After the tummy busting and pocket drying festive
December, we kickstarted the new year on a budget note – or so we tried!
The standard operating procedure goes as follows:
Place your order, state your table number, wait.
Wait, is an understatement for a popular hawker center like Chomp Chomp.
Chicken Wings ($1.40 each)
There are so many stalls to pick from, same price
and waiting time. I have not had a bad freshly barbecued chicken wing,
not even at home. Hence this were great and could have been in the
running for the most delicious chicken wing I have
ever sunk my teeth into in all that mind numbing hunger.
Nearly every table had an order of seafood and so
did we – like monkey see, monkey do. This stall was one of the many as
well and the ordering system was orderly enough for us to get our food a
good 15 minutes later.
Fried Kang Kong ($5)
In complete Singaporean slang – fried kang kong LOR. Spicy and somewhat dry.
Grilled Stingray ($10)
The portion of stingray was generous and meaty, yum!
Lala ($12)
This brings back memories of JB dinners. My
favourite cheap shellfish. They were rather small but for nostalgia’s
sake – boleh lah!
Hokkien Mee ($4)
1 hour wait needed for this as the man scribbles my
order down. I had to pay up first – the only stall of those attempted
that day to impose such a policy. Great deterrence for those who order
and disappear. Three fresh prawns on a bed
of fried hokkien mee. On the sweet side and lacking wok hei. Worth the
hour long wait? No. Worth the while? If you don’t mind waiting.
Legendary this hardly was. I can get a better one with less than half
the waiting time elsewhere.
Satay ($10 for 20 sticks)
Pricey and mediocre sticks of chicken, mutton and beef. No ketupat, neither was the peanut dressing a killer.
Chomp Chomp has been voted Best Hawker Center for two years running, 2010 and 2011. A couple of myths to bust actually,
1) Hype really does wonders. There is another
hawker center a stone’s throw away but hardly crowded while Chomp Chomp
is perpetually packed with people. A mountain people mountain sea
scenario.
2) The food is not out of the world. Truth be told,
I have had equally good or better dishes at other hawker centers
without the queues and waiting time.
3) It seems that as long as there is barbequed food and satay, the hawker center becomes famous.
4) The number of hawker centers that open at night are a handful, possibly driving the traffic to the remaining few.
Unless one goes for just a plate of hokkien mee or
satay beehoon, a meal at Chomp Chomp is likely to set you back by the
same amount that a regular restaurant would.
Chomp Chomp
Serangoon
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