5 Favourite Dishes We Love At East Coast Lagoon Food Village

Food is a representation of our national identity and a unifying cultural thread. Being Singaporeans, we’re proud of our hawker heritage and the long history of different iconic hawker centres on our little red dot.

This July, we celebrate our hawker culture with a list of exciting achievements and events. First, some of our hawkers made it to Michelin Guide Singapore’s Bib Gourmand. And the Annual Singapore Food Festival is back!

This year’s Hawker Spotlight 2016 was held at East Coast Lagoon Food Village, which opened in 1977. A media tour was conducted by food connoisseur, Mr. Moses Lim, and we were introduced to five distinctively Singaporean hawker dishes. Take this opportunity to gather and catch up with your family and friends, over scrumptious meals.

With more than 20 years of experience in the F&B industry, hawkers Mr. and Mrs. Er have been running their own tze char stall at coffeeshops before moving their business to East Coast Lagoon Food Village in 2013 after the food centre’s renovation. We had one of their bestselling items – curry fish head. The curry was thick, with just the right amount of punch! The fish was very fresh, well-prepared and tender. Other ingredients in the curry include lady’s fingers and vegetables. This delicious dish is perfect for sharing when you have a big group.

This stall was first set up by Mr. Ang’s father at the back alley located at MacPherson. Currently, Mr. Ang, a 2nd generation hawker, is running the stall at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. Having operated for 55 years, this stall was originally well-known for their fried carrot cake. It was only 13 years ago that Mr. Ang started selling popiah after leaning the secret recipe from a friend. Mr. Ang’s popiah won the “Best of the Best” popiah in City Hawker Food Hunt last year. The popiah was generously filled and has a good combination of textures. We love the juiciness, as well as, the crunch from the beansprouts.

Originating from the back alley of MacPherson, this stall has been in operation since 1963 and Mr. Han is a 2nd generation hawker who took over the business since the passing of his father. Mr. Han is a field service engineer by training, but was interested in the hawker trade. We’re glad he decided to carry on the business as his Bak Kut Teh was selected as the Top 10 Bak Kut Teh in City Hawker Food Hunt in 2011. The soup was not extremely peppery and perfect for a rainy day. However, we felt that the highlight of this stall is their pork trotter, which are so tender that they melt right in our mouths.

The expert Char Kway Teow hawker, Ms. Mui Mui, has been hawking since the age of 12. Since young, she had been accompanying her mother and helping out at the stall at MacPherson every day after school. After their relocation to East Coast Lagoon Food Centre, Ms. Mui Mui took over and she’s also a 2nd generation hawker. Her Char Kway Teow was selected as the Top 10 Char Kway Teow in City Hawker Food Hunt in 2008. We were amazed by her cooking demonstration as she started off by cooking the eggs till a little dry before adding the rest of the ingredients for her Char Kway Teow. It contains a strong taste of wok hei, just the way we love it!

There are plenty of stalls selling satay at East Coast Lagoon Food Village but this particular one has been in the business for the past 38 years. Ms. Lynna is a 2nd generation hawker who took over the business about 6 years ago when her father fell ill. The satay, rice cakes and satay sauce here are all handmade. If you’re observant enough, they use chicken pieces instead of minced and the portion is quite generous. We enjoyed dipping the succulent meats into their homemade satay sauce, which contained quite a generous amount of peanuts in it. Simply flavourful!

Celebrate Hawker Heritage at Singapore Food Festival

The Annual Singapore Food Festival is back, bigger and with much more food offerings, with the theme, “Savour the Past, Taste the Future”. Get ready to celebrate Singapore flavours through the amazing talent of our hawkers and understand the rich depth of our culinary past and future. The Festival takes place in various locations across Singapore from 15 to 31 July 2016. Visit www.singaporefoodfestival.com for more details on the events happening islandwide.

Read “9 Best Hawker Centres in Singapore“.

Let’s build a food community that helps to update the food news in Singapore! Simply comment below if there’s any changes or additional info to the stalls mentioned above. We will verify and update from our side. Thanks in advance!