Chin Ho Fishball Noodles @ Tiong Bahru

After a string of entries on restaurants, I think its time to write about local street food. Being a true blue Singaporean, I grew up indulging in local cuisine in the various coffeeshops and hawker centres that dot the island.

My parents were craving Hainanese Pork Chop from "Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice" stall (close to Tiong Bahru Market) so we headed there for lunch on a weekend. This stall is extremely popular and there's always a line of people waiting to place their orders (not to mention the insane parking situation). According to mum, the best dishes there are the Pork Chop and the Stewed Cabbage. However, you would be well-advised to head there early (ie. 11am) to get the best batch of food as apparently the later batches are cooked in a hurry and do not taste as good. I'm not a big pork fan neither am I a fan of pre-cooked dishes, so I passed on the rice and ordered noodles instead.

Fishball Noodles (Dry) @ S$3

I love fishballs! It was a rainy afternoon and I was famished, so I ordered a large bowl @ S$3. The fishballs were springy and fairly tasty. I wish they had added more fish paste in them so that the flavour would be more intense but nonetheless, it was decent. The chili sauce that the noodles were tossed in were quite spicy (yum, I love spicy food) but the best part was the nutty aroma that the browned bits of garlic added to the dish! This is worth a try if you're in the area.

If you have a small appetite, you can always order a $2 bowl of noodles. In an era of rising food prices, its quite rare to find a place in Singapore that serves up a decent bowl of noodles for S$2.

Teh-C Kosong @ S$1.10

I washed down my meal with my first caffeine fix of the day, a local-style cup of tea known as "Teh-C Kosong". Non-Singaporeans must be wondering what the term means. Its actually a mix of Hokkien & Malay words. "Teh" is "tea" in Hokkien (a Chinese dialect), "C" refers to Carnation Evaporated Milk and "Kosong" is Malay for "nothing/empty" which essentially means "no sugar added". This is one of my favourite "kopitiam" drinks. "Kopitiam" is another local term with Hokkien and Malay origins. "Kopi" is Malay for "coffee" whilst "tiam" is Hokkien for "shop". Loosely translated, kopitiam = coffeeshop.

Now that we've done the requisite translations, let's talk about the tea. The tea here has a good balance of the creamy flavour of evaporated milk and the slightly strong tannins of black tea. Despite the absence of sugar, it was not overly bitter (unlike the concoctions I've had in some places) and was a pleasantly warm beverage.

Chin Ho Fishball Noodles
@ the coffeeshop diagonally opposite Tiong Bahru Market
corner of Eng Hoon Street & Seng Poh Road
Block 57 Eng Hoon Street,
Singapore 160057