Where is whampoa

Cut into bite-size pieces, the old lady very nicely heated up the ngoh hiang and fish cake before serving with a sweet chilli sauce on the side. The ngoh hiang was stuffed with plenty of vegetables and meat, and wrapped in beancurd skin. The flat fish cake is also mixed with vegetables, and is great to be eaten as a snack or as a shared dish.

Their affordable prices, chewy noodles, and generous portions make for a good, everyday meal. Its bak chor mee comes with a heap of minced pork and two meatballs. The dish is available in dry or soup versions, and I went to go for the dry one as I wanted to try their signature sauce. The springy noodles are tossed in a vinegary, savoury sauce, but the star of the dish goes to the meatballs.

The tender and juicy balls of meat are bursting full of flavour. Spice lovers can request for spicier noodles, and more sambal chilli will be added to the sauce. The mee sua is another homely noodle dish, and has more varied toppings with minced meat, abalone, fish cake, pork slices, and a huge fishball stuffed with meat. I could tell that they made all their fishballs and meatballs because of their irregular shapes. Other noodle dishes on the menu include laksa and fishball noodles.

The Whampoa stall is open for 24 hours, making it a great breakfast or supper spot at any time of the day. The curry is cooked for hours in a huge, bubbling pot, together with the chicken skin-on and spices.

The aromatic curry is thick and leans towards an Indian curry with more subtle spices and lesser coconut milk. I appreciated that the curry was not too spicy. There was just enough chicken to fill me up - I had two mid-jointed wings and two drumlets. The juicy chicken flesh easily fell off the bone, making it easy to demolish the whole bowl in no time.

The huge potatoes were a bit of a pleasant surprise. The chunks of potatoes are deep-fried before they are stirred into the curry, resulting in the firm outer layer and creamy insides. All they need to do is ensure the rice is consistently soft and fluffy. The first time I tried it, the rice was dry, but my next visit was a better experience with fluffier rice. According to the two Vietnamese girls manning the store, everything at Viet Quan is good.

Their menu offers a wide range of traditional Vietnamese dishes, from shared plates to meals like pork chop broken rice and meat skewers. I decided to try two popular dishes - the fresh spring rolls goi cuon and the mango salad goi xoai. Each roll has a prawn, a slice of pork, rice vermicelli, and a pile of vegetables, all wrapped in clear rice paper.

When dipped into the fish sauce with plenty of chilli padi, the fresh spring rolls are bursting with flavour. The fresh spring rolls are much healthier than their fried counterparts as they contain a lot more vegetables and lean meat.

The mango salad is a refreshing dish usually eaten as an appetiser. Made with green mango, chopped vegetables, fresh lime juice and fish sauce, the blend of sweet-sour-tart-salty-spicy flavours somehow just whets my appetite. The fresh vegetables are crunchy because they are uncooked, and the crushed fried nuts add a bit of roasted nuttiness.

Depending on your luck, the stall sees either long, snaking queues or no queue at all. A Michelin Gourmand recipient, rojak lovers travel from all around the island for a taste of Balestier Road Hoover Rojak. While the original owner of the rojak pushcart that originated in Toa Payoh has passed away a few years ago, the second-generation owner has kept the legacy of Balestier Road Hoover Rojak alive through its consistent taste.

The stall serves up Chinese-style rojak, also known as fruit rojak, in two different portion sizes. A heap of guava, cucumbers, pineapple, unripe mangos, lettuce, you tiao and tau pok is tossed in a gooey sauce that can only best be described as a melting pot of flavours. As the sauce is made from a mix of assam, sugar, chilli, and prawn paste, it can be hard to strike a balance of sweet, tangy, spicy and savoury in every bite.

Together with crushed peanuts, the stall has perfectly mastered their sauce, resulting in a borderline addicting dish. What keeps us and their loyal rojak fanbase going back is the consistency - every plate tastes exactly like how we remember it. Even though they open till 4pm, the uncle at the stall usually closes shop when everything is sold out which is usually around 2pm. Expect to wait up to 30 minutes in line, as every rojak order is made on the spot.

The queue can be lengthy, with customers taking away whole ducks at a time from the stall that has been around for nearly three decades. By itself, the duck is not fantastic, maybe even a little dry. The chilli is the game-changer, with a texture slightly lighter than sambal but more vinegary.

The Cantonese-style porridge is boiled for hours to get that thick, gloopy consistency, and then mixed with the savoury and sweet herbal sauce. The porridge is also topped with some crunchy noodles, with the duck and gravy hidden underneath the pristine porridge. Some might recognise the name from the chicken rice store at Square 2 in Novena, but the Whampoa stall is where Nan Xiang Chicken Rice was born. The unassuming store is easily glossed over for other more popular ones, but the charm of the couple-run store gives off a homely vibe.

The stall sells both steamed and roasted chicken, with vegetables and spare parts as side dishes. The oily plate of rice came with a side of roasted chicken, oyster sauce vegetables, a chunk of tofu, and a bowl of clear broth. The carefully deboned chicken was tender and juicy, and the rice was moist and fragrant. Their chilli is slightly tangy with a squirt of lime juice, mixed in with lots of minced garlic, makes the chicken a very satisfying meal!

If I were to come back again, it would be for the rice itself. The taste reminded me of home-cooked chicken rice, probably thanks to their meticulous method of stir-frying the rice with garlic and ginger before steaming it in chicken soup for an extra flavourful meal. It was so delicious that I ate a couple of spoonfuls of rice by itself before digging into the chicken!

Yet another duck rice store, Zan Ji sells roasted duck and kway chap sets for one person. The braised sauce is the watery kind, giving a more herbal flavour to the dish.

The soup was a bit too salty, and they could definitely have turned down the dial on the salt. Another thoughtful note to all the kway chap eaters: their intestines here are cleaned very well, and are cooked separately from their other meats to keep them nice and chewy. Satay bee hoon is one of those ugly but delicious hawker foods around. The thick, brown satay sauce covers a steaming pile of bee hoon and ingredients in an un-Instagrammable heap that tastes much better than it looks.

As they say, hawker food is all about the taste — appearance is a plus. Whampoa Satay Bee Hoon is one of the two stalls at Whampoa selling satay bee hoon, and is considered the slightly pricier one. The satay sauce is on the watery side, with chunks of roasted peanuts. The bee hoon was cooked to al dente with a firm bite as it soaks up all the broth.

The spoon also allows you to scoop up the dregs of satay sauce with your noodles. The stall also has one other dish on the menu - laksa. For a hawker centre with so many indulgent and heavy dishes, the one aspect that Whampoa Makan Place might be lacking on the food front is dessert. Manned by an old Chinese lady, the dessert stall has all your traditional hot and cold local desserts like ice kacang, chng teng, bubur hitam, and tau suan.

It checks every box, with sweet corn syrup, red bean, agar agar, and cendol, and provides a sweet treat at the end of your meal or as a midday break. Instead of ice, mango ice cream was used to give it a creamy texture without diluting the taste as much as shaved ice would have. Fresh mango cubes and mango juice balls made for a pleasant experience as each bite was filled with bursts of mango juice or chewy sago.

That said, the Mango Pomelo Sago still made for a sweet treat. While most people use the names interchangeably, there is a slight difference as oyster omelette is served with purely egg while fried oysters are cooked with both egg and tapioca starch for a mix of crispy and gooey textures. The oysters and the egg batter are fried separately over at this stall, which means that the egg batter is fried till crispy for that wok hei taste while the oysters are not overcooked and dry.

The portion is decent, and I counted at least 10 oysters that were of the big variety. The oysters were fresh and juicy, soaking in the sambal chilli that gives a nice spicy kick with every bite. While I also took the sour chilli sauce that is usually eaten with oysters, I found that the spicy sambal sauce was robust enough to savour the clean, briny taste of the oysters.

The oysters are also served with a heap of coriander for a refreshingly lime taste. Way before the stall was named in the Michelin Bib Gourmand, the stall was already popular amongst even the pickiest fish soup lovers. Queues begin even before they open at 9am, and you should be prepared to wait at least 40 minutes to get your bowl of fish soup. For those who love the stronger fishy taste of fish head, you can also request to be given the fried fish head upon ordering.

I ordered the classic Fried Fish Bee Hoon, with milk. Huge thick pieces of fried fish with crunchy batter came in a full bowl of bee hoon and milky broth, and remained a bit crispy even though it was sitting in the bowl for a while as I took my photos. The thick bee hoon noodles were slippery and went down easily. The sour and spicy soup is filled with huge pieces of cabbage, and the fried fish pieces soak up the soup for flavourful bites.

The food is definitely worth the wait, as evidenced by the regulars who turn up daily for their fish soup fix. The corner stall at Whampoa market only serves their beancurd, or more affectionately known as tau huay, hot. The stall is open from 7am to 8pm, but still sees long queues at all times of the day. Some people even travel all the way here just to take away tau huay by the dozen, although the queues move pretty fast.

While most customers are there for their beancurd, they also have other interesting menu items like rose soya bean, grass jelly, and red bean beancurd. In under a minute, I received a steaming bowl of tau huay and my drink. The soya bean was milky and not too sweet, with little bits of grass jelly floating in it. The tau huay definitely lives up to its reputation. The smooth pudding easily breaks apart, and slides down your throat.

Give the grass jelly a miss and stick to the tau huay, because some things are best enjoyed simply. The secret to the silky, soy pudding that has customers coming back is the use of the chinese herb shi gao gypsum , which gives the beancurd that soft, jellylike texture that disintegrates in your mouth. And even though using gypsum is more unpredictable, the stall still manages to keep the quality of their tau huay consistent, sealing its place as one of the popular beancurd stalls. At night, this stall is popular for their fish head steamboat.

As a huge fan of fried fish soup, I had to try a bowl. The light, milky broth is a mix of sweet and salty from the sweet napa cabbage and seaweed, with a generous portion of fried fish.

The fried fish did get a little bit soggy as I neared the bottom of the bowl. For more flavour to your soup, add a few chilli padi and soy sauce. The chicken is cooked in a thick, sweet and gingery sauce, with plenty of crunchy onions. The simple dish is something that can easily be cooked at home, and makes for a comforting meal. The one thing that would have made this more complete was a fried egg, which I could have added on in hindsight.

Don't be confused by the name — this stall is indeed in Whampoa market! Li Ying Western offers standard Western-style dishes like pasta and sirloin steak, although there is an option to pick rice as the side. The fish was fresh and flaky to the bite, without any of that fishy taste of lower quality fish. The bread was also a bit of a nice touch as it was toasted with garlic spread. I personally prefer a thicker and more peppery mushroom sauce, but I liked how the sauce did not congeal over meat.

The thin slices of pork weren't too dry, but could do with a little more moisture. Run by an elderly couple, the stall opens from 2pm, targeting the afternoon and dinner crowd as Hoover usually closes around the same time. Their rojak comes with tau pok, beansprouts, mangos, apples, and cucumbers, tossed in sauce, peanuts and shredded lettuce.

To really stand out from the other rojak store, Mun Theng Fang Rojak grills their you tiao and tau pok over charcoal to give it a more robust edge. The punchier taste also comes from the addition of cuttlefish or century egg, and we recommend asking for more chilli to really pack everything in.

As with every rojak store, the uncle and auntie mixes your rojak upon order. One of the newer kids on the block, Cha Kee has just one item on its menu: chee cheong fun. The quintessential dim sum dish is usually eaten as a breakfast food by itself or as a snack, and this stall selling just chee cheong fun was a pleasant surprise amidst all the supper foods.

The stall has both styles of chee cheong fun to choose from - the Singaporean version with sweet gravy and sesame seeds, or the more traditional Hong Kong-style wrapped in other ingredients with soy sauce and fried onions. The hand-rolled chee cheong fun is only put into the steamer upon order, so be expected to wait for about 5 to 10 minutes for freshly made chee cheong fun. The simple plates of chee cheong fun looked underwhelming at first glance, but tasted absolutely amazing.

The delicate rice rolls were spilling char siu everywhere, but the sweet and savoury taste of the sauce and the light pastries made for a comforting snack. There are three different condiments depending on your personal preference, which includes a crispy chilli, chilli sauce, and sweet sauce. The crispy chilli is a mix of shrimp paste and chilli, and best eaten with the dishes with meat like prawn or char siu. When it comes to supper at hawker centres, grilled chicken wings and seafood with a pint of cold beer is a killer combination.

The couple that owns the stall usually starts setting up in the afternoon, and for the best chicken wings, it's best to head down after 5pm. The two things that make a good grilled chicken wing are the marinade and the chilli. The wings are marinated in a sweet sauce before being slow-grilled over the fire, resulting in that shiny, crisp skin. The juicy and greasy flesh tastes best when dipped into the chilli, which is a bit on the sour side.

Instead of squeezing the lime onto your wings, mix it into the chilli. The fresh cockles are blanched and served with a spicier chilli paste. The cockles are scrubbed very cleanly, and are cooked just nicely. And you know when their chilli is good when you get charged if you ask for more chilli! At night, the long snaking queues in Block 90 can only mean one thing: that Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee is open for business. Hailed as one of the better hokkien mees in town, there are usually at least 10 people waiting in line for a plate of that slurpy noodles.

The uncle cooks the hokkien mee in batches at a time, so the queue moves fast if you come at the right time. The noodles are cooked in a sweet and savoury seafood broth with pork lard, and is a soupy version of the popular hawker dish.

Pork slices, pork lard, squid, prawns and eggs are also tossed into the wok to absorb the rich broth. Mix in the sambal chilli to add a spicy kick to the savoury noodles. The stall is one of the rare ones that close at 1. The mee sua is tossed in a spicy and vinegary sauce, with pork slices, pork liver, and two meatballs. The handmade meatballs are firm and springy to the bite. The pork liver isn't powdery, but still had a bit of a red tinge to it so those who prefer their liver well-cooked might want to give this a miss.

Interestingly, they also used bean sprouts in their bak chor mee as most hawker stalls usually stick to cabbage. Sichuan cuisine is popular amongst spice lovers, thanks to their bold flavours, heat, and tongue-numbing spiciness of Sichuan peppercorns. Si Chuan Mian Zhi Dao and Mala sells a range of traditional Si Chuan dishes like beef noodles, shredded chicken cold noodles, and mala tang. The bowl of spicy vermicelli medium spicy looked very potent when it arrived, with a layer of chilli oil floating on the top sprinkled with nuts and bean sprouts.

The thick sweet potato noodles marinated in a sour and spicy broth, cooked with pork lard to add flavour. I could feel the spice as I inhaled the noodles, but it was a nice, pleasant heat that just sits in my mouth. As Si Chuan is famous for their mala dishes, I also ordered a bowl of mala tang with medium spice level. The selection at this stall differed from the usual mala ingredients as it was mostly vegetables and cold dishes, with the exceptional meatballs and beancurd skin.

The bowl was overflowing with all sorts of vegetables and ingredients, with pickled cabbage, beancurd skin, radish slices, meatballs, and even a piece of fish maw. Because of the peppercorns, the mala tang was a bit more tongue-numbing. The mala tang also came with sweet potato noodles, which absorbed the mala soup for a right balance of heat and tongue-numbing spice.

I prefer my mala where you can still feel your tastebuds so that you can actually taste the food you're eating, so this was a perfect bowl of mala for me. Sweet, yet giving an uplifting kick of spice that keeps you coming back for more, it really brought together the entire dish. Open daily from Dating back to , this stall has a long history in making soya bean drinks, and boasts a tau huey that few can hold a candle to.

The tau huey , as expected, was melt-in-your-mouth silky and fresh, without a cloying sweetness typical of most tau huey made commercially these days. The grass jelly drink was filled with shredded chunks of grass jelly, and a light sweetness for a nice touch. Bryan has the biggest love affair with Italian cuisine, and could eat handmade pasta for the rest of his life.

When not eating, he can be found at an art exhibition, taking film and digital photographs, or running 5 and 10Ks. Friend's Email Address. Your Name. Your Email Address. Bryan Jed Soh Bryan has the biggest love affair with Italian cuisine, and could eat handmade pasta for the rest of his life.

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