Chow Time (Wanton Mee, Rojak, Satay Tarik, French Toast) @ Amoy Street Food Centre

Years have passed since i last stepped into this huge, two levels hawker centre. At least not during the daytime since i vaguely remember using the toilet of this food centre one night for an urgent expulsion.

It was scary without the usual busy lunch crowds!! 

Coming back, i was pretty disappointed with some stalls which i used to think were really fantastic! Was it my luck? Was there a change in the person preparing the food? Hm.... as with many questions in life, a BIG question mark. 

Tai Seng Noodle House

In Singapore, when you see a long queue, it usually means a few things.

Good Food

Value for Money

Promotions (buy 1 plate, get 1 plate free etc)

Psychological (i see people queue, i queue too!)

All the Above

For Tai Seng, i believe it is the "Value for Money". The portion was really big!!! For S$3 a plate, i got a good spread of Char Siew, five or six fried dumplings and around eight dumplings in the soup!!

Noodles were Q and made a delightful eggy bite! 

Not sure if it's the same for you, but a good fried dumpling must have a crunchy skin! Like the one in Tai Seng!!

The soup was so nice lor (both sister and mum heavily suspected it's MSG)!!

My usual weird standard when ordering wonton noodles is that i will not eat the usually tasteless soup wontons (dumplings). But the wontons here tasted really smooth and flavourful with the tiny chunks of meat within them.

The only aversion i had was on the Char Siew. They were so tasteless, the vegetarian Char Siew i ate HERE were a million times better!!

Rojak@ Tai Sun Coffee

A side business of an otherwise normal coffee stall.

 

Lightly burnt yet crispy/crunchy ingredients mixed in a thick gravy of prawn paste and a sprinkling of aromatic crushed peanuts. One of the better rojaks i had. If only my sister had included the century egg.

Wak Ju & Family

My sister recommended the Satay Tarik here when i first ate in this food centre. 

Basically, instead of the normal sticks of satay, bowl of gravy, cucumbers and ketupat (rice) displayed separately, this stall improvished by dumping all of them together.

Save the trouble of dipping the sticks of satay into the gravy, bite, using the stick and stabbing the cucumber/ketupat into the gravy etc etc, i guess.

I can only say it used to be so fantastic i think about it every now and then.

That fantasy is smashed as of yesterday.

No complain about the cucumbers, ketupat and gravy, it's the satay. They used to barbeque the satay and prepare the dish when you ordered.

Nowadays, they prepare well in advance. And you get meat that are hard, dry and almost devoid of taste.

Kaya French Toast @ Ah Seng Coffee

French Toasts with a spread of home made Kaya (coconut) jam between them and a spoonful of Kaya by the side for an extreme Kaya indulgence!!

So far, i have not been disappointed with the toast offerings from this stall. My mom tried to torture the stall owner (a chap called Ah Seng) to give his secret recipe but his mouth was sealed with glue!

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Location

7, Maxwell Road. Walking distance from Tanjong Pagar MRT Station.

Additional Information

Spread over two floors, you have a hundred over choices for lunch. 

If you want to really try the food in this hawker centre, please come during week days and during lunchtime.

Too early, stalls are not open. Too late (like after 2pm), the stalls are in the midst of tidying, cleaning and closing. The main target is the office crowd during lunch. 

Typical of Singapore, tables and chairs with umbrella, newspaper and the notorious tissue paper packet were "reserved".

If you wait patiently and your group is small (especially when you are alone), it is not difficult to find seats.