SINGAPORE: HAWKER DELIGHTS @ WHAMPOA MARKET

I come from a very health conscious YET food loving (read: greedy) family, and its usually hard to reach a balance for both. How it works in my family, we ( actually just my parents because I just have too much cravings to satisfy in the few weeks that I'm back home) will have home prepared meals for all breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday to Friday and dinner only for the weekends. So lunch after church yesterday brought us to Whampoa market Block 91.

Living away from home for the past few years, one of the things I miss most about Singapore is hawker centres. Bringing together the best in local food at affordable prices, hawker centres are really a unique aspect of the Singaporean culture. I was just thinking yesterday, perhaps in the near future, when our pioneer generations pass on, hawker centres may be phased out. This is because most young adults, prefer to have our meals at more conveniently located, airconditioned places or places that have names of celebrity chefs tagged to it. Ummm, I'm guilty of that too actually ooops. But yes, I really hope hawker centres will continue to be part of Singapore's future!

Anyway, whampoa market is home to many award winning Singaporean local delights. By award winning, I mean awards like Channel U's viewer choice awards, taxi driver awards, Makan Places Lost and Found. If you were thinking Michelin stars, your very first step starts here , youre welcome :D :D :D

I'm a huge fan of gu chai kueh (steamed chives dumplings) and in the last month I've been to whampoa 3 times to try the kueh from this stall - Tanglin halt A1 carrot cake. Yet time and time again, the aunty always tells me its sold out. Church ended at 1030am, I was there by 11am and I thought " TODAY WILL BE THE DAY I HAVE MY GU CHAI KUEH"

But, no. SOLD OUT AGAIN.

Mom bought 6 png kuehs (glutinous rice cake) and 2 soon kuehs (turnip dumplings) in the end. I've tried their png kuehs previously before and I really liked it. The rice isn't hard like some others and it was pretty tasty. Soon kueh was bland.  This stall also sells black bean kueh, which had a strange texture and tasted really bland. 

All the kuehs cost $0.90 each. 

We also tried their carrot cake. This was rather tasty, except it was hard to get a firm grip on the pieces, they kept coming apart, I guess perhaps the chef could have fried it longer. It would have made the exterior more crispy too. 

Tanglin Halt A1 Carrot Cake

91 Whampoa Drive

#01-34

Had fried carrot sticks next. This is the normal carrot cake except cut into rectangle sizes and deep fried. I like how its crispy on the outside yet soft and chewy on the inside. Love it as a snack.  Cheap and good, its 12 for $1.50 and 16 for $2. 

Deep Fried Carrot Sticks

91 Whampoa Drive

#01-36

My uncle recommended this stall, touting it to be the best yong tau fu. I hope they just had a bad day yesterday because this was really expensive and tasted average. However, calls made to another uncle of mine last night confirmed that there's just nothing special about this stall. 

price ranges from $3.50 onwards. What we ordered as pictured below, cost $5.40.

Traditional Homemade Yong Tau Foo

91 Whampoa Drive

#01-32

There's always a crazy queue at this stall. Nonetheless, I was determined to try and see if its really as good as what people have been telling me.

Winning point of this fish noodles - the generous portion of fried red snapper $3.50.  

Beach Road Fish Head Bee Hoon

91 Whampoa Drive

#01- 42

My mom really loves Lor Mee. Except strangely, most lor mee always gives her a bad tummyache after. My dad was really apprehensive about letting mom buy this bowl. 

Loved loved, absolutely loved this lor mee! Definitely one of the betters ones I had. For $3, there were generous portions of braised meat, chicken nuggets, you tiao and some other things I couldn't quite make out. The gravy was flavourful, their noodles lacked the common alkaline taste, which was a plus point for me. I really enjoyed their special chilli sauce. And thank God mom's stomach was fine after eating.

Whampoa Best Lu Mian In Town Lor Mee

91 Whampoa Drive

#01-19

The highlight of my lunch. 

Beancurd with gingko nuts $2

Really generous portion of gingko nuts. I made sure I had a gingko with every spoon of beancurd, and by the time i finished by beancurd I still had gingkos left. Other toppings you can add are lotus and red beans.

Two choices - $2.50

All three choices - $3

I've had all the three choices before and it was so yummy.

 Always be prepared for a queue tho!

Whampoa Soya Bean and Grass Jelly
91 Whampoa Drive
#01-52
6.30am - 4.30pm Daily
Closed on Monday

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EDIT MARCH 2019

A few years has passed, but I'm still a fan of Whampoa market. Actually nah, as much as like whapoa market, I live in the East and I try my best not to drive in Singapore because Singaporean drivers are the WORST.
They are rude, they are inpatient.
And recently alot of people seem to be getting into accidents while taking grab :/ so yeah... Unless my dad drives..... hahahahhaha otherwise, whampoa wouldn't be the place I go to.

This time I decided to try the ban mian after multiple friends' recommendations

20 minutes wait later......

$3.50. Add 50cents for egg. 

I love their meatball!  Ban mian comes with 2 prawns, but you can opt to swap the prawns for meatball. I probably will do that next time because it is just tooo troublesome to shell the prawns in a hawker centre. 

China Whampoa Homemade noodle 

Blk #01-24, 91 Whampoa Dr, Singapore 320091

Close every monday
Tuesday - sunday 7am - 2pm

An incidental find just beside ban mian store.......

This Uncle makes this really nice drink. He is a really chatty person. So yeah, he will go on and on to tell you about the health benefit of his drink. $1.50, really refreshing on a hot day.