Singapore's newest hawker centre, the spanking new Margaret Drive Hawker Centre with 38 food stalls opened in Aug 2022 but it has much older roots. MDHC was one of my favourite haunts for lunch and supper when I was working and living nearby in the 1980s. Despite its name, very few of the stalls at the new MDHC came from the old Margaret Drive food centre. Most stalls are from Tanglin Halt Food Centre which is slated for en bloc redevelopment.
After stalking MDHC for over a month, these stalls are the most popular with the folks here and I enjoyed them too.
Tong Kee Chicken Rice stall #01-36 opens 10am - 3pm (Mon off) is one of the rare few originally from the old Margaret Drive Food Centre. Located at the ground level in a corner, it enjoys one of the longest queues in MDHC. Tong Kee is a fried chicken specialist (in Singapore chicken rice parlance, it is known as roast chicken). Tong Kee's fried chicken have savoury golden brown skin with tender savoury sweet flesh inside. Tong Kee's rice is tender and aromatic, not overly greasy. The dish is served with a smokey tasting savoury sweet brown sauce which is one of Tong Kee's selling points that attracts me.
Hakka Thunder Tea stall #02-34 opens 10:30am - 3pm (Mon off) is from Tanglin Halt food centre. The stall serves an authentic version of Hakka thunder tea rice with comprehensive ingredients for the signature vegetable and herb green tea. There's choice of boiled white or brown rice which is topped with various stir fried vegetables, peanuts, tofu, fried anchovies, etc. HTT also serves Hakka style yong tau foo which are tofu and vegetables filled with minced pork and fish paste.
Tian Xiang Wanton Noodle stall #02-41 opens 7am - 1pm (Weds & Thurs off) moved here from Alexandra Village food centre. Their noodles may be generic, char siew a bit dry, lean and thin, wantons doughy but their heavenly fragrant sauce of blended oils, lard, chili and soy sauce conquers all.
Tanglin Halt Ruyi Vegetarian stall #02-36 opens 6am - 10am (Weds off) has a loyal following for their freshly fried vegetarian bee hoon (rice vermicelli) wet with savoury sweet sauce and eaten with fresh pickled green chili, crispy skin spring roll, mock goose (zai er) which are freshly made and deep fried at the stall. Mock goose are made with dried tofu skin wet with savoury sweet sauce, folded into layers and deep fried till crisp golden brown.
Queenstown Longtong stall #01-27 opens 7am - 2pm (Sat, Sun, Weds off) has the longest queue in the whole hawker centre of nearly 40 stalls. Their three famous dishes are mee rebus, mee soto and lontong. The lontong is cubes of compacted boiled rice cake in a vegetable curry rich in coconut milk and spices. It is topped with a splash of sambal and a heap of serundeng (fried grated coconut pulp). The curry is packed with savoury sweet spicy flavours and the best thing here for me is their boiled rice cubes which were tender and subtly sweet.
Your favourite stall(s) not in this list? 😤
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Some stalls I have tried but did not include in this list. I will risk my neck in the comments, if it is your favourite 😬
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Brief History of Margaret Drive Hawker Centre
The official name of the original Margaret Drive Hawker Centre was Commonwealth Avenue Food Centre. It was built in 1970 and demolished in 2011. Most people know the hawker centre as Margaret Drive hawker centre as most people access the hawker centre car park via Margaret Drive. I am glad that the authorities adopted the unofficial name Margaret Drive hawker centre for the new centre.
I remember the most stressful part of coming here for lunch in the 1980s was the limited parking (only two rows) and tight parking space.
My most memorable stalls here are Hai Kee fried kway teow which is still going strong in Telok Blangah, Sin Kee chicken rice, Tong Kee chicken rice which is now in the new MDHC, Xin Lu Teo Chew fishball noodle which is now in Mei Ling Street hawker centre, Yuan fried Hokkien noodle now in Ghim Moh hawker centre, the dessert stall facing the carpark, and two other chicken rice stalls at the ground level (one poached and one soya sauce chicken) which were our lunch favourites but both have disappeared.
Steps from the original Margaret Drive hawker centre was Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market. Most people called it "coffin market" because of its shape - the wet market had fresh produce stalls and some cooked food stalls.
Built in the 1960s, the wet market ceased operations in 2005 but fortunately it was spared the wrecker's ball.
The iconic building is now right beside Margaret Drive Hawker Centre and undergoing renovation for reopening.
What are your memories of Margaret Drive Hawker Centre?
Niven Leong said on Facebook:
ReplyDelete"I was part of it and very proud of the fact.
Memories- the Hakka Zhi char at the 2nd floor directly behind us.
The best stir fried beef, her lotus root soup is simply out of this world.
The longtong and mee siam lady on the ground floor next to the ”云头浪” facing the small car park or toilet. Lol.
Her versions is so different from our Malay friends because of her Peranakan roots.
Also most of us tend to forget the wanton noodle lady whom we affectionately referred to as ”单眼婆”，who served a robust wanton Mee.
The chicken rice stalls there 长发and the soya sauce chicken ( long long before Michelin awarded star) which was manned by a very loyal 头手. He was about to join my brother when he passed on suddenly of a heart attack. 😔
How can we forget the fried Hokkien Mee stall, now at Ghim Moh HC , and manned by the 2nd gen. The older son.
The humble Zhi char stall which serves the best Hainanese pork chop is currently at Alexandra Village FC.
HEHE. And many many more wonderful memories"
There was also a stall selling you tiao which was really good too!!!
ReplyDeletei remember the cai png auntie. she opened her stall at 12pm on the dot and my colleagues and i will be queueing before that. she fried the spring onion-ginger-liver dish the last. she made all the dishes and it's the best cai png i ever had, better than home-cooked food (or can match lah). she used to give more rice and liao to workers (many wearing boiler suits). i can't complain cos the portions (tho smaller for me) were more than enough.
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