Almost 40 years old, the Old Airport Road Food Centre is one of the largest in Singapore housing many popular food stalls selling a variety of food. This food centre is constantly filled with people in the weekends and you will see queues and queues of people all waiting in turn for their food. There are so many good stalls here that it is almost impossible to try everything especially with the long queues. The crowd is increasing with many local tour agency organising food tours for tourists and old airport road food centre is one of the location. I have picked out my personal 6 best which might defer from others.
- Kallang Cantonese Prawn Noodles #01- 83
This is one of those indiscreet stalls that are located on the 2nd inside row of the centre and is usually missed out by customers because of other stalls with overly long queues. I have tried the said famous stalls in the first row and I find this Kallang stall much more flavourful and tasty.
One of the choice they provide is the live prawn noodles at SGD 6 where the auntie will literally bring out her net and catch some prawns from the tank in front of the stall after you make your order.
The prawns are huge and the meat juicy and springy since they are caught and cooked right in front of your eyes. The soup is darker than the other soups but is so full of flavours that you cannot stop drinking it. The stall is modestly lit and many might miss it amongst the other brightly lit crowded queues but this is my choice of the best prawn noodle stall in old airport road food centre.
Operating hours: 8 am to 3 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm ( closed on some Tuesday)
2 Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fun #01-155
I have never found food chee cheong fun beyond Cantonese dim sum restaurants but this freshly made chee cheong fun stall totally changed my perception. Plastered with so many reviews and newspaper cuttings, you can hardly see the name of this stall. On top of selling chee cheong fun, they sell cantonese congee as well.
Each strip of rice roll costs between SGD 2.50 to SGD 3.50 and is steamed in front of your eyes after your order. The lady will take out the rice roll from the steamer and roll it in front of you adding on the necessary condiments like fried shallots and top grade soy sauce. The rolls are so soft and smooth it can definitely hold its ground against top dim sum restaurants.
Operating hours: 8am to 10 pm ( closed on Mondays)
3 Penang Signature Laksa #01-130
There are times I crave so much for Penang laksa and yet it is do difficult to find a good Penang laksa in Singapore with the right thickness of gravy and generous amount of fish and great balance of sourness.
The first time I saw this stall, I totally doubted it as one of those pretentious stalls pretending to be authentic in their laksa gravy. I still decided to give it a try since I was already there and the wait was short.
Boy am I glad to have given this stall a try. The soup was so thick and flavourful with the continuous tinge of sourness that works up your appetite. The generous chunks of fish with the right amount of cucumber, onion and lettuce created such great harmony within the bowl of noodles. The uncle was also very generous with the prawn paste which added the oomph to the noodles. This is where I will be heading whenever I get my Penang Laksa cravings
4 Roast Paradise #01-121
This stall was on the news for the incredible story of how the owners switched from a life of night clubs and pubs to changing to a hawker life style. This stall came about because the owners decided they wanted a different lifestyle as they age and formed families so they headed to Kuala Lumpur and found a master in Cantonese roast and stayed on to learned the recipe and all the tricks of the trade before heading back here to open Roast Paradise.
The queue is quite crazy for this stall and they run out of roast pork and char siew intermittently. After queueing for 3 times, I learnt something from the uncle, if something ran out on my queue, I could pre-order and pick it up later. As a first timer, I actually queued 3 times to get hold of my roast pork and char siew. You can also call and place an order beforehand to avoid queuing. Back to the roast pork, the skin is very crispy and the meat well seasoned and I would grade it as one of the better roast pork in Singapore. However, they are still missing the melt in your mouth fats like the ones in Kuala Lumpur.
The char siew is sweet with great charred portions that melts in your mouth however I wished there was more consistency in each piece and would taste just as good once it is cold. It is still considered good char siew if I don’t compare it to the ones in KL. The way they sell their roast meats is just like in KL by weight. 100 gm of meat is at SGD 5 and 200gm is at SGD 10.
Operating hours: 11 am to 6 pm Monday till 3.30 pm
5 Wang Wang Crispy Curry Puff #01-126
These curry puffs are handmade daily right at the store and has 4 flavours. The crust is very crispy yet non oily.
It is amazing to see how the uncle makes the puff so consistently and in such a quick manner.
The fillings of each puff is very full and the crust is crispy to each bite. Personally, I like the curry, sardine and yam. Each puff is sold at SGD 1.40 with the black pepper chicken one at SGD 1.60
Operating hours: 11 am to 11 pm
6 Geylang Lorong 20 Banana Fritters #01-57
Fried food is generally fried food but yet there are some with a much tastier and crispy batter than others. This stall has one of the better goreng pisang with just the right thickness of batter and the ripeness of the banana.
They have many items to choose from like the fried cempedek which is the jackfruit, goreng pisang which is the fried banana and the usual fried green bean, yam, sweet potato and sticky cake.
Operating hours: 10.30 am to 9.00 pm or when sold out
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 