S$10 Food Trail @ 51 Old Airport Road Food Center

Last Saturday, Miss Tam Chiak and I had organized our March Food Outing at 51 Old Airport Road Food Center together with 20 friends on an S$10 Food Trail gathering. Since we have a large group, we divided all the participants into 4 groups and each group will share 10 different dishes + 2 dessert which we selected from some of the well-known hawker foods that are available at the food center. Below are some brief descriptions of the food that we had during the Food Trail.

Talk about Char Kway Teow, I am sure most of us will have a desire stall that fried the most tasty kway teow. If you have being to Old Airport Road Food Center, you would have heard about this well-known Char Kway Teow stall known as Lao Fu Zi Char Kway Teow (老夫子炒粿条), #01-12. Actually their fried kway teow is a bit towards the sweet side with average taste that somehow or rather lack of wok fragrance. But surprisingly it is always pack with queue during meal hours. So I guess perhaps it might be that extra “Fried Lard” that draws patrons' attention towards the stall.
Opening Hours: 11.00am - 11.30pm
Price: S$3 - 5 per plate

Xin Mei Xiang Lor Mee (新美香卤面）, #01-116 stall in the Old Airport Road sells both prawn noodles and lor mee but it seems there are hardly anyone in the queue that order prawn noodles. Their Lor Mee gravy is smooth and yet not too thick like glue texture and one of their special ingredients added is shark's meat which is not deep-fried like others Lor Mee stalls. The shark’s meat from Xin Mei Xiang is fried till crispy and golden on the outer skin then flake it before adding on top of the noodle.
Opening Hours: (Mon - Wed): 7:00am -3:00pm; (Fri - Sun): 7:00am - 3:00pm; (closed on Thursday)
Price: S3, $4, $6 per bowl

Xin Mei Porridge(欣美粥品）, #01-91 has a wide varieties of porridge range from the usual century egg with lean pork, chicken, fish, cuttlefish and etc. We ordered their century egg with lean pork, peanut and chicken. Each bowl of porridge is served with their freshly handmade hot and crispy fried fritter,(youtiao) which they don’t sell it separately even if you want extra servings. Their porridge is very smooth and fragrance and each mouthful makes you crave for more.
Opening Hours: 7.00am - 2.30pm
Price: S$2.50 onwards

You can always see a long queue during lunch hours or weekend at this Blanco Court Kway Chap(白兰阁粿汁）, #01-136. This stall is very well known for their Kway Chap and Braised Trotters. The meat and intestines for the kway chap was well flavoured, clean and fresh which lightly infused with the fragrance from the braising spices and sauce.
Opening Hours: 11.30am - 4.30pm (closed on Monday)
Price: S$3.30 per serving for kway chap

There are a few Prawn Noodle stalls available in Old Airport Road Food Center. And the one we tried was from Whitley Road Big Prawn Noodle(威利大虾面）, #01-98 that comes with 2 medium prawns which slice into halves and a few pieces of pork ribs. Everyone has different view of this stall, some comments that the soup is good and flavour while others find that it seems to lack of something which cannot  brings out the unique taste of the soup broth. No matter what is your choice, it is always good to give it a try to see whether it suits your personal taste buds.
Opening Hours: Tue–Fi: 9.00am – 8.00pm; Sat–Sun: 9.00am – 9.00pm (closed on Monday)
Price: S$4.00 onwards

When you mentioned about Western Barbeque, #01-53 at Old Airport Road Food Center, the first thing that everyone thought of is their unique garlic sauce. Here we ordered their famous Chicken Chop that served with french fries, bread and baked beans. Chicken was grilled with a crispy charred outer layer leaving it tender and juice when bite.
Opening Hours: Noon onwards (closed on Monday)
Price: S$5.00 for Chicken Chop

Tan Beng Otah Delight (陈明乌打), #01-74 has being operating in Old Airport Road Food Centre for more than 10 years. They have about 6 different types of flavours including prawn, sotong, crab and fish head. And they even have a special fish otah cater for children where the otah are more unique and are white instead of the traditional orange colour because they not contain chilli. Other than Otah they also have 2 different types of Nasi Lemak available for your choice. Overall we find the Otah quite nice with the seasonings and hint of spiciness.
Opening Hours: 10.00am - 9.00pm
Price: S$1.50 for Otah; S$1.80 per packet for Nasi Lemak

If you like those soft, smooth and silky handmade Chee Cheong Fun, you won’t want to give this Freshly Made Chee Cheong Fun(现做现卖猪肠粉 ）, #01-155 a missed. Although there is a similar stall near our area at Chong Pang Market but the standard was average compare to the outlet at Old Airport Road where their Chee Cheong Fun was simply smoothing and taste great with their self-made soy sauce.
Opening Hours: Daily 8.00am - 10.00pm
Price: S$2.00 for Chee Cheong Fun; S$4,S$6, S$8 for Hae Chor and Sui Gao

Besides the Array of Chee Cheong Fun that we had, we also ordered some mixture of Hae Chor and Fried Dumpling. Their hae chor was quite tasty and contains lots of crunchy water chestnuts but on the down side perhaps it might due to the waiting crowds some of it seems to be overcooked and burnt.

I didn’t know that queuing up for a plate of Rojak can be so high-tech till there is a LCD screen displaying your queuing number even in Hawker center upon your order. This Toa Payoh Rojak(大巴窑罗惹 ）, #01-108 stall at Old Airport Road Food Center can be consider as one of the well-known Rojak stall in Singapore. Their portion was quite generous with fresh ingredients such as pineapple, cucumber, you tiao, turnip, roasted crushed peanut and their self-made Rojak sauce.
Opening Hours: Daily 12.00pm – 8.00pm (closed on Sunday)
Price: Range from S$3.00 - S$5.00

I love Curry Puffs especially those wrapped with Sardine fillings and the outer skin must be hot and crispy. Personally I prefer those flaky crust outer skin compare to those shortcrust like Old Chang Kee. And the bonus point about this Wang Wang Curry Puff (旺旺脆皮咖哩卜专卖店）, #01-26 curry puff stall is that it is freshly and handmade and deep-fry at the stall itself where you can be assured that these are not factory made. Other than the standard Curry Puff, they also have other flavours such as sardine, black pepper chicken and yam.
Opening Hours: Daily 9.00am - 9.00pm (closed on Monday)
Price: S$1.20 minimum

I have heard about this Chi Shuang Shuang (吃爽爽）, #01-51 stall long ago but I always did not get the chance to try it as I was either too early or sold out. But a few ago I managed to try out some of their items such as the 3-in-1 Nian Gao and deep-fried During. Their durian paste was freeze in rectangle shape, deep in flour batter then deep-fried till golden brown and crispy, so when you give it a bite the durian paste will melt and ooz out from it. Worth trying if you like Durian but don't expect to pay S$1.60 for Mao Shan Wang standard of durian paste. For the food trail we have tried their Fried Durian, Banana and Jack fruit.
Opening Hours: Noon onwards
Price: S$1.60 for fried durian

I love to eat Soya Beancurd especially those from Mr Bean or one of that soya bean milk stall at Hong Lim Food Center which is behind the famous Ipoh Crayfish Hor Fun. This Lao Ban Soya Beancurd (老伴手工豆花）, #01-127 has a very unique fragrance from their soft and skily beancurd which always sold out within a few hours. According to the boss these beancurd can be kept in the fridge for 2 - 3 days too, no wonder people always buy in bulks of at least 3 tubs.
Opening Hours: 10.00am - 9.00pm
Price: S$1.00 (Small), S$1.50 (Big) for original flavour; S$2.00(Big) for almond flavour

BONUS DISHES
(not included in the Food Trail Gathering)

I was honour to tag along with Maureen from "MissTamChiak" where she source and interview those "hidden gems" among the hawker stalls for her MyPaper 《贪吃妹寻美食》, Hawker Food Column which is published every Tuesday.


Recently we are there at Old Airport Road Food Center to interview one of the Cze Char Stall known as Mr Cook (双宝小厨), #01-130. This stall opens daily from 12pm to 10.30pm except on Thursday and they have a wide varities of signature dishes such as Assam Fish Head Curry, Steamed Herbal Chicken, Salted Duck Soup and etc. You can read more details at Misstamchiak's column HERE.

While waiting for the boss of Mr Cook to prepare the Assam Fish Head, we also tried some of the famous stalls such as this Hua Kee Hougang Famous Wan Ton Mee（华记后港祖传驰名云吞面 ）, #01-02 which is always flooded with long queue. And since we are early before the lunch crowds, I was number 4 in the queue.
Opening Hours: 11.00am - 11.00pm
Price: S$3.00/S$4.00 per bowl

At a glance this bowl of wanton mee seems to look good even before eating but after we tried a few mouthful, we were rather disappointed with their self-made Char Siew(roasted pork) which taste a bit of those porky smell. Although the noodles was springy and good but the char siew and wanton are not towards our liking. We still prefer the Tiong Bahru Food Center wanton mee over this one at Old Airport Road Food Center.