Chomp Chomp

I was there to witness the infant stage of hawker food culture. I guess that made me almost a dinosaur. Mind you, those were the days of home cooked food. Most folks ate at home and eating from hawkers occurred only on days off when the home kitchen was closed. It is always cheaper to eat at home and hawkers were there because they were not able to do something else to eke out a living and those who hawk their fares are skilled at what they do as they prepared everything in their dishes themselves.

For those of you my age or so, our children will never know what it was like. From the family that sold pineapple syrup water outside my primary school (with red cut chilli with dark soya sauce) to the coconut and longan drinks stall at Capitol, from the Yong Tau Fu and Wanton Noodle outside my grandmother's home, from the Mee Rebus man, Prawn Noodle and Fishball Noodle stalls and Ice Kachang stall just below our home and the Mee Siam, Satay Bee Hoon, Popiah push carts and motor bike stalls during Wayang days,

they were hawking without any licence, yet nobody seemed to have suffered food poisoning even with questionable hygiene practice but all the food were lovely.

Then the authorities came a calling and hawker centre were set up. We love the hawker food as the Mee Goreng, Char Kway Teow, Hor Fun, Satay, Kambing Soup were so sedap! Days of banana leaves and opeh leaves. Days when living in Toa Payoh and going to Serangoon Gardens seems miles away. We were there not even there to eat but to go for story books rental where you get it for $1.50 and after reading it return to the shop and got back a dollar and it was near a place called "Paramount".

One of the best place for hawker food is at Serangoon Garden's "Chomp Chomp. You can safely order your food from any stall and chances are that they are all good.

Many of your favourites are here but you need to be early especially on weekends. It is not just to find seats but car parks are limited.

It has been a long time but we need to go back to our roots to reminisce.

There are for example several satay stalls and they all look good. I decided on a Malay satay still located right at the end and asked for beef satay.

This one wows me. I guess most food would taste god when eaten fresh and while it is freshly cooked.

I thought I have eaten many good "Or Luak" or fried oyster. When I had this one located right at the end of the right hand side at the hawker centre, I realised it is extremely good. So good I must go back to re-affirm it. Awesome!

There are several stalls offering BBQ chicken wings. This one opposite the fried oyster is fabulous. You know how good it is just by looking at it, their consistency of the BBQ. Certainly a "go back to" food.

Even for Fried Hokkien Mee, there are a few different ones but I just ordered one at the beginning of the entrance to the hawker centre. They used the fine bee hoon which absorbed the gravy so well. Another must have.

Everybody knows Satay Bee Hoon. The East Coast one formerly from McPherson. There was a good one at Tanjong Pagar which unfortunately the market is now closed. This one here cannot go wrong. Great ingredients and gravy and it will make you happy.

Finally, with the extremely warm and humid weather recently, a cold glass of sugar cane juice can't go wrong.

I felt vindicated for having taken the trouble to come here. A return trip is most necessary!

Gluttons of the world unite! Eat, drink and be merry!