Tai Wah Cooked Food - Pandan "Butterfly" Bun @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Tai Wah Cooked Food at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre sells traditional Chinese fried fritters like the youtiao (Chinese cruller), ham chim peng (salted five-spice buns), green bean bun, red bean bun and, the specialty of their stall, the butterfly bun.

I enjoy their fritters as they are hand-made at the stall daily and fried on the spot so it is always fresh and piping hot.

My favorite among all is the butterfly bun but not just any butterfly bun, mind you. Theirs is really unique because it is pandan-flavored. So far, this is the only stall I know that does it this way. 

Fatty Ox HK Kitchen - Beef Brisket Noodle @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

I am not much of a beef person thus, there are some beef dishes that I have not eaten before. Among them, I am particularly curious about the ngau lam (beef brisket).

I heard that the ngau lam at Fatty Ox is one of the best there is in Singapore. Since I am already checking out Fatty Ox for their soy sauce chicken, why not give their ngau lam a try?

That is why, I decided to order a plate of ngau lam with noodle ($4).

I also hear their sui kow (shrimp dumplings) are pretty solid so, I asked to add a couple in as well.

My ngau lam noodle with two pieces of sui kow came up to $5.50.

As this is my first time having ngau lam noodle, I do not know what to expect. In fact, I do not even know which part of the cow ngau lam is!

Fatty Ox HK Kitchen - Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Soy sauce chicken are a dime a dozen at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre. At last count, there are at least five such stalls here within this complex and that's not including the lesser known ones.

The most famous one of them all - Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle - is the world's first hawker to be awarded one Michelin star. I was a fan of theirs prior their award days but ever since then, I can only shake my head in disappointment at the outrageous queue.

That is when I decided to seek out the other soy sauce chicken located within the food centre.

Cue Fatty Ox HK Kitchen.

The chef, Mr Cheung, is a Hong Konger who moved to Singapore during the 1980s. In 1986, he started his first stall inside a coffee shop at Pagoda Street. Then, in 1991, he moved to Murray Street and operated there for 16 years. Subsequently, he moved to a coffee shop at North Bridge Road for about two years before settling down at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre.

Maxwell Haha Mee Siam Mee Rebus @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Reviewing this stall is not part of the plan.

I was actually there at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre for Fatty Ox HK Kitchen's soya sauce chicken noodle but I have forgotten that they are closed on Mondays.

Not wanting to make a wasted trip, I went to the next stall on my list, Tai Wah Cooked Food for their Pandan-flavored "butterfly" but they, too were not opened.

Then, I remembered about this mee siam stall at the row behind Chang Ji Gourmet when I was there to review them. I was actually sitting at the table outside this stall because I wanted to make use of the lights coming from their stall to take photos of the fried bee hoon and peanut porridge.

The stall in question is called Maxwell Haha Mee Siam Mee Rebus and you can probably tell where they were previously located and what they sell. The stall is wholly Chinese owned, selling Chinese-styled mee siam and mee rebus.

Chang Ji Gourmet - $1.20 Porridge & Fried Bee Hoon @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

Chang Ji Gourmet at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre has a very simple menu with just three items: fried bee hoon, fried noodle and peanut porridge.

I have not eaten at this stall before but I did walk past it many times and I am intrigued by its long, snaking queue.

Chang Ji offers a simple, no-frills breakfast at just $1 per serving. Their fried bee hoon and fried noodle come with just bean sprouts and nothing else. They do not even have additional sides that you can add on to your meal so why are they such a hit with customers?

I decided to join the queue on a Saturday morning to find out why.

Woo Ji Cooked Food - $2 Laksa & Prawn Noodle @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

The food centre at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre is like a labyrinth filled with surprises at every turn. I am excited to learn of a stall here that sell laksa and prawn noodle for a mere $2!

The only catch is, you have to come very early for a bowl as they are opened from 6am till they closes at 10am. Yes, only four hours! Very short operating hours I know!

But, what is one to do if you want to have a bowl? Well, you jolly wake up and leave the house when the skies is still dark which is what I did!

There is already a snaking line when I reached the stall Woo Ji Cooked Food at 7am. I cannot decide whether to have laksa or prawn noodle so I ordered both!

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.

Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa @ Alexandra Village Food Centre

Singapore and its nearby region seems to have been hit by an unusually cold weather spell since the beginning of the new year. At a time like this, having a hot, steaming pot of claypot laksa doesn't sound like a bad idea.

I have always wanted to try Depot Road Zhen Shan Mei Claypot Laksa not because of its Bib Gourmand status but I am a sucker for claypot-anything. Food seem particularly tasty when served in claypots, don't you think?

The stall at Alexandra Village Food Centre is located along the row just opposite to Tai Chong Kok Confectionery at Blk 122 so it is really easy to find.

Xiu Ji Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Foo @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

I cannot decide which is more off-putting - the never ending queue for the yong tau foo or the fact that the stall is located right next to the toilet?

For years, I have walked past the stall countless of times but not once did I throw it an extra glance due to the reason above.

It wasn't until recently that I finally relented.

I figured that they must be doing something right since they are able to command a perpetual queue everyday despite its less than ideal location.

On the day of my visit, I was elated to see less than ten customers in front of me however, the queue was very slow moving.

Hill Street Fried Kway Teow @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

I have long heard of Hill Street Fried Kway Teow but what I did not know is it's location. After some digging online, I found out that there are apparently two fried kway teow stalls which originated from the now-demolished Hill Street Food Centre.

One has moved to Bedok while the other one is at Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre. Although sporting similar name on their signboards, both stalls are unrelated and each have their own supporters.

I decided to try the one at Chinatown since Bedok is far too inconvenient for me. Unfortunately, the stall was closed the first two times of my visit. It was only during my third visit did I managed to catch them opened for business.

Wei Ji Noodle House - Wanton Mee @ Chinatown Complex

Update: Wei Ji Noodle House has permanently closed.

Sick of having the usual at Chinatown Complex market & Food Centre, I walked around the food centre, hoping to uncover something new for lunch when I stumbled upon Wei Ji Noodle House.

Hidden at a inconspicuous part of the complex, business is sluggish - or at least that's what it appears to be - when I was there just before noon. This is a striking contrast to the other stalls just round the corner.

Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try and ordered myself a plate of wanton mee.

The person taking my order is quite aloof who made no effort to take my order even though I was standing there in front of the stall for a good whole minute.

I had to take the initiative to call out to him what I wanted. Even then, there was no communication between us during the entire transaction as I am the only one doing all the talking.

I wonder is that part of the reason for the lack of business?

Cheng Ji - Steamed 'Song' Fish Head In Hot Sauce @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

I first had this steamed 'Song' fish head at the temporary market near the MRT station when Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre was undergoing renovations a few years ago.

I haven't had another after the hawkers have shifted back to the newly renovated complex. That is, until last weekend when Mum had a last minute errand to do at Chinatown and Dad suggested having this as we did not have it for a while.

There were a couple of stalls tucked away at a corner of Chinatown Complex all selling this same dish but from what I observed, only two stalls were doing a roaring business.

One of it was Cheng Ji, featured on Sizzling Woks (煮炒来咯) season 2 hosted by Li Teng and Pornsak while the other stall next to it (separated by a drinks stall) have gone on a cooking segment on Channel 8's Golden Age (黄金年华).

Heng Ji Chicken Rice @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

The queue at Heng Ji

Heng Ji Chicken Rice has been around Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre for decades and my family has been patronising them ever since I was a little boy.

Other than Tiong Shian Porriage at the main road (opposite CK Department Store), Heng Ji Chicken Rice seems to be the only other thing we eat whenever we visit Chinatown.

The thing about Heng Ji is that they only sell poached chickens and there is always a perpetual queue for it's chicken rice.

I remembered their rice used to be served in tiny blue colored bowls and because the bowls were really small, we always had to order extras.

Heng Ji's rice is fragrant and slightly oily which is fine with me but they uses broken rice which crumbles easily in the mouth.

We continued to patronise Heng Kee for many more years until the opening of the Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle stall (#02-127) a few doors away. 

The chickens hanging off the hooks gleamed under the lights and looked so much more tantalising than the pale looking ones from Heng Ji.

We decided to give the new stall a try and we are glad we did for we have never looked back since.