We all know I’m not a classy girl. I don’t need caviar and champagne to be happy. Give me some good local food, especially hawker food, served on plastic plates and I am on cloud nine. Which is why our Sunday night dinner at Newton Food Centre in the heart of Singapore rated as my best meal over the four day weekend.
If you’re in Singapore, you have to go here. It’s not hard to get to, a $5 cab ride from Orchard and if you’re anything like me, you won’t want to leave. It’s perfect for tourists and locals alike, with a never ending variety of dishes to try, cheap as chips (although apparently Newton is an “expensive” hawker centre, being in the city) and it’s a hell of a lot more attractive (read: clean) than the food carts you get at really local dodgy hawker centres (which I also love).
I mean, check this out. I tried to get a panoramic shot to show y’all but the place is actually just too huge. This is about half of the stalls and seating space (click for a slightly larger image):
It was only Panu and I for dinner, so I couldn’t try as much as I’d like (given we’d had a seafood binge at Long Beach Friday night and a hawker buffet on Saturday night), but we got in some pretty awesome local specialities. The best and my all time favourite being the BBQ stingray with sambal (top photo). I hadn’t had this for years and it was perfect. And all of SGD$5!
We also ordered char kuay teow (SGD$5) which was deliciously smoky and came with a heap of see ham (cockles) which is the one most important thing missing from char kuay teow in Australia. Panu didn’t like the see ham, so more for me. Yay!
There’s satay galore at Newton – I ordered 10 chicken satays for SGD$6, but later found that that was the most expensive satay around with others coming in at SGD$5 or even less. It was delicious, tender, smoky and perfect though, so I’m not complaining.
Panu wanted to try the chai tow kuay (fried carrot cake). To those who don’t know, “carrot cake” here doesn’t actually include any carrots. This dish (and what you get at yum cha) is made with flour and shredded daikon (white radish), which is probably why it’s called carrot cake. Because they kind of look like carrots, no?
I chose this stall because they made their chai tow kuay black and smoky, unlike the whiter version, and it was divine. Panu’s favourite dish.
That was all we had! Lame, I know. Now that I’m back in stinking wet and cold Sydney, I wish I’d just gluttonned myself into oblivion. But alas, I will be back FOR SURE.
Newton Food Centre
500 Clemenceau Ave
Newton, Singapore, 229495
Trip Advisor site