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Food Explorer Storyteller with 63 million+ reads ๐Ÿ“ง johorkaki@gmail.com

Hawker Gems of Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre to Save You Wasted Calories

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Ghim Moh Food Centre with some 50 stalls is popular with local residents and also with workers from office blocks nearby because it has many good food stalls. Here are local people's top choices (in ascending order of stall number).

Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre


Address: 20 Ghim Moh Road, Singapore 270020


Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Buona Vista station

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Chuan Kee Boneless Braised Duck stall #01-04 serve tender ducks stewed in savoury subtly herbal sauce. Eaten with rice cooked with brown savoury sauce. One of my fav braised duck stalls in Singapore. This is their flagship stall, they have a branch at Chong Pang food centre. The boss personally handles the cooking in both locations.

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Yuan Hokkien Fried Prawn Mee stall #01-07 serve an old school wet type Hokkien mee where the noodles are briefly stewed to infuse umami savoury and sweet flavours from the prawn head, sea food, pork, etc thick stock into the yellow mee and thick bee hoon. I am a fan of wet type Hokkien mee - my fav is Swee Guan at Geylang Lor 29.

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TOM's City Zoom Mee Pok Tar #01-11 serve various noodles (not only mee pok) with handmade fishball, fried fish cake, fried fish wanton and fish dumpling (her kiao). The savoury tangy spicy lardy sauce on the noodles is nice. Everything is made of fish here except for a bit of lard in the sauce.

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Ghim Moh Carrot Cake stall #01-16 is one of the last handful of cai tow kueh stalls in Singapore that still make and steam their own kueh (most other stalls buy their kueh from factories now). Ghim Moh's kueh of rice, carrot and radish is soft-tender. The white version which I prefer is enveloped with beaten egg that is moist and soft inside while slightly crisp outside. Bits of chai poh added umami savoury taste and gritty crunch to the dish. One of Singapore's best fried carrot cake. In my opinion, Ghim Moh is comparable to the much heralded Chey Sua of Toa Payoh.

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Jiu Jiang Shao La stall #01-17 is right up there among the top Cantonese roasts in Singapore. They have the trinity of char siew, siew yok (roast pork belly) and roast duck - all freshly roasted with a huge charcoal fired "Apollo" oven at the stall. I love the tender, savoury smokey char siew here. The siew yok and roast duck are famous too but I need to taste them again to comment further.

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Lao Chao Zhou stall 01-18 serve mee siam and satay bee hoon. I've only tried their mee siam so far. The sauce has a nice tao cheo (fermented bean) base overlaid with mild spices and sweetness. There's a bit of underlying tang from asam (tangerine). Served with savoury sun dried krill (grago) and a squeeze of fresh zesty calamansi (sng kum). It's a nice mee siam! Their satay bee hoon looks good too and I must try it soon.

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Guan Kee Fried Kway Teow stall #01-19 is the most elusive char kway teow in Singapore as they open only on Tues, Weds and Sat, and only for a few hours each time. I rate it top five in Singapore. Tastes similar to Outram Park CKT in Hong Lim Food Centre, but Guan Kee's is slightly dryer. If you are a char kway teow fan, this is one elusive stall you have to clock to earn your CKT spurs and bragging rights.

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Hakka Yong Tau Fu stall #01-25 serve many YTF items - mostly deep fried and filled with minced pork in the Hakka style and some boiled items with fish surimi filling. Boiled items comes in a soup with pronounced soy bean flavours ๐Ÿ‘ Eaten with savoury sweet fermented bean paste sauce and sharp spicy hot chili sauce. Ordering is slightly tedious (YTF is like that) - first pick your choices (minimum 5 pieces), pay & receive a number slip, hang around and collect your food when your number is called. (My benchmark yong tau fu is in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, and only in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur ๐Ÿ˜‹ ๐Ÿคค  ) 

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HEAVENS stall #01-26 serve thosai, putu mayam, idly and appam. Most items are freshly made on order. Their appam (traditional South Indian pancake made with batter of fermented rice flour and milk mix) is crisp around the rim and spongy soft in the middle. The pancake has a mild sourish sweet taste and is eaten with grated coconut pulp and red sugar. Must Try!! (They are famous for their Princess appam with cheese and egg in the middle.)

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Teck Hin Delicacies stall #01-30 serve only kosong (plain) chee cheong fun. The queue is always long but clears fast. The rice rolls kept warm and moist in a steaming cabinet are thin, smooth and served with a savoury fermented bean sauce with subtle sweetness. Simple but well loved, affordable staple.

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Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle stall #01-36 is a well loved institution here since 1978 when Ghim Moh hawker centre first opened. Uncle hand makes the fishballs and fish cakes himself using yellowtail fish. The noodles are done springy and tossed in an old school lardy, savoury, tangy, spicy sauce. My fav thing here is uncle's fish cake - pillow soft with well balanced savoury sweetness.

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Mohamed Faisel Seeni Eating House stall #01-37 serve freshly made and fried, crisp outside, chewy moist inside roti prata with a flavoursome mildly spicy curry sauce (I eat only kosong or plain prata ๐Ÿ˜„ ). They also have mee and nasi goreng, as well as nasi briyani which I have yet to try.

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Ghim Moh Chwee Kueh ๆŽ่€ไธ‰ stall #01-51 is probably the only stall in Singapore that still make the steamed rice cakes on site (most are from central kitchen now). Unlike most that stew their chai poh topping in vegetable oil, here they still use lard the traditional way. They also have garlic in their chye poh topping which add another layer of flavour. Compared to Bedok Chwee Kueh (central kitchen made), Ghim Moh Chwee Kueh's water cakes are firmer, denser and less sweet. The chai poh topping is robustly salty-savoury without any balancing sweetness.

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Hin Fried Hor Fun stall #01-56 is the place to get your hor fun with wok hei fix (which is not that common in Singapore hawker centres). There is a choice of beef slices, prawn, fish slices or combo to go with your toasty, scorched hor fun in a thick savoury starchy sauce. My fav is their beef hor fun.

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Ghim Moh Porridge & Rice stall #01-63 serve Teochew style watery porridge with lots of traditional side dishes like steamed fish, chai poh eggs, fish cake, fish rice, stewed pork (lor bak), etc. Nothing that will blow your mind but it is tasty, satisfying, comforting and affordable. Great sharing meal with a group of friends or family.

Your favourite stall(s) not in the list? ๐Ÿค”


You are right to be upset ๐Ÿ˜ค


Give me a shout out in the comments. I promise I'll visit your recommendation as soon as possible and may include the stall in the list. If not, at the very least, I will update you on the status in the comments.


Thank you for helping me make this list better ๐ŸคŸ


Written by Tony Boey on 1 May 2021

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