Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Soy Sauce Chicken Wing Noodles from Ji Ji Wanton Noodles Specialist @ Hong Lim Market And Food Centre (only SGD 3 for the portion above) reminded me of Hong Kong’s Swiss Chicken 

It’s been slightly more than two weeks since Motormouth has moved to Singapore; intermittent with a few days return to Kuala Lumpur for a brief stint earlier last week. (But of course, you will not be spared of the stories from the non-stop eating saga / food coma in the future posts!)

If you are celebrating Hari Raya, then I wish you the best of times and safe journey wherever you are. Unlike in Malaysia though, the extended weekend comes to a screeching halt here in Singapore; as the festivity ends with merely one day of public holiday. instead of two. Ho-hum, what a party pooper eh?

But it’s all good, no worries. You must be wondering where did Motormouth go for his usual ‘makan’ runs during the first couple of weeks in Singapore. Let me be honest with you; settling down in an unfamiliar territory and barely time to breathe (the past two weeks coincidentally were budget review season), I took the easy way out and made myself comfortable with convenient choices instead.

Ji Ji Wanton Noodles Specialist is one of the top voted wanton noodles stall on the island apparently; and parked comfortably within two lots on the second floor of the cooked food centre near Chinatown

Within walking distance from where I stay (in fact, after the first week in Singapore with no car and fully utilizing public transportation, everywhere feels like walkable really), Hong Lim Market & Food Centre qualifies to be one of those old school cooked food centres where time stood still and the original hawkers are either still running the stalls after a good many decades OR passing down the baton to the next generation instead of selling off the business to random strangers/foreign workers.

Case in point was this Ji Ji Wanton Noodle Specialist that serves up a pretty good bowl of wanton noodles with either wanton (minced pork dumplings in soup) or fresh prawn dumplings or what we usually call ‘sui kow’, with lean BBQ pork (char siew), fried chicken or soy sauce chicken wings. The noodles appeared to be slightly different than your conventional egg noodles; at Ji Ji, their noodles are thicker and softer; but still tasty enough to warrant a try. From SGD3 per portion, this is as cheap as Singapore street food can be in the central business district.

Ji Ji Wanton Noodle Specialist,
#02-48/49
Hong Lim Market & Food Centre
Opening Hours: 8:00am – 7:00pm (Mon-Fri), 8:00am – 3:00pm (Sat)

*Other recommended stalls here include the Ah Heng curry chicken noodles, Tai Wah pork noodles (crazy queue, so I did not bother), Outram Park fried kuey teow and Tuck Kee Ipoh Sar Hor Fun with Crayfish.

Curry Chicken Noodles from Stall #1-31 in Amoy Street Food Centre – Creamy, decadent curry base redolent with the flavor from coconut milk, but the potatoes were under-cooked and the noodles were just so-so

“Ipoh-style” Chicken Kuey Teow @ Amoy Street Food Centre – Shredded poached chicken was too dry, the mushroom sauce was starchy and the flat rice noodles (what we call kuey teow or sar hor fun) was thick and far from the real deal

Most of the hawker food centres in the central business district operate during brisk working hours from morning until late lunch, then close after sun down. And most of these remain closed on weekends. Amoy Street Food Centre is probably the nearest food court to where I am living, yet the number of active stalls on weekends is very limited. The curry chicken noodles and Ipoh kuey teow noodles were both forgettable affairs, sadly. No doubt the two-storey food centre is one of the most popular spot for lunch on weekdays, with interesting stalls like the famous Yuan Chun Lor Mee, A Noodle Story’s Singapore style ramen noodles, Mamacita’s Costa Rican delights, and the infamous queue at Han Kee Fish Soup.

Amoy Street Food Centre @ junction of Amoy Street – Telok Ayer Street near Tanjong Pagar MRT
7, Maxwell Road
Tanjong Pagar, Singapore
Come during weekdays for lunch, NOT dinner or anytime during the weekends

Sliced Pork with Tomato Noodles @ Wong Kee Stall , Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown – Short of being the next Lau Pa Sat, Maxwell is another tourists’ favourite haunt in Singapore

I got dizzy looking at the queue at Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. It was about 10 am on a Saturday morning. And possibly more than half of those in the line were tourists.

In the heart of Chinatown, you can find various hawker stalls forming back to back lines in Maxwell Food Centre; a tourist haunt (not trap, mind you … the prices are still very much within range) with a number of must-tries.

The perpetual queues at Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice and Zhen Zhen Pork Porridge tell a lot; that either commercialization breeds success OR they could still be very much in sync with the taste buds of the old and the new generations.

I tried the chicken rice from Tian Tian a few years back, though it did not blow me away, I have to admit that the perfectly cooked fluffy grains of rice was fragrant, and the chili sauce was amazing. Just that … the chicken was lackluster and could not hold a candle to some of Ipoh’s best.

The tomato noodles with sliced lean pork looked promising but was merely passable. The stall named Wong Kee (in Chinese characters only though) also serves various noodles with fish and pork slices, at relatively reasonable prices.

I should be back for the chicken rice, just maybe on a weekday when I don’t have to work.

Highly unlikely, I’d reckon.

Maxwell Food Centre
1, Kadayanallur Street,
Chinatown, Singapore

Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun and Fried Radish Cake from this Dim Sum Stall at the newly-refurbished Lau Pa Sat (Telok Ayer Market) – A complete miss; the fried radish cake was horribly hard and tasteless. At the end of the day, I suggest to stick to the smoky grilled skewers of satay here.

Brisket King Beef Noodles @ Food Republic, Shaw House, Orchard House – Now this was a good bowl of dry beef brisket noodles at about SGD6 per portion, served in an utterly sterile environment with air-conditioning and at almost hawker centre prices. Almost, since if you decided to go for their Three treasure Special, it will set you back at SGD9 per portion.

Steamed Gourmet @ Centrepoint Food Court, Orchard Road – With one order of main dish (I had the steamed minced pork with salted fish and cubed water chestnut), topping up SGD2 netted me a fish paste with beancurd dish, and a side bowl of ABC soup. Lazy me falls back on mall food sometimes.

Gradually, I got my bearings right. Certain hawker food centres are highly lauded for the gems they house within (usually the ones with the longest queue!), while the rest of the stalls can be a hit-or-miss affair. If uncertain, just follow the crowd, or the many helpful food portals and blogs on the net. Cafes are booming on the island too; I’ve tried 3 at least; read about PS Café, or wait for my take on Food For Thought @ National Museum and Becasse @ Dempsey Hills in the coming reviews.

Enjoy the Raya break, dear readers at home. Now let me dig out my notebook and start to draft my list of must-eats in Singapore ….