Oh, the glorious Taiwanese Oyster Omelette, or orh-ah-jian as they call it. Where do we even begin about this? As much as we love the Oyster Omelettes in Singapore, the ones found in Taiwan has undoubtedly racked it up a few notches.

Whether we are talking about the heavenly union of the gelatinous sweet potato starch and the pan-fried omelette with the freshly poached oysters that will melt in your mouth or the signature red sauce that you can only find in Taiwan – we are extremely certain that once you try them, you cannot (and will never want to) go back.

Not only is it a crowd favourite dish amongst the locals in Taiwan, many tourists have also sworn by it.

HOW IS IT PREPARED?

Primarily, the 3 main ingredients of this dish are Sweet Potato starch, Eggs and Oysters. Yes, three simple ingredients that will deliver a truly amazing concoction. The sweet potato starch is first mixed with water, topped off with salted and pepper before pouring into the heated pan.

After which, fresh oysters are gently added in to the mixture then stir-fried. The finishing step involves cracking in a beaten egg and tossing the ingredients together before they become a delicious mess.

However, the addition of a key ingredient makes the oyster omelettes served in Taiwan different. A sauce made from tomato ketchup, soy paste and sweet chilli is then drenched over the oyster omelette, giving the dish a harmonious combination of sweet and savoury. Sometimes, Taiwanese A-Choy vegetables are mixed in for a healthier choice.

HOW MUCH IS IT SOLD FOR?

Most Taiwanese Oyster Omelettes are sold at an affordable price of NT45 to NT60, which translates to approximately S$1.60 to S$2.80 per plate – depending the exchange rate. It might not be the cheapest Street Food around, but we assure you it will be worth every penny (and calorie) once you take a bite into this irresistible plate of goodness.

For those who have a penchant for spicy food, you can request for additional dollops of chilli and they will kindly add it for you.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT?

It can be found almost everywhere, whether is it in their restaurants, popular shopping districts such as Xi Men Ding, or even at their local night markets. You can spot tourists and locals consuming it almost everywhere, so why not take the leap and join in the crowd? We promise you will not be disappointed.

When it comes to cheap and good food in West of Singapore, the first place that comes to mind is definitely Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre. It is one of my usual hang-out places for local food as it’s only ten minutes away from my home.

It can be quite a daunting task when you are ordering food in hawker centres. Which stalls do we order from? Shall we flip a coin, judge by the number of newspaper cuttings, or simply look at the queue of each stall? If you are planning to make a trip to Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, I’ll like to share with you some of my favorite food there.

For those of you who have been reading my food blog for a while, I’m sure you know that Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite hawker food. I usually order it from Xin Heng Char Kway Teow (Stall 181) when I’m having dinner at Bukit Timah Food Centre. He Zhong Carrot Cake (Stall 185) is extremely famous for their white carrot cake. I very much prefer the sweet and eggy black carrot cake so I seldom order this unless my friends want to try it.

For Oyster omelette, avoid the one from Fried Carrot Cake Fried Oyster (Stall 145), the omelette was soggy and there was hardly any oyster. I can’t remember the name of the stall that I always order from — it’s in the same row as Xin Heng Char Kway Teow.

It’s always a good idea to eat at hawker centre with a group of friends (at least 4-5 people) so that you can order more food. Stall 156 BBQ Seafood offers a good variety of BBQ seafood like stir fried Lala clams, BBQ Stingray and sambal kangkong – great for sharing, but I can probably finish the excellent stingray on my own.

I have tried two of out three of the hokkien mee stalls in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre. On one occasion, we decided to try Fried Hokkien Mee (Stall 145) because of the long queue. Unfortunately, the hokkien mee was a total letdown, the sambal chili wasn’t spicy enough, and the taste of the noodles was subtle – bordering on bland. The second Hokkien Mee Stall is located in the middle row of the food centre and they use the distinctive flat yellow noodle. I’m going to try out the third stall (facing the main road) the next time round.

Peter Pan Western Food (Stall 133) has been around for some time, and they have value-for-money Western Food. Otherwise, there’s Tom Kitchen Western Food which is located near the stairs. Long House Popiah used to have a branch in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, but on my recent visit, I realized that it’s not there anymore. Try the popiah and kueh pie tee from Stall 127 instead. There’s also the famous Satay bee hoon, Japanese food, and Thai Food stalls worth trying if you want something different.

If you are having breakfast at Bukit Timah Food Centre, be sure to order the Kway Chap from stall 138. There’s always a long queue when I go there during weekends. My mother is a big fan of the huge fishballs from Teochew Fishball noodle, (Stall 179) as well as the dark sauce wanton mee from Stall 197 Happy Wanton Noodle. To end the hawker feast on a sweet note, have the smooth beancurd and Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) from Soyako (Stall 166).

// Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre is within walking distance from Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, and Bukit Timah Plaza. For other options, there’s a stretch of eateries and restaurants at Cheong Chin Nam road, Chun Tin road and Lorong Kilat opposite Beauty World.

Singapore Hawker Food Review
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

The Singapore Food Scene is getting very exciting with the opening of Celebrity chef restaurants, and many new dining concepts. But when my overseas friends ask me for recommendation on what to eat in Singapore, or what is the true Singaporean cuisine, I’d definitely reply: Hawker Food.

With the exception of places like Newton Circus, Lau Pa Sat & Chomp Chomp Hawker Centre, the prices of food in the other food centre usually are around $2-3. You are going to be shocked by this, but my last visit to Old Airport Road Food Centre was actually a few years ago, before the renovation. I need someone to scold me for taking so long to revisit this wonderful place, which undoubtedly is one of the best Hawker Centres in Singapore.

As much as I do not fancy oysters, it is a joy to dip the oyster omelette into the chili sauce which is slightly sour, yet sweet and spicy. I’m not sure if Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster is one of the better stalls in Old Airport Road Hawker Centre, but the oyster omelette was the first empty plate on the table.

It was one o’clock in the afternoon, and everyone was hungry. It’s a damn Sunday morning, and we should all be sleeping in bed. Instead, I was queuing up for the Blanco Court Kway Chap at Old Airport Hawker Centre with ten (equally crazy) people in front of me. After a long wait of 27 minutes, it was finally my turn to make the order. The intestines were cooking in the stove, yet the chef/cook/hawker grabbed them with his bare hands, put it on the chopping board and cut them into appropriate portions with breathtaking speed.

Everyone crowded around the table, waiting impatiently for the food blogger to take the photos. Eating commenced after that, and luckily, it was worth the wait.

Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite Singapore’s Hawker Food, and Lao Fu Zhi fried kway teow is one of the most famous char kway teow stalls in Singapore. Unfortunately, I thought that Lao Fu Zhi’s rendition was a little too dry, and it lacked a certain wok-hei. The million dollar question: is there another better char kway teow stall in Old Airport Hawker Centre?

This is the Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee, otherwise known as the lor-mee-that-we-queued-for-half-an-hour. There are many hawker stalls in Old Airport Food Center, but Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee is one of the few that has an incredibly long queue. It’s good to eat out with a group of friends who are willing to brave the snake-like human traffic and wait for a seemingly-ordinary bowl of noodle.

Lor Mee is a bowl of noodle served in a thick starchy gravy and comes with ingredients like prawn roll (ngo hiang), half boiled egg, fish cake, and fish. My friends were won over by the generous toppings, and the flavor of the sticky gravy. Me? I will only eat it if someone else is queuing up.

If you like the kick from having the spicy-hot sambal chili, you will be very disappointed with the famous Nam Sing Hokkien Mee. In place of the familiar sambal chili, they have sliced red chili instead. The Hokkien Mee has a much higher proportion of the rice noodles to the yellow egg noodles. Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee definitely has their loyal supporters, mind you — we waited slightly more than twenty minutes for this plate of Hokkien Mee. Thankfully there is no need to queue as they will deliver the Hokkien Mee when it’s ready.

* * *

I’m definitely going back to Old Airport Road Food Centre soon, do share with us which are some of the other hawker stalls that are worth a try.

Singapore Hawker Food
Blanco Court Kway Chap
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-135
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Katong Ah Soon Fried Oyster
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-07
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Lao Fu Zhi Fried Kway Teow
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-12
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Nam Sing Hokkien Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-32
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee
Blk 51 Old Airport Road #01-116
Old Airport Road Food Centre Singapore

In case you are wondering where is Serangoon Gardens Food Centre, its near Lorong Chuan, just before turning in into the Serangoon Gardens’ roundabout.

First Stop, PK Xpress fish & chips. This store is reputed for their Aussie Fish & chips, and selling at $6 per set in a “hawker centre environment” they really got quite a lot to live up to.

Aussie Fish & Chips ($6)

The aussie fish & chips certainly does not fail to disappoint. Cripsy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. Plus the serving is quite huge. Another thing worth mentioning is the accompanying salad, there’s nothing special about the greens, the slices of mango mixed with the greens are really sweet!

I don’t like the fries though, its just like normal potato fried and served. Anyway we got 2 portions of it and cannot finish because we had other food as well.

Banana Walnut cake ($2.50)

Besides having fish and chips, the store also serve some awesome home-made desserts and cakes. The banana cake may looks quite small at $2.50, but my friend finish it in a mouth-full!

Chocolate Cake ($2.80)

The home-made chocolate cake is really a steal with such a large slice at $2.80. After eating so much food, we really struggle to finish the cake. The chocolate cake can be better if there’s more layer of thin chocolate in between the cake as i find it a tad on the dry side.

Garden Street Kway Chap

I always love Kway Chap but nowadays we can’t seem to be able to find really good ones around. My friend recommended Garden Street Kway Chap, so lets give it a try!

At first glance, they are supposedly quite famous being on so many different media publications already!

Whats Kway Chap without the main character, the “kway”!

Kway Chap serving of 3 person ($15)

We didn’t get the small intestines because my friend didn’t eat that. The rest is pretty good, but i don’t quite like the roast pork though. Kway Chap is actually a very simple and nice dish, but i don’t always eat them firstly because you can’t find much good ones around.

And secondly, the stores usually charged a very high price, as in the price is not really fixed and its up to their call. If anyone know of good and cheap kway chap please let me know!

The must-have sugarcane drinks when you eat at Hawker centre!

Another friend doesn’t eat Kway Chap, so he ordered a plate of roasted meat rice, pretty decent i guess. The roasted meat is ordered from the store see picture below.

Roasted Meat store on the left, Fried Kway Teow store on the right.

Fried Oyster ($4)

The fried oyster is quite good as well, but usually i just go in for the eggs and leave the oyster alone. Its pretty guilty since the oyster is the ingredients that warrents such a high price for a plate of fried oyster, but usually there will be others who will be more than willing to finish up the oysters for me.

Fried Kway Teow ($4)

LIC favourite hawker food, fried Kway Teow! You know people always say when they goes overseas they always miss the local food in Singapore. If there’s only one local food LIC can choose, it will definitely be fried Kway Teow! Sinful as it may be, but having it once in a while won’t makes me feel that guilty.

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre is really a good place for our authentic local delights, and there’s a few other stall selling famous for their duck rice, fishball noodles which was closed on the day that we visited. Furthermore, its relatively cheap when you compared to the better-known hawker centre like Newton Food centre and Chomp Chomp!

The real awesome deal about our local delights is that they are not only nice, but also real cheap! Four of us spend like around 10 bucks each to enjoy all the good food? Its always good to have a group of friends going together, ordered many different food and share!

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre
49A Serangoon Gardens Way