History of Thieves' Market & Sungei Road Laksa Singapore 结霜桥叻沙

Singapore Sungei Road laksa 结霜桥叻沙.

It's a strangers' reunion with my favourite childhood curry laksa stall after 40 years.

When I was a boy in the early 1970s, I often wandered from Toa Payoh where I lived to "window shop" at Sungei Road's Thieves Market.

There used to be a joke back then that went, "If you lose something valuable like your shoes or bicycle, just go to Sungei Road to buy it back".

In those days, there weren't today's high tech gadgets to provide us kids relief from our boring school books. We burn off excess youthful energies by wandering the neighbourhood which extended to anywhere within a couple of hours' walk.

I remember very well the aroma and flavours of the laksa, but less the uncle at the stall.

My tongue and nose have better memory than my eyes.

I said hello to the Uncle Wong and mentioned to him that I had been a fan since my childhood. Not surprisingly, uncle too could not recognise this strange stranger :D

A strangers' reunion, literary.

In fact, uncle found my slightly clumsy, awkward approach and over exuberant photography slightly annoying....

Maybe, more than slightly.... :P

My memory tells me that Sungei Road laksa was in a shack made with raw wood planks, rusty wire mesh and flappy blue-and-white stripe patterned plastic canvas, all barely held together with nails, wire and raffia strings. Today, it's another corner stall in a typically nondescript Singapore kopitiam (coffee shop).

This must be the only place in Singapore where the curry laksa broth is still kept hot by a gently caressing orange charcoal flame.

I suggested to Paul, my partner in crime today, to just have one bowl of laksa and we share in the tasting as this was our third food stop today with a fourth one on the itinerary.

Paul in his wisdom, ignored me.

I am so glad that Paul brought back two bowls, as after the first mouthful, I actually thought of having two bowls to myself, had there not been the need to save some stomach space for our fourth stop.

The SGD2 bowl (2014 price) of curry laksa consisted of thick rice noodles, slices of fish cake, a sprinkling of finely chopped laksa leaves (daun kesum) and a generous handful of fresh good sized cockles (seehum) in a thick full bodied piping hot spicy broth.

Sungei Road laksa is eaten with a plastic soup spoon (sans chopsticks).

Sungei Road laksa resembles Johor Bahru's Cathay laksa, Yew Swee and Water Works. The flavours come from ground Indian spices and laksa leaves (daun kesum), and everything is well held together by sparing amounts of coconut milk and a round bodied savoury crustacean broth.

But, it was not overly lemak (creamy) and the broth's savoury crustacean base was discernible.

The curry laksa was a fine balance of mildy spicy, slightly sweet and layered savoury flavours.

I much prefer this old style laksa than modern curry laksa made with convenient pre-mixes thrown into lots of thick coconut milk diluted with some "empty" water, and brought to boil.

Oh, one more thing, Sungei Road laksa differs from the their JB cousins by having soft tiny lumpy whitish coagulates in the broth but I have no idea what they were.

Sungei Road laksa is an authentic icon of Singapore food heritage, I strongly recommend.

To me, this is still the best laksa in Singapore.

Please share with us your memories of Sungai Road Laksa 😊

Restaurant name: Sungei Road Laksa 结霜桥叻沙
Address: 27 Jalan Berseh, #01-100. (Corner stall at Top 33 Kopitiam)
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qbAQA
GPS: 1.306551,103.857525
Hours: 9:00am to 3:30pm (Closed on 1st and 3rd Weds)

Non Halal

Sungei Rochor in 1925. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

Sungei Road Thieves Market was located between Weld Road Road and Kelantan Road along Rochor River.

The area around Rochor was earmarked for upmarket residences of European and wealthy Chinese Peranakan families under the Jackson Plan or Raffles Town Plan published in 1822.

In the 1920s, small traders began selling discards like clothes and household items collected from these well off homes as used goods at around Sungei Road along Rochor River. They also sold used military uniforms and paraphernalia from British servicemen based in Singapore.

The flea market thrived during the Japanese Occupation (1942 - 1945) as there were shortages of many necessities. Used household goods at Sungei Road flea market were in demand.

Sungei Road 1950s. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

After the Second World War, Sungei Road flea market continued to expand. Rag and bone men (karang guni or gunny sack men) collected used goods from all over the island and sold them to the Sungei Road flea market merchants. Sungei Road was chock-a-block with small shops overflowing with used goods, plenty ending up basking in the sun on sidewalks and the street itself.

Sungei Road 1971. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

Sungei Road flea market buzzed with traders and shoppers of used goods of every kind. It was also called Thieves' Market as it had a reputation of trading in goods stolen or of suspicious origin.

Sungei Road 1971. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

The Sungei Road flea market was also nicknamed "Robinson Petang". Robinsons was once among Singapore's top department stores, and "petang" is Malay for afternoon. So, "Robinson Petang" means "Afternoon Robinsons" - how charming 😄

But, seriously "Robinson Petang" during its heydays was equal to any department store in range of goods but with unbeatable prices (provided you were skilful in the art of haggling 😂 ). Otherwise, you could only console yourself later on that you paid "tuition" for the "learning experience" i.e. expensive lesson 😂

Sungei Road 1970. Image credit: National Archive of Singapore

Sungei Road 1978. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

The large building on the left is Singapore Ice Works, so Sungei Road was also called 结霜桥 which means "making ice bridge" referring to the ice works and nearby Weld Road bridge across Rochor River. Somewhere among that row of stalls under umbrellas was Sungei Road Laksa, hence the name 结霜桥叻沙, which literally means "laksa stall at the ice making bridge".

I remember my dad calling this place 淡水河 Tam Sui Hor or "freshwater river" in Cantonese. It was one of his favourite places to browse and hopefully pick up a hidden gem or two at a good price. I don't remember he ever succeed in that 😂

Weld Road 1997. Image credit: National Archives of Singapore

From mid-1990s, the old shophouses along Sungei Road were demolished and the flea market stalls were relocated to around nearby Weld Road. They operated on canvas sheets laid on the floor and under umbrellas. It was a sad shadow of the once buzzing "Robinson Petang".

All flea market stalls were cleared off the Sungei Road area by 2017 to make way for the construction of Jalan Besar MRT station. Thieves Market / "Robinson Petang" / Sungei Road flea market / Tam Sui Hor was relegated to a footnote in Singapore history.

Please share your Sungei Road stories with us.