What to eat at Beauty World Station, Downtown Line, Singapore.

(Photo of Beauty World Station during the Open House)

The Downtown Line 2 has opened and people are all stopping at Beauty World (DT5) station to have their meals.

We the residents living around Beauty World welcome you to have a meal or two here. Please take the train here, as the parking attendants are quite active here and you don't want your meal to cost much more than it should. You have already been warned.

There are a few listings you can follow that has been published by fellow food bloggers I know personally. The local residents welcome these lists because those are places we don't go often. Hehe... Come and help our local restaurants and cafes.

Some people have asked me, and it's too much to tell or write. I have rounded them up into 8 clusters or areas you can visit to have your meals here.

The main eating clusters of eateries at DT5 Beauty World Station are:
Exit A / B:
1) Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
2) Beauty World Centre
3) Bukit Timah Plaza
4) Cheong Chin Nam Road food outlets.
5) Lorong Kilat

Exit C:
6) Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre.
7) Toh Yi Estate Coffeeshops
8) Eng Kong Terrace

The most popular cluster:
The most popular place to eat would be the Bukit Timah Food Centre. However be warned that many hawkers don't open everyday, especially the popular ones. They open 4 or 5 out of 7 days. Recently in the newspaper we have a hawker that was featured having their satay recipe passed down from generations. The stall has been in the same family for more than 70 years. Be warned also that different family member / employees cooked in the same stall. The father might cook in the day and the son at night, so there's a different in taste and quality! So we only order certain food when certain people are cooking.


(The local residents are very proud of this station. Many woke up at 5am in the morning to catch the first train that arrives at this station.)

Some other interesting facts:

The Malay food stalls never seem to survive at the Hawker Centre, the stalls always close down. You know why? Everyone goes to the Indian Muslim stalls at Cheong Chin Nam Road. There are 2 very famous shops. It's like everyone has their own favourites. You go and try and pick your side! One has recently been renovated and one is like so old school stuck in 80s mamak but inside a shop.

Chicken seems to be the most popular meat as there are quite a few places that sells chicken here. One of them does the most delicious fried chicken ever. When you order it, they will unwrap a packet of 'salt baked chicken' and deep fry it. It's so addicitive! You can try your luck at finding where that place is. They have like probably 15 or so chicken a day only from our observation. So it's a secret for now. Hints are in my instagram account.

There used to be 12 ice cream places within a 2 km radius, but most of them have closed down. A neighbour who lives in the same block as me has an ice cream shop actually opens his ice cream shop all the way in the East because he said the rent in this area is too high. We found out we were neighbours when I ate ice cream in the east!

We also have many Korean restaurants in the area. There are 5-6 of them and 3 of them have been around for some time. We have a community of Koreans living in this area. We even have a 'chap chai peng' style Korean stall! (The 'point point' this and that style of food)

Talking about Cafes, there's a whole long list of it too. Not all are popular though to tell the truth. We need more people to come fill up the places.



(A recreation of what Beauty World Town looked like long ago. This was at the Bukit Timah Community Club recently.)

More interesting non food related facts:

People always say folks staying here are 'atas'. We beg to differ. They probably forgot this area has the most 'atas' (highest) pile of earth in Singapore, Bukit Timah Hill. Residents in this area can see Swissôtel The Stamford, Marina Bay Sands from our flats.

Beauty World is also the name of a Singapore Musical! It's a musical that tells of a story of a young Malaysian girl from Batu Pahat to the 1960s Singapore in search of her father.

Our local MP is quite popular with the residents because she lives in the area! The older folks in the area watched her grow up. We have seen her do her own groceries in the local supermarket before too. While friends say their MP never visit, our MP does and she does it at least 2 times a year. We avoid being at home because we are shy, our photos might end up on her Facebook page. LOL!

It's a Beautiful World out here with lots of food. Welcome to Beauty World MRT Station. Maybe when I am free, I will list out the 100 over places to eat here and our personal favourites. For now, just walk around the 8 areas listed above and you will find a place or two to have a nice meal.

Here's the first train that arrived at Beauty World Station at 5:57 am!

First 'open to public' train that arrived at Beauty World station.

A video posted by Philip Lim (@keropokman) on Dec 26, 2015 at 2:00pm PST

Seng Heng Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Our family were at Bukit Timah Food Centre for lunch.

We were lazy and just sat down. It was like waiting to see who is going to order and we will just say we want that too. (Does that happen to your family too? LOL) I said, I am going to have Chicken Rice. It's gonna be a long wait, I am going queue at the super long queue chicken rice. Anyone wants chicken rice? Dad said he wanted it.

So I went to queue. I was thinking, I will just order 2 single portions of drumstick. Easier to carry back to the table. Then around 8 mins into the wait, sis called and said, order for her as well. Hmm... I thought to myself, should I order half a chicken instead, so share amongst 3 of us? We get to eat more chicken!

Then 16 mins into the wait. sis called again, she said our uncle and cousin is joining us for lunch too. They also wants to eat chicken rice. Since you are queuing, buy it for all of us lah... OK... I shall just go for the half a white and half a black then...



Up till today, I still can't figure out why people love this chicken rice so much. There's forever a queue.
We all think it's quite nice, but not the super best chicken rice around.

I think it's because they are all regular customers. The rest are like me, joining the queue because everyone is.




The half 'white' chicken. I think boneless chicken is one of the best way to eat chicken!
Some like us love the coldness of the white hainanese chicken with dark sweet sauce, ginger and chilli sauce. yum yum...





Roast chicken on the other hand has this nice fragrance. A little hint of soy caramelized skin.
1/2 White, 1/2 Roast with 5 plates of fragrant chicken rice was $22.50

Oh yes, mum and aunt had other things and they finished their food way long before our food arrived. I think I queued for around 35 minutes. Luckily there was twitter to entertain me on the phone while waiting. :-)

Do you realise that people living in Singapore can queue for food orderly and will scold or bark at people who cut queue, but when it's the train or bus, they will all just rush to the door and not queue? Why ah?



Seng Heng Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Stall 177 (02-177)
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Momo and I spent last Saturday 'babysitting' my cousin. What activities can you do so that teenagers stay entertained so I can catch up with emails etc. I realise my newest toy was a life saver! I bought an iPad in UK and my cousin is enjoying herself downloading and playing games on it!

Momo introduced "Sally Spa" and she played the lite version so many times over. We decided to just purchase the full version so she can proceed to paint nails! Momo's iPhone had the full version. She was just too good and quickly played all the stages! Playing Sally Spa on the iPad is so so different! It's so huge and fun said the two girls.

Sally Spa is what I call a silly girls' game. We decided to play something more intellectual. I bought  Scrabble for iPad. We were all so intrigue with it. The iPad acts as the crossword board. The wooden tray to hold the letter tiles were our iPhones! It was all connected via bluetooth. We can flip the letters from our iPhones to the iPad!  How cool is that! The iPhone app has a built in dictionary too, so can check the words first so the rest of the players won't call us a nincompoop for putting down silly words!

***

Before we took over the babysitting, we ate at Bukit Timah Food Centre.
Momo said she has not tried Tasty Thai Hut and wanted to try it. She had the Green Curry.




with rice... of course!

***

I had the Phad Thai. Yes, I ordered it because there was no one in front of me ordering it.

Remember I told you all before, if someone orders it in front of you, order something else. Portions will be smaller if two person's orders were cooked together and split up later to be served. ;-p

***

Since Momo had not tried the food, I ordered the super chokingly spicy tom yam soup for her to try. It looks clear and harmless, but it's really potent and addictive!




The soup's has a fair amount of seafood and you can see there are lots of aromatic leaves in the soup. We like!






Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Two or three weeks ago, I ate at Tasty Thai Hut and wondered when will I ever get to try their Green Curry. Well, last night I got to try it. I was surprised it was still available past 8pm.
 
Their rice was sold out though. The rice they served the curry was 'bought' from the next stall by the the folks from Tasty Thai Hut. LOL...




The curry was ok lah. I would say so so only. I wonder if I said that because I expected more after the always sold out it must be damn good phenomena. ;-p

It is not the very thick sauce kind. It's more soupy kind. People (like my brother) who loves to literally drink sauces can wallop it without feeling too guilty.

For $4, it's not too bad a deal. You don't get green curry at this price and taste this decent at most places.

Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

If you are around the Bukit Timah / Jalan Jurong Kechil area, and if you are thinking of really decent and cheap Thai food, you would probably want to head to the upper floor of Bukit Timah Food Centre.

Why we ate here tonight was because the lady boss appeared on TV again. A few nights ago, as I walked into the main door of our home this conversation took place:
Sis: Her name is Mrs Chon-Chom.
Me: Huh? Who's that?
Sis: The Tasty Thai Hut lady lah. We always wondered what's her name. Now we know. She was on TV earlier.
Me: Orrr OK. (Yes, me and my usual "uh-huh", "ok", "ya" answers haha)


Mrs Chon-Chom is usually a 'one lady show'. But sometimes you do see (I presume is) Mr Chon-Chom there. He happened to be helping out today.





My usual grub here: Chicken with Basil Leaves and Rice. $4.
I like it because it is 'wet'. (the chicken and greens has gravy and it will seep into the rice. You can see the mark left by the gravy on this plate) 

By the way, it's spicy too. Don't let the 'clear' looking dish fool you. (Their Tom Yam is clear looking and is even more potent!)




Sis had the "Phad Thai" $4.
While she was eating, she continued her story a few nights before. Sis said that on TV, it was mentioned that the noodles and some other stuff she used are all from Thailand.

By the way, this is what we notice and also confirmed by some 'aunties' we know. When someone in front of you orders Phad Thai, don't order it, order something else. If you do, Mrs Chon-Chom will combine the order and cook it together then splits it to two or three orders. Her 'agak-ration' (agak - estimation in Hokkien) has been proven to be not that good, you always get a smaller plate.  ;-)




The other very popular dish is the green curry. But it was sold out when we arrived.
Personally, I don't like the Pineapple rice here. Try other things!

Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

Ah Poh BBQ Seafood @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

2 friends came over our place last Saturday. We had gelato, onions rings and chicken nuggets that they brought over. It was an afternoon of Wii for 2 of them and sis.

After 'exercising', it was dinner time. We went over to Bukit Timah Food Centre for dinner. Everyone ordered and ate different things. But there are some things that we shared.

We were sitting in front of this stall, and was tempted by the Stingray that everyone seems to be ordering.



The stingray's quite nice. The sambal on it makes it quite delicious. (It's also quite oily haha...)



We also had Satay from another stall few doors/stalls away.




Ah Poh BBQ Seafood
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
02-119/120
Singapore 588172

Tasty Thai Hut @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

I thought I had posted something about Tasty Thai Hut, but going through this food diary, I realised I have not although I have eaten here so often. Anyway, Tasty Thai Hut at the Bukit Timah Food Centre is what I call Thai Fast Food.

This Thai lady can whip up your orders rather quickly! If you are first in the queue, it will be ready in 2 or 3 mins.

This is the Basil and chicken with Rice. $4. I have had this countless times and I still enjoy it. It's very spicy and with all the fragrant aromatic leaves in it, makes it taste yummy! Do be careful of the chilli seeds if you can't take spicy food. It's simple and nice.



The other day I decided to order something to share while eating dinner here. I saw the Glass Noodle Salad ($4) and decided to try it.

The dressing for the salad is quite delicious. The glass noodles are boiled only when you order, so it's a bit warm. I like it a little cold, so I wait a while and at the same time let the glass noodle soak up all the dressing. It's interesting that it has white fungus in it too!



Hint: If you order their Phad Thai, make sure no one else is ordering it. If more than 1 person orders it, the lady will cook them all together and separate it. The portions tend to be smaller. If you are the only person ordering it, the portions are larger. Many friends confirm this as well. :-)


Tasty Thai Hut
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#02-159
Singapore 588172

Happy Wanton Noodle @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

I was deciding to skip dinner tonight because I am not really hungry. Sis texted to say that she's at Bukit Timah Food Centre, and I can join her there. So I detoured a bit and met her there.

Walking around to look for something quick and easy, I had a 'Happy Meal', not from Mcdonald's but from the food centre.

Wanton Noodles from a stall called Happy Wanton Noodle. Hey, this stall's really really popular. The queue's always very long. But at around 7:15 pm, there's no queue at all. ;-)



The wanton and the soup. The soup's saltish and sweetish. Nice for a few mouths, but not the whole bowl. ;-)



The wanton noodle is surprisingly quite springy and delicious. I am not a big fan of wanton noodles, but I think this one's quite nice.



$3 for the above. Much cheaper than the Happy Meal from the two Mcdonald's that around 200 metres away from this food centre. But you don't get any toy here though. LOL...

Pardon the dark blur photos. If you know this food centre, there's not much light!


Happy Wanton Noodle
Stall 02-197
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 58817

Seng Heng Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Was in Bukit Timah Food Centre today and decided to try the super ultra popular chicken rice stall. There are I think about 3 or 4 chicken rice stalls in this food centre, but this stall just seems to have along snaking queue!

I waited around 30 minutes to get to my turn! The first 6 persons in the queue was having takeaways of 7-8 packets each! After they left, it was rather quick.



While I was queueing up, I had a chat with the 'aunty' who was behind me. Another guy behind her also joined us. The lady said that this stall is cheap and good. Only stall that people will queue for. This stall with the next few stalls around have been around for the longest time. They are the second generation. Hmm this lady must have been eating this chicken rice for years to know the history. I asked her which is nicer, the roast chicken or the 'white chicken'. She always order the roast chicken as it is less oily.

Anyway, since I had to queue for so long, I might as well order two types! (my bro will help to finish it for sure. haha)

The verdict, both bro and I think it's OK, quite decent. Portions are quite ok too for a $3 chicken rice.



My brother likes the 'white chicken', while I prefer the one below, the Roast Chicken.
Chicken rice is something very personal isn't it? Haha..



The chicken rice that my aunt says taste better than the other stalls.



This is the chilli that makes people addicted to their chicken rice? My aunt likes their chilli.



By the way, my uncle thinks its over-rated. He would not queue for it.
(See, everyone in Singapore has their personal rating of chicken rice!)


Seng Heng Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Stall 177 (02-177)
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

148 Curry Rice @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Someone left a comment on this blog, sugggesting that I should try the Curry Rice at this food centre. I finally did, last Sunday.

There sure was a long queue. The queue was fast moving, so that's good.



I had 2 vegetables, 1 mushroom and one curry chicken wing. I think it was $3.
As it was 'Curry Rice', a generous amount of curry was poured over it.
The vegetables were nicely cooked, chicken curry was almost 'melt in your mouth' because it was so soft. It was tasty, but a bit messy. LOL...



Do you realize that there are people around you that will never order 'mix rice'? It is not that they do not like to eat them, but it clashes with their personality! I know of a few people who is like this.

They take a look at it, think that it is so messy, and just could not stand it. The only way they can have mix rice is to request that they have the food separated into individual plates. It will then look neat and proper.

Just wondering.. How many of you are like that too?

I am one who likes this mess, I can scoop up a spoonful of rice and taste all kinds of flavours in it. Doesn't it gives you satisfaction? haha...


Anyway, the address:

148 Curry Rice
Stall 148
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 58817

Mien by Firstpasta @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Was at Bukit Timah Food Centre today. Wondering what to eat, I saw aunt having this. It looks very tempting and it smells so good too. Mushroom and Chicken Pasta with Laksa sauce from Mien. (Think the laksa sauce is a recent addition?)



I was wondering what I should eat, so I walked around the food centre. The smell of the laksa sauce made me want to order it as well. So I did. I had the Seafood pasta with Laksa sauce. $4.



Yummy. But be careful. Sauce splashes happens. (all the time!) Arrgh. I had some laksa sauce splattered on my shirt.

I had my order done in less than 2 minutes. The best stall to order if you want really fast food.


Mien by Firstpasta
Stall 195
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Food @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Today, our family dropped by the Bukit Timah Food Centre to have lunch. I had duck rice which was err, not really nice. Wrong choice to pick.

But sis and aunt felt like eating 'ngo hiong', so they picked a plate to share. The rest of us got to eat it too.



Aunt said that this new stall selling 'Hokkien Mee' is not too bad. So she ordered a bigger portion to share. It's on the left when you come up the main steps, facing the church / Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School.



On the next row, (the same row as the Chwee Kuey stall), the BBQ Chicken wing stall is also fairly recent addition. Their chicken wing's nice. $1 each.



Hope you had a great weekend.

Bukit Timah Food Centre
Upper Bukit Timah Road

Sin Chew Satay Bee Hoon @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

This Satay Bee Hoon stall at Bukit Timah Food Centre almost always have a snaking queue. Why? People just love it. Me included. Maybe it's the Satay sauce that covers it?



Decided to ruffle it a bit, so that you can see the bee hoon below. I think the texture of the bee hoon's nice, that's why I like it.



Well if you wanna try it, watch the opening hours. They don't open on Mondays and Tuesdays.
On Wednesdays to Friday, they only open in the evening.

The best time is to go during the weekends, like what I did.



Sin Chew Satay Bee Hoon
Stall 162
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Lunch @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Some shots of the lunch we had at Bukit Timah Food Centre today.
Walked around and did not know what to eat. End up eating CKT. From Stall 02-181. The stall somewhere in the middle, beside the Chai Tow Kueh stall. Heard that this old man has been frying CKT for a very very very long time here. Yummy...



The urge for rice flour produced food did not end with CKT. I had 2 pieces of Chwee Kueh too. ;-)



Sis had the pasta from "Mien" instead.



Looks plain? But it's tasty and very fast. You get it done in 2-3 minutes.



What's this? Ham Chim Peng. Forgot the stall number, but this was what was left. It sells out very fast. Many like the 'you tiao' here.



Hope you had a great week.

Satay @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Sis and I were visiting uncle and aunt's place for dinner to pass them some stuff we got them from our holidays. We did not tell them earlier we are coming, but they said come over for dinner nonetheless.

A bit 'paiseh' for being last minute, so we 'tapow' some satay from the Bukit Timah Food Centre.



We got it from the stall facing the HDB. It's from the Western Stall + Satay Stall. The western food part has not open for months though. 40 cents. But it seems the satay stick has shrunk. Yes, everywhere you go, you can feel the shrinking of food portions.

Uncle told us, this used to be the nicer stall, but now the other stall at the other side seems to be better now. Yes, musical chairs. LOL.

Local breakfast packed from Bukit Timah Food Centre

Last Sunday around noon, our youngest sis flew back to London. Just before she flew back, it was her last breakfast here. A few days ago she still had a short list of things yet to try.

After church, we walked over to Bukit Timah Food Centre and packed breakfast home. Here's some of the things we bought that was on her list.

Here's the Chwee Kueh that she wanted to eat. We bought 2 packs of 6 pieces at $1.50 each.

It's such a comfort food ya? Warm, soft yet firm steamed rice cakes. Topped with chai por that is so fragrant and yet not so salty. Add a bit of chilli. Oooo.... Satisfaction.



It's carbo and more carbo. Made also from rice flour and radish. Chai Tow Kueh. We know sis don't like the black version, so we queued up for the 'white' version. There are I think 3 or 4 stalls of CTK at Bukit Timah FC, we like this particular stall where our family thinks is the best. (Main staircase up, the 2nd aisle I think, I recognize the stall, but not the exact location.)

Another dish with Chai Por! The crispy eggs and skin on the outside, soft in the inside. We like it like that! We ordered a $4 and it was such a big pack.



We also had 'Ngor Hiong'. This mix of various fried stuff and century egg is my other sis fav. Yup, she queued up for this. We had 3 packs of bee hoon to share. $15



What a full breakfast we had.
Any of the above is your favourite comfort food too?

Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 588172

Nibbles @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

Weekend nibbles at Bukit Timah Food Centre. Some things that we eat not because we are hungry, but 'mouth itchy' want to eat something kind of food. They are all quite tasty. All eaten at Bukit Timah Food Centre.

Chwee Kueh.
I like chai por a lot! Their chai por is a mix of sweet and salty taste. Very nice!



Popiah and Kueh Paiti.
Kueh Paiti always reminds me of mum's 2nd sister. she always makes the shells for us :-)



Rojak. I like the 'you tiao' the most. :-)



Do you all like to nibble on food like these? :-)