Changi Village Hawker Centre

Before setting foot on Pulau Ubin, we had substantial brunch so much so we thought we could do away with dinner. Big mistake! We did have enough drinks but the storm made us feel cold and hungry come nightfall. Yama was dreaming about having a cup of hot instant noodles!

When Mr. Teck picked us at our camping point the next day, we were famished! We asked him if any of the makan shops were opened. He said no shops are opened in the early morn as there’s no demand for breakfast on Pulau Ubin, and that it is better to go to mainland Changi Village Hawker Centre where there’s plenty of varieties to choose from.

Changi Village is noted for being a nasi lemak haven but I must say I totally disagree! I have tried more than a couple of stalls and each has its weaknesses; not sweet enough sambal tumis or fragrant fluffy coconut rice, both the backbone of a good nasi lemak. Still the queues are long each time I visit the food centre. The Chinese stalls were also disappointing. To date, I have yet to come across one stall that I would make a purposeful trip just to savour their fare. Whenever I’m there, it would be more for convenience’s sake but that’s my personal taste experience since my friends did enjoy some dishes which I am sharing in this post.

That said, there are a few stalls that I like in Changi Village Hawker Centre. Million Stars Goreng Pisang’s banana cake fritters is one of them and a couple of Malay rice (our local version of nasi padang) stalls selling rich tasting rendang, assam fish curry, sambal goreng, sayur lodeh, etc… etc…

I had Malay rice from this stall before we left for Pulau Ubin.
The macik (Malay for aunt) was very attentive reminding her assistant or daughter to put in more curry over my rice as I had requested.
The price was value-for-money although I had forgotten exactly how much but I remembered telling Yama and he agreed that it was rather cheap since I had chicken, fish, mussels and vegetables.

The price was value-for-money although I had forgotten exactly how much but I remembered telling Yama and he agreed that it was rather cheap since I had chicken, fish, mussels and vegetables.

Alaric’s meal of herbal mutton soup was more expensive than my plate of rice but he didn’t mind since he enjoyed it.

Jimmy’s meal of omelet on rice.
This dish is a bit too dry on its own for me.

Ben had fried rice earlier and bought these chicken wings for all of us to share.
The wings were nicely crisp but the chilli dip was so so only.

Andy was running a little late that day and had his own lunch. We met at the ferry terminal. The following were foods that we had after returning from Pulau Ubin to mainland Singapore. We had gone without dinner and suffered cold weather and sandfly bites. We were all tired and hungry. And yet when the food failed to satisfy me, I think it is fair for me to say (again I must stress that this is my personal taste) that generally, Changi Village Hawker’s food is not extraordinary.

We were seated on the left of this stall.
I saw a queue forming and decided to give this stall a try.
I ordered a large plate so everyone of us could share.
Unfortunately, the taste was slightly below good.

Carrot Cake here was almost minced.
There weren’t wok hei, sweet and savoury tastes that I expected.

Traditional Nasi Lemak where Alaric and Jimmy bought their meals.

Jimmy had a bowl of noodle and some chicken wings with nasi lemak sambal.

Alaric’s meal of nasi lemak.
Both the look and taste did not appeal to me (I had some of it).

Jimmy told me that he bought his noodles from a stall behind the row we were sitting which I am guessing is this stall.
Yet the colour of the bowl of his noodles are different from this stall’s so I could have gotten it wrong.

Jimmy’s meal of Bak Chor Mee which he said was okay in taste.

Three or four of us ordered from this stall because Yama had chicken cutlet noodles from it the day before and said it was very good.

Chicken Cutlet Horfun that Yama and the boys had over the two days.

The boys had Chicken Cutlet Horfun but this picture showed mine, Ipoh Horfun.
I found the taste a tad too sweet for my liking.
I took a bite of the cutlet from one of the boys and found it sweet, too.
Yama said the taste was slightly off that morning. Perhaps I should give this stall another try on my next visit. It is a very popular stall in this food centre.

The stall that Yama bought his Malay rice seemed popular, too.

Yama’s plate of Malay rice had nice sambal and aromatic rendang.
The price at below $6 seemed reasonable, too.

I have patronised many stalls in Changi Village Hawker Centre. The few famous nasi lemak stalls, overrated!!! In fact, a packet of factory packed nasi lemak sold in petrol kiosk tasted better, not joking! The BBQ stall, the cze char stall, chicken rice stall, tahu goreng from a Chinese stall, sambal fish head stall, and quite a few noodle stalls but while they are not downright lousy, there’s nothing to shout about either (that’s why none or very few of the stalls were posted on my blog). To me, Changi Village Hawker Centre is a place to eat if you happened to be in the vicinity.

Read post on “Pulau Ubin – The Legend of An Elephant, A Frog And A Pig!” by clicking here.

See more food from Changi Village Hawker Centre here:
Birds Of Different Feathers – Part 3