Hey I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate. Today we're in Singapore and we're at
the Old Airport Road Hawker Center. Let's eat.
So we are starting our morning with coffee and toast which is quite a traditional breakfast in Singapore I
have ordered a kopi-o which is coffee, evaporated milk and condensed milk
mmm it's really strong but it's got that really beautiful sweet underlayer
from that condensed milk it is super creamy and super good we've got kaya
toast here. So it's basically
toast without the crust and it's filled with
a slab of butter and pretty much like the best spread that exists kaya which is
coconut jam
mmmm that butter melts in your mouth and
that kaya, think of like a lemon curd it's that sort of consistency but it's made
with coconut and it's so tropical and there's so much depth of flavour, it's just the
best thing to put on your toast. And I'm starting off with a kopi-c which is
just black coffee with a ton of sugar ohhh that is such a kick that is awesome
and some toast
we've also ordered a Hokkien fried mee and I'm super excited about this. It's a
mix of yellow noodles, rice noodles, there's some bean sprouts it's loaded with prawns
and squid and egg and it looks just like the ultimate comfort food I have
got to get into this
the noodles have such great texture because there's those two different types the
yellow wheat noodles are really soft and quite bouncy and then the rice
noodles just sort of add to it they've picked up the flavor of the broth that they use or
soup to cook it in which is made up of chicken bones and prawn shells and prawn
heads that have just been stewing for hours and so it's just infused
with that strong hit of seafood flavor check out how big these prawns are! They look
really tender. Mmm
they've just been flash cooked so still have a lot of crunch. This is just
absolutely incredible. Singapore is such a melting pot of different cultures and
that diversity is reflected in its food centers. So Singapore has over a
hundred hawker centers and you'll find all sorts of different cuisines from Indian
to mainland Chinese, to Hong Kong style dishes, so next up we're having Malay in
the form of char koay teow.
This char koay teow looks absolutely heavenly so it's made up of wok tossed flat
rice noodles, there's shrimp in here, there's squid, some chives, bean sprouts and egg
and I've asked for chilli oh and also some lap cheong which is dried
Chinese sausage oh I cannot wait to get into this
Mmmm that is absolutely delicious so when people talk about char koay teow they
often refer to wok hei which is the breath of the wok so when you're eating
char koay teow you really want to be able to taste that like charred, smoky flavor that's
come from the wok and infused itself into the noodles and you can absolutely
taste it with this one here it is just sensational and we really like this
stall because it's cooked by an old uncle he gets up at 3 a.m. every morning to
come and prepare his ingredients and he cooks each dish to order so it's super
fresh and it's piping hot when you get it
Mmmm, it's just perfection. I've grabbed us an oyster omelet this is something that we've
given not enough time to in all of our years of traveling to Asia because they
are incredible but we've always been like they're just the eggs and oysters
we don't want to use up the tummy space. We're so glad that lately we have
discovered this dish now I have had this one before from an amazing stand here
from this hawker cener so I know it's good but I'm going to dive in I've got
some chilli on the egg, the egg is just so soft looking
oh the chilli's really sweet the egg is
plump and soft and I mean speaking of plump look at these big juicy oysters
ohhh creamy as. That's amazing. Wow so much flavor out of
that really salty, got a great little sea kick you've got these chives on
top to break through the flavor and the joy of these dishes and being in a
hawker center like this, in Singapore which is known for being a very
expensive city this stuff is very affordable we've been putting prices on
the screen so you've seen that, but you can easily come here and order lots of
little dishes like we are, we're just ordering one of everything sharing it
all and it's really really affordable and really fun
so there's lots of dessert hawkers here there's all sorts of things puddings,
bakery goods but we had to go for the hawker who is selling shaved ice desserts
and we basically picked it on the basis of the most outrageous sounding name so
here we have a- what was it called again? Bango, tadpole chacha? Oh yea a tadpole bobo chacha!
Like how crazy is that? It sounds like a dance from the forties
It's got shaved ice, what I suspect are the 'tadpoles' which are like little coloured
balls on top I saw some coconut milk going in there and I think some taro and
papaya, it looks wild
hmm
coconut milk, that shaved ice is so cold and those
'tadpoles' are more like jelly
It's good right? That's awesome and they actually look like tadpoles, they're little
balls with little bits, wow they look like sperm
I'll try and do a close up, wow that's super cool, the coconut is really nice
in there- this is a great dessert. And hawker centers are just so fun, there's so much
choice, it's all so clean and so tidy because all this food used to be on the
streets. In the seventies? I think so yea. So back in the seventies the government decided to
clean it up but rather than get rid of it like a lot of cities do and just ruin
that food culture, in Singapore they decided to move everyone into hawker
centers and there are hundreds of them well over a hundred we believe in the
city and this one that we're at Old Airport Road hawker center is one of the
biggest it has hundreds of stalls it is a little bit outside the center but
nothing in Singapore is very far away and it's so worth the trip you can get
the train here so it's very easy, so much selection. And we read that this place is
especially popular with cab drivers and wherever the cabbies are eating that's
where you want to be eating too. It's a good sign. Let's eat this before it melts.
We couldn't resist grabbing a little pot of pandan kaya to take away with us
Melvin who owns Toast Hut where we had the toast and coffee this morning
said it's a special recipe so I can't wait to get this onto our toast tomorrow morning
if you are in Singapore you absolutely have to make the trip out to Old
Airport Road Hawker Center, the amount of vendors here and the sheer choice
available is just mind-boggling, not to mention the food which is absolutely
spectacula. Thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this video we
would love you to give it a thumbs up, please subscribe to our channel if you
haven't already and comment below and let us know what your favorite Singapore
hawker treats are. Thank you so much for watching we hope we've inspired you
to eat and explore like a traveler, not a tourist. See you next time. Bye!