Belly Shiok Chee Cheong Fun & Yam Cake • Tan Coffee in Toa Payoh Kim Keat Palm 食轩

Got up early to get to Kim Keat Palm hawker centre in Toa Payoh to avoid the queue at a famous stall. But, the semi retired couple took another few days of leave 😬 So, I went around the hawker centre looking for another stall to salvage my trip. Spotted Belly Shiok 食轩 with a 10 deep queue. Not sure what they sell, but lined up promptly anyway 😄

Stall name: Belly Shiok 食轩

Address: Stall #01-05, Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre, 22 Lor 7, Toa Payoh, Singapore 310022

Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Braddell or Toa Payoh station

Hours: 5:00am - 11:00am (Mon & Tues off)

Oh.. it's those old school Cantonese breakfast of chee cheong fun, yam cake, fried glutinous rice, congee, fried bee hoon, etc.

Not sure what to order, I went for the safe choices of chee cheong fun and yam cake first. The fried glutinous rice tempted me real hard, but my resistance was strong this morning 💪

Belly Shiok uses a thinner version of chee cheong fun than Duo Ji (arguably the most famous old school chee cheong fun stall in Singapore). Belly Shiok's soft smooth CCF also has a subtle rice taste. So Belly Shiok wins here.

I asked for both savoury sweet and spicy sauce, and had them blended together. At Belly Shiok, they also splash in aromatic oil which held everything in the plate together. I like Belly Shiok's blend of savoury, sweet, spicy sauce and aromatic oil with the sweet rice noodle (CCF). But, it doesn't have Duo Ji's secret umami hae ko (fermented prawn paste) weapon. So, Duo Ji wins here.

via GIPHY

But, it was Belly Shiok's yam cake that blew me away.

Belly Shiok make their yam cake at the stall (I saw uncle making it but no photos).

The old school yam cake was soft with rich yam and mild Chinese 5 spice flavour. Duo Ji's yam cake pales in comparison.

But, Duo Ji trumps again with their hae ko laced sauce.

Confident that I spotted a good stall, I rejoined the queue after eating my testing round.

This time I got the glutinous rice and some more yam cake. Believe me, it is what it is, all under the savoury, sweet, spicy sauces.

The yam cake was belly shiok.

The glutinous rice, I tried my best but couldn't finish 😬 It's starchy sticky rice stir fried with dark soy sauce and dried shrimp, etc. It's a savoury sweet blend but somewhat flat tasting.

The folks at Belly Shiok were very friendly until they started to wonder why this white hair uncle kept hanging around, took many pictures and even asked questions 😱

After all that starch, I circled the hawker centre for a cup of kopi (coffee).

Get your kopi here. It's as good as it gets in a hawker centre or coffee shop. Robust Robusta taste in full round body beefed up with evaporated milk (my usual kopi C kosong gao).