Ramadan Bazaar in Singapore Geylang Serai

I always look forward to Ramadan bazaars as it is a good opportunity to enjoy all sorts of traditional and modern Halal street food popular in Malaysia and Singapore.

During the Ramadan, I will be blogging about a few Ramadan bazaars in Singapore and Malaysia. 

My first Ramadan bazaar this year is in Singapore located at the Sims Ave and Geylang Road area near Paya Lebar MRT station.

The food stalls were ready and started serving customers from around 5:00pm onwards when people started trickling in to buy their favourite food for breaking fast.

Let's take a walk around the bazaar with me.



Pinkish Ramly burger patties sizzling on the griddle.

As the food stalls are all under large pitched tents, all the cooking at the bazaar here are flameless i.e. there are no gas or charcoal stoves.

All cooking are by electrical cooking equipment from deep fryers, to rossiteres, ovens, griddles, grills, steamers, to toasters.



There were several Japanese takoyaki stalls.

Takoyaki is a popular ball-shaped Japanese snack made with wheat flour ball filled with minced or diced sotong (squid), and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. 

The takoyaki balls can also be filled with prawns, or chicken ham and cheese.



BBQ stalls selling flat squares of freshly grilled minced chicken meat is quite common here. Interestingly, I didn't notice this BBQ food in Johor's Ramadan bazaars.



Turkish kebabs sold in burrito style wraps are very popular.



Nasi Briyani.



I have two photos of nasi briyani here because I am fascinated by fragrant basmati rice and spices cooked in large deep tubs with juicy meat buried inside. 

Yum! yum!



The goreng goreng stalls sell all kinds of fried battered vegetables and fruits.



Grilled and slightly charred fresh corn on a cob.



Freshly grilled otak otak with the spicy fish paste bursting out from the coconut leaf wrappers. One of the stalls at the bazaar makes the otak otak right here at the stall.



Fresh, oven baked pizza with thick brown crust at the Ramadan bazaar.

Did you noticed the green and fiery red chili peppers on this pizza?

Looks delicious!



The ever popular roti John.



Grilled tilapia fish.



Putu piring is a traditional Malay sweet cake made with steamed grated coconut, rice flour and gula Melaka.



Come over and enjoy the food and fun at the Ramadan bazaar.

Singapore Ramadan Bazaar
Address: Sims Ave and Geylang Road area near Paya Lebar MRT station, Singapore 
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/MizRW
GPS: 1.316006,103.896669
Hours: Buka puasa till 8:00pm
Halal  

Date visited: 30 Jun 2014  

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.

Swee Guan Geylang Lor 29 Fried Hokkien Mee 水源福建面

Hokkien mee is one of my favourite uniquely Singapore dishes. Not as ubiquitous in Singapore as chicken rice or char kway teow, and even rarer outside of the sunny island. Hokkien mee is probably one of Singapore's least exported local dishes.

Stall name: Swee Guan Hokkien Mee 水源福建面

Address: 5 Lor 29 Geylang, Singapore 388060

Tel: +65 9817 5652

Hours: 5:00pm - 10:00pm (Weds off)

Johor Seafood at Tian Lai 天来 in Gelang Patah - Third Visit

This was my third visit to Tian Lai 天来 in Gelang Patah. The restaurants at Gelang Patah are just a short drive from LEGOLAND or Puteri Harbour. I picked Tian Lai tonight mainly for the crabs here and it was good the previous two times I was here. 

Seafood in Pontian at Football Field (Zu Qiu Seafood Corner) 足球场海鲜茶餐室

Whenever I asked Pontian folks which is their favourite seafood restaurant at their seaside hometown, the name Zu Qiu Seafood Corner 足球场海鲜茶餐室 always come up. The name 足球场 literally means soccer field.

Buffet at The Grand GEM in Johor Bahru, Grand BlueWave Hotel

Johor Kaki was invited to a preview of The Grand GEM's special buffet in conjunction with Ramadan.

The Grand GEM is located at the ground floor of The Grand BlueWave Hotel. This is my third visit to Grand GEM; read about my first and second visits.

The Grand GEM's special buffet consists of three different menus which will be rotated so that diners can experience different dishes at each visit.

We sampled just a small selection of Grand GEM's classic Indian dishes from the three menus during tasting session. 



Our starter of "chicken vada". Be warned that this vada is "booby trapped" with bits of fiery chili padi that will literally set the mouths of the uninitiated afire. As for me, I like the hot spicy spikes when I bite into a chili padi :D



Popular starter "onion pakoda" or crispy onion fritters are fried in a spiced batter.



The "Mixed Grill Platter" of grilled chicken marinated in yogurt blended with different herbs and spices. 



The tandoori grilled chicken were tender and rich with mild sensuous flavours and aroma.



The fiery looking "Bhuna Gosht" is a classic lamb curry. The pan fried mutton smothered in a thick blend of spices and herbs was tender and loaded with rich flavours and aromas. 



I like this richly flavoured and mildly spicy "mutton dalcha" which went very well with the breads.

This was so good, I was drinking it up on it's own.



Our basket of various types of freshly made roti naan.



Nasi goreng made with basmati rice.



Baryani rice



There was a sampling of vegetarian dishes such as this "broccoli with mushroom" topped with cashew and cheese.



The vegetarian burgers came towards the end of the tasting session and we were already full.

But, this turned out to be the surprise crowd favourite. 

As we were full by now, we all just took a nibble at this ordinary looking burger. Wow, we were impressed by the juicy flavourful, sweet, savoury and slightly tangy salsa spread, and the fluffy and crispy buns.

Somehow, we suddenly found space in our stomachs to finish all the vege burgers.

For the special buffet, The Grand GEM set up a "rumali roti" station.



The "rumali roti" action was very exciting to watch!

The flat dough is thrown upwards and forwards and it flies back to the chef like a boomerang!



The thin dough spread open is draped and cooked over a hot sea salt crusted upturned wok. The cooked dough is then folded just like the way one folds a handkerchief.



Made of wheat "rumali roti" is eaten like chapati or roti prata with curries.



For desserts, we had “gulab jamun” which is a very sweet deep fried milk ball served with rose and cardamom scented syrup.



We also had “kesari” which is a sweet semolina pudding flavoured with ghee and cardamom.



I rounded up the session with a nice masala chai.

The Grand GEM has three different menus for the special buffet which will be rotated.

Normal price is RM70 per person. Special rates of RM70 nett for two persons. And, 30% discount off RM70 nett per person for corporate accounts. 

If you are looking for a chance to sample many types of authentic Indian cuisine in a fine dining restaurant at a very reasonable price, this is the best opportunity that I know of.

Restaurant name: The Grand GEM (at Grand BlueWave Hotel)
Address: Jalan Bukit Meldrum, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/oAc8E
GPS: 1.460626,103.768948
Hours: Dinner only (and only during Ramadan).
Telephone: 607-2210-7171
No pork, no lard, no Halal cert

Date visited: 24 Jun 2014

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.

Singapore Roti Prata at Rahmath Muslim Food Stall at Soon Soon Lai Eating House

Went with makan buddies Silver Chef, Miss Tam Chiak and Jimmy to pay Rahmath Muslim Food Stall a visit for their famous roti prata.

When Silver Chef told me that Rahmath's roti prata came from the same lineage as Jalan Kayu prata, it was instantly a Must Try for me.



Rahmath Muslim Food stall is located in a large busy kopitiam in the light industry heartland of Hougang in Singapore.

You won't be able to see Rahmath from the centre court of the large kopitiam.



Rahmath Muslim Food Stall is deep inside Soon Soon Lai kopitiam 顺顺来, tucked deep at the far right corner.



Don't be fooled for here at the deep end of Soon Soon Lai is one of Singapore's best roti prata stalls.



The young boss Haja got the recipe from his older relative, the stall's previous owner who had retired to India. The relative in turn got the recipe by previously working in one of the legendary roti prata shops along Jalan Kayu in old Singapore.

Jalan Kayu is, of course, the Holy Grail of roti prata in Singapore.

In the late 70s, I was based in Seletar Camp for section leader training with the Singapore Artillery and later was back again for Military Air Traffic Control Officer training.

Back in those days, rustic Jalan Kayu was the only road leading to Seletar Camp.

I have forgotten how Jalan Kayu prata tasted then. 

Only remembered how, without fail we would report to the roti prata shops before booking in and after booking out of camp after another week of grind.

Fast forward to Rahmath Muslim Food Stall :D



The work space in the stall is quite small and the work top quite narrow, perhaps limiting the size that the dough can be spread.

The theory is that, the bigger the dough is spread, the more the number of folds. The greater the number of folds, the more crispy and flaky is the resulting roti prata. 



The folded flat dough frying on a sizzling greasy flat iron griddle.



When I asked what oil was used to fry the prata, Krish instantly snapped into this pose, showing off the famous green tin of QBB ghee.

Every prata lover knows that the best pratas are fried with ghee and the best ghee is QBB.



This was the stack of pratas the four of us shared.

The pratas were quite thick, and the wrinkled surface looked leathery. 



The leathery looking outside was very crispy taking all the sizzle from the ghee soaked iron griddle. Surprisingly, the pratas weren't overly greasy.



The crispy flaky outside partially shielded the inside from the heat, keeping the inside folds spongy and tender.



The dahl that came with the prata was excellent. 

It was creamy yet grainy and infused with rich lamb flavour. I like to scoop up the mildly spicy dahl with a large piece of prata and enjoy the crispy, flavour saturated bread. 

While my polite makan kakis daintily dipped their roti in their dish of dahl, leaving their dish 1/2 finished, I wiped my dish clean.

I took over their dishes and drank up the remaining dahl.

It was that good :P



If you want to impress your friends that you know where to get good food in every corner of the sunny island, Rahmath Muslim Food Stall is your perfect prop choice.

Your friends will be so impressed with the prata, and you :D



Restaurant name: Rahmath Muslim Food
Address: Soon Soon Lai Eating House Stall 12, Blk 32, Defu Lane 10, Singapore 
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/1JcND (rough)
GPS: 1.350380,103.891012 (rough)
Hours: 6.30am to 6.30pm | Weekend and PH close at 4.30pm | Closed on Tues
Halal

Date visited: 23 Jun 2014

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.