Restaurants & Cafés

Somewhere in the northeastern suburbs of Hougang, in an ordinary coffee shop, you’ll find an elderly couple toiling over giant heated woks side by side for hours on end, churning out plate after plate of fragrant and morish fried kway teow and oyster omelette. After over 30 years in the business, Lim Suan Eng and her husband Ong Lim Chong run a tight ship with ease. During service which officially starts at 11am, although they report to the shop as early as 8am, their tasks are simple: he fries up the signature oyster omelette while she handles the fried kway teow, while also taking the orders. It’s easy to work through a menu of just two items, and you can order according to how much you want on the plate, as with most orh luak stalls. The elderly couple work like clockwork. Order up and before you can even think about getting that tall glass of teh ping, your messy plate of oyster omelette or fried kway teow is done. A dollop of their home-made chilli on the side and you’re good to go. If you’re here for something healthy, you are definitely in the wrong place. Liberal in the use of lard, the oyster omelette nails the right balance of crispy and gooey, while the oysters – which they import from Korea because  – retain their plumpness and juiciness. Mr Ong also mixes in a tablespoon of hebi (dried shrimps) halfway through the frying process, of which you will experience as you make your way through the generous heap ($3/$5/$6). Suan Eng lets in that different people hav

Queues form even before the stall is open for the day. After decades of serving staple Malay dishes, Inspirasi needs little introduction. Managed by second-generation hawker Rashid Bin Amat, 55 and three of his siblings, the stall’s roots can be traced back to 1970 when Amat’s late father first arrived from Indonesia and came up with Inspirasi’s recipes to make a living. “Back in the day, we used to sell satay as well,” Amat recalls. But after some experimentation, the family decided to focus on four signature items: mee soto, mee rubus, soto ayam and chicken porridge. For what it lacks in variety, it makes up for in quality. “Having fewer items on the menu gives me enough time to cook each dish with the attention it needs,” he explains. “It ensures that everything is packed with as much flavour as possible.” Order yourself a messy bowl of mee rubus ($2.50) and dig into yellow noodles that are cooked just right doused in a rich yet well-balanced gravy. Sweet potatoes, tau cheo and ikan billis are the heroes of the dish. For something a little lighter, opt for the mee soto. The chicken stock is boiled for hours in a cauldron so you don’t have to worry it being too watery. And though the mee rubus and mee soto ($2.50) are the perennial crowd pleasers, don’t miss the soto ayam ($2.50). Nasi impit and tender pieces of shredded chicken are doused in the same sweet and savoury turmeric-spiced broth to make for a hearty meal. The portions here aren’t all that generous but for the

Out at 724 Ang Mo Kio Market & Food Centre, a humble stall bears the name ‘Yunos & Family’ and this holds a lot of meaning, and history to the people behind the business. The Yunos family are a well-oiled unit. Each morning begins with 28-year old Afiq Rezza prepping and cooking for the day, with help from his father, aunt, uncle and 81-year old grandmother. Later, his brother and two cousins report for duty before they start serving customers at 11am. Yunos & Family is a legacy left by Afiq’s late grandfather, Haji Yunos Ahmad who set up the business in 1960 at Hastings Road before they moved to Ang Mo Kio in 1979. The recipes have remained unchanged through the years and so have the crowd. “I love seeing my regular customers, even those from my grandfather’s time are still returning to eat here,” Afiq says. There are four main dishes on the menu, mee rebus ($3), mee soto ($3), gado-gado ($3.50) and satay ($0.60/stick). There is also an extensive list of meats named on the menu and here is where the magic happens – it all can be added to your order of mee rebus. While stellar on its own, having a mee rebus with beef ribs ($6) and a begedil (potato patty) elevates the dish to new levels. We warn you, it’s going to be a sloppy affair sloshing around the bowl of egg noodles in the thick savoury broth. The ribs were slow-cooked, leaving the meat to fall off the bone easily. If you’re looking to really indulge, top up the experience with an order of mutton satay. The queues at

Take a step into the Singapore of the past at Changi Village. While it isn’t some seaside shanty, these parts are definitely more carefree. Fitting the nostalgic backdrop, blasting old tunes and peppered with vintage memorabilia, Old School Canteen serves plates of nasi lemak the traditional way. What exactly is old school nasi lemak? Ross Said, 58, the owner of Old School Canteen explains that the difference lies in the ingredients. The nasi lemak we know and love is rich in flavour and comes packed with an assortment of fried things and a small dollop of smooth sambal. But back in the day, according to Ross, it was a simple dish with lightly-perfumed coconut rice, a hard boiled egg, fried ikan tamban (silver-stripe round herring) as opposed to the ikan selar kuning (yellowtail scad) you see in present-day nasi lemak and even kangkong. The highlight of the dish, he says, has to be the sambal. At Old School Canteen, the sambal stands out. Ross works alone at the stall and prepares his sambal the day before as he believes it requires “resting time” for the flavours to fully mature. The rest of the ingredients are cooked on-site early in the morning before service starts at 8.30am. There are three different types of sambal to choose from: sambal with boiled egg, cuttlefish or prawns. Unlike the smooth paste you usually get with regular nasi lemak, the sambal here is thick and chunky. Ross roughly cuts the onions to add to the sambal’s texture. It’s the perfect balance between