Hey Hive!
Even though there are still people getting covid, it's basically being treated like a cold these days so thankfully almost everything is back to normal now! There are no more restrictions on dining these days and you don't even have to wear a mask anymore if you don't want to! It's a huge relief and this allows us to try different food places again!
Back at the end of December, Sean and I ventured to the East side of Singapore to collect something he ordered. It's been a long time since we were on the East side as it's quite a distance away and there's really no reason for us to go. Since we were there we walked around for a bit before finding a place to go for dinner.
We thought of going to our favourite Hokkien Mee place since it wasn't too far away, but turns out there might have been some conflict with the stall owner's children since the owner passed away. Usually the children will inherit the stall and continue the business but we actually found out about another stall with the exact same name in a totally different place.
Source: Edgeprop
It was in this place called East Coast Park which is known for the beach. It's been about 10 years since I've been here and I read that they revamped the hawker center a few years ago. We were curious about it and Sean has never been so we went to check it out.
If you've never patronised a hawker center before, they are typically non-air conditioned buildings that house all kinds of food stalls specialising in one or two signature dishes. They're ubiquitous here in Singapore and Malaysia and are known for delicious and affordable food - the perfect combination! They're definitely where you can find the best food in Singapore!
This hawker center is called East Coast Lagoon Food Village and now that they renovated it it's so spacious and there are so many stalls and seats!
Source: lifeisarecipe
There is indoor and outdoor seating where the sheltered seats are within these hut-like buildings with a few tables, chairs and benches. I especially liked the many twinkly lights around each of the buildings.
I also liked that this place has really good ventilation both indoors and outdoors. Within the huts there are ceiling fans and they even have these big overhead fans for those who enjoy al fresco dining. The fans are pretty strong too which is good for our typical Singaporean weather.
Anyway, the stall that we were looking for is this one called Geylang 29 Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee. We're still not sure if this place is related to the other hokkien mee place we really liked but we wanted to try and compare the dishes.
For reference, this is what the other stall looks like, which I now realise has Lorong in the name but is otherwise very similar. Even in Chinese the names are exactly the same.
Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for our noodles, it only took like 10 minutes or so and I was busy walking around in the meantime finding a good place to sit since there are so many seats!
This was the Hokkien Mee! It did look pretty similar to the other stall's one and it smelled really good too!
The noodles tasted really similar to the other stall's as well. It'd been a while since we last had the Hokkien Mee from that other stall so I couldn't really discern if it was very different. But this one was still really tasty! It was the perfect blend of savoury mixed with spice from the chili and sour from the lime, and had plenty of wok hei as well.
It was really delicious and we agreed that it was comparable to the other stall. But since this was located in a hawker center with more stalls this one was a winner.
We also tried a few different dishes like this pork belly satay which was really nice and tender.
The meat was a good blend of sweet and savoury thanks to the marinadee. The pork belly was nice and thick too, and paired with the peanut sauce it was pure perfection!
The final dish we ordered was a hawker classic - sambal stingray, which is a barbecued stingray served with sambal sauce and a side of cincalok (fermented shrimp or krill).
I'm not a fan of cincalok but both of us really like sambal stingray a lot, especially the sauce which is perfect when paired with white rice.
This one was good but the sauce got way too salty after a while. I think they might've added too much salt and MSG in it, or we might've gotten the bottom of the barrel sauce where it's most concentrated. I had to chug lots of water just to overcome the saltiness, but the stingray itself was good too and easy to eat.
After that we were pretty satisfied and it had gotten dark already. All the twinkly lights were on and it was quite a sight.
Both of us agreed this new revamped hawker center is probably one of the best and biggest ones you can visit in Singapore, and trumps the famous Newton Food Center by a long shot. Our last experience there was so bad as it's so crowded, cramped and we had to wait more than half an hour because of one stall.
This one on the other hand is so much more spacious, clean, well-ventilated, and there are so many more stalls to choose from that you probably won't have problems with waiting time. Granted we did see a few lines here and there at the more popular stalls but it seemed pretty manageable. It's also a nice place to hangout and chill with friends after a satisfying meal.
So for those who are visiting Singapore don't go to Newton Food Center because it'll be crawling with other tourists and it's more hassle than it's worth. Go check out East Coast Lagoon Food Village instead!
I'm not sponsored to write this, that's just how much I enjoyed the place. We agreed the next time we have friends visiting Singapore we would bring them here.
Thanks so much for reading!
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