both hot and cold versions are good, though my favorite cheng tng is still from Ye Lai Xiang @ Bedok.
I beg to differ with Zhong Yu Yuan Wei's wanton noodles. Recently tried their bu jian tian char siew & thought it was just lacklustre. Their noodles was nothing to shout about either, it wasn't springy or flavorsome. From your picture, I think you didn't get their famed bu jian tian char siew. For that, you must specify when ordering & it costs more than the regular char siew. In fact the char siew from Lee Hong Kee is way much better.
Heard much good things about Wah Feng's wanton mee, but they are open only about 2-times a week. You must be very lucky to catch them on one of their opening days. I'll probably go try my luck this weekend.
Tried the 178 lor mee before. Didn't think it was that great, in fact it was the shark meat fritters that put me off. Yuan Chun lor mee @ Amoy Street FC is still the best in my book.
Haven't tried this but my dad likes the meepok noodles from Teochew Fishball Noodles.
I love sticky glutinous rice! I'll try the sticky rice from HarriAnn’s Delights over the weekend too. (:
And now I'm terribly hoonn..grrryyy....
Oh the Teochew kuehs are from Tiong Bahru Teochew Kueh. The kuehs are not bad, my mom likes the ku chai and peng kueh as well.
I don't mean to rain on Tiong Bahru market's parade but the aunties at Tiong Bahru Teochew Kueh can be quite blur. Not just once they shortchange us on the number of kuehs when we do take-away in bulk. The most recent experience being just yesterday. So check, check and check if you ever take-away from them.
ice: Woah that would be a very useful list! Thanks! =) Oh and about the bujiantian charsiew, actually I did, but auntie say she ran out of bujiantian already, so ask me if I mind mix mix with the normal one at no extra costs, so you couldn't really see it here haha. Shall try out Lee Hong Kee!
PY: Noted! I'm not very adventurous with teochew kuesh actually haha. Btw I ate before a jiuchai kueh at Balastier Food Centre that was panfried with egg mixture, that was pretty good eh!
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