Cheongfun Noodle @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Update: Cheongfun Noodle has permanently closed.

Located at the yellow section of Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, Cheongfun Noodle is one of the newly opened stalls offering Hong Kong-style rice rolls (cheong fun) and ban mian (handmade noodle).

If my intel is correct, the six-months old stall is run by a Mr and Mrs Wong. The husband, a Hong Konger handmade the cheong fun while the wife, a Malaysian, prepares the noodle.

I chanced upon a photo of their chili ban mian dry ($5.30) on social media when they had just opened. It looked so darn good that I decided it is what I will have but you know what they say procrastination did to men?

So, I finally got my ass off the couch and head down to Chinatown. The stall is not hard to find in the maze-liked food centre if you come up by the myCK Department store escalator.

It is the first stall on your left which used to be Lao Ren Jia Roasted.

Fatt Kee Shou Shi @ Albert Centre Market & Food Centre

Albert Centre Market & Food Centre is not where I consider a comfortable place to have a meal due to the heat and the congesting human traffic in the afternoons. #introvertwoes

I would fatt mang zang whenever I am there (albeit unwillingly) to help the folks with their dried goods shopping on the floor above the food centre.

As such, I was never in the mood to explore the food centre even though we have eaten there a few times before heading upstairs. 

It is time that I give myself a chance to discover what this place has to offer.

I decided to get round the problem of bad ventilation and overcrowding by reaching there real early at 7am on a weekend. The downside is that not many stalls are opened yet.

Fatt Kee Shou Shi is one of the few stalls that are fully operational at that timing.

The stall offers old-school Cantonese style breakfast like char bee hoon, char mee, chee cheong fun, peanut porridge, yam cake and rice dumplings.

All the items here are priced at $1.20 per serving except $3 for the rice dumplings. Do take note that this is the price for dine-in. There is a different set of pricing for takeaways.

I am full of anticipation for this one as they uses charcoal stove to fry their bee hoon and cook their porridge.

Chef Wei HK Cheong Fun @ Blk 352 Clementi Ave 2

Have you heard?

There is a new Hong Kong-styled chee cheong fun stall in town but alas, it is located all the way at Bedok. Having been a Westie all my life, that is pretty far by my standards therefore I have not been there yet. 

If you are my faithful follower, you would have noticed that there are hardly any food reviews from the East side on this blog because I am too lazy to travel!

The stall in question is Chef Wei HK Cheong Fun, headed by Chef Wei, a former dim sum chef from Peach Garden. At the point of writing (two months after opening his Bedok stall), he has already opened two more outlets at Blk 352 Clementi Ave 2 and Blk 257 Bangkit Road - both in the West!

Despite Bangkit being nearer, I decided to visit the Clementi outlet instead because that is where I lived and spent a greater part of my childhood. I have not been back for eons and it is a great opportunity for me to to do so.

216 Chee Cheong Fun @ 216 Choa Chu Kang Ave 1

The location that I am headed for today is just a ten minutes walk away from my place.

Having lived in my area for the last thirty-odd years, not once have I come to this part of the neighborhood for breakfast. And it is high time I did.

216 Coffee Shop is situated at 216 Choa Chu Kang Ave 1. It is a small coffee shop housing just a coffee stall, a mee hoon kueh stall and the subject of today's review - the chee cheong fun stall.

The stall does not have a signboard so, allow me to call it 216 Chee Cheong Fun.

I only got to know about this chee cheong fun through words of mouth from someone who, ironically, stayed at the other end of the country.

So, I took a brisk walk from my house and reached the coffee shop just before 7am however, there are no customers at all. I was secretly screaming for joy on the inside because that meant I could take all the photos I wanted without being judged by anyone.

Duo Ji Famous Chee Cheong Fun @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

This is actually an accidental find.

I was walking through the food centre when I stumble across this particular section where all the stalls have yet to open except this one.

It was quite early then, around 7am. The place was dark and the only lights available came from this stall. There were no customers so I walked up to see what they have to offer. Apparently, they sell chee cheong fun (rice rolls) and yam cake ($1.50/$2/$3).

Perhaps, it is a psychological thing; the morning was chilly and having piping hot chee cheong fun that is freshly out from the steamers seemed like the ideal thing to do. I decided to order a $2 plate to try. 

Jia Ji Mei Shi @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

After an intensive three-months renovations, Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre has finally reopened much to the relief of the stall owners (no income for three months!) and the nearby office workers who had to venture further for their lunches.

Honestly, I do not see any difference with the newly renovated food centre. Illumination within is still as bad as before, throwing people into a dreary mood. Furthermore, seemingly cleaned tables still have stains on them, suggesting half-hearted jobs from the cleaning crew.

The only evident thing I see are the nets put up to keep out the birds.

The very first stall that I cannot wait to revisit is Jia Ji Mei Shi which serves all-day breakfast like chee cheong fun (rice rolls), orh kueh (yam cake), porridge, fried bee hoon and rice dumplings, etc.

This particular stall is one of the more popular ones hence a perpetual queue is to be expected although it is not as terrible as Liao Fan's (Hawker Chan) which is just perpendicular in front to their stall.

Da Chang Jin Handmade Chee Cheong Fun @ Holland Drive Market & Food Centre

Update: Da Chang Jin Handmade Chee Cheong Fun has permanently closed.

Da Chang Jin Chee Cheong Fun at Holland Drive Market & Food Centre serves the Hong Kong-styled rice roll. You can pick an assortment of fillings to have inside your rice roll ranging from the usual char siew to the more exotic flying fish roe and salmon.

Since it is my first time at this stall, I decided to go for the original ($2.50) without fillings so I could better appreciate the rice roll in its simplicity.

Unlike the Singapore-styled chee cheong fun which is factory supplied, the Hong Kong version is made from scratch at the stall upon ordering. The rice-flour batter is first poured on a piece of white cloth over a steamer. Once the rice sheet forms, the entire cloth is lifted and transferred to a oiled metal tray by the side where the rice sheet is separated from the cloth. Your desired filling is then added and rolled into shape before a special concoction of soy sauce is ladled on.