Tiong Bahru Market

After finishing my eye check up with my good friend Qungen, where else was there to go in Outram other than the famous Tiong Bahru Market? Besides hosting a wide array of food stalls including the famous Tiong Bahru Roasted Pig Specialist, Jian Bo Shui Kueh and Tiong Bahru Lor Mee, the new and revamped market is much larger and spacious than any other food centres in Singapore. The double storey market houses 250 market and retail stalls on the bottom level and a whooping 83 stalls at the 2nd level! The ceiling is placed quite high to facilitate the ventilation and tables are spaced well apart providing wide walkways, there are even alfresco dining seats to choose from! The architecture of the building is also well designed being connected like a triangle with a large airwell in the centre which allows sunlight in, thus making the place very bright and airy. Not surprisingly, this is one of the food centres Qin and I often frequent due to the good food and good seating.

Check out the stuff we ate!

The pictures weren't taken properly because our pupils were dilated (they dripped some weird eye drops) and we can't see closer than 30cm!

Even with all the tasty treats which can be found, Tiong Bahru Market will never be an icon without the one and only famous Tiong Bahru Pau. This stall serves up the best Char Siew Pau and Char Siew Shao in my opinion. The pau, unlike others, is slightly small and has a thin, smooth and glossy looking outer layer with a generous amount of filling wrapped inside. Sink a bite into the Char Siew Pau and you will immediately taste the difference. The unique thing about it is the juicy Char Siew filling which is mostly tender lean meat with a few pieces of soft fat and the dark colouring hinting of a very good marinate. The meat is also very flavoursome and slightly sweet being coated with sufficient amount of sauces and contained inside the dough.



The Char Siew Sau also uses the same filling. However, it is the pastry this time that does the talking. Usually when I think of pastry I get the thoughts of dry dough stuck to the surface of my mouth. Take a bite into their pastry, however, and you will be surprised at how soft it is. The pastry is extremely, extremely soft to the point that it seems all the layers are blended into one, almost similar to eating a kueh IMO. Being soft is not enough though, the pastry is well flavour and not bland at all compared to normal pastries. Eaten together, Mmmmmm heavenly!



The stall has two sections, one selling fried stuff and the other selling pau tim. Other snacks that are also sold are glutinous rice (Lor Mai Gai) which is also very popular, large sized Siew Mai, deep fried sesame balls w/ peanuts and lotus paste fillings (extremely soft and good), yam cakes and quite a few more snacks which I haven't tried (and thus can't remember).

If you haven't been to Tiong Bahru Market, I strongly encourage you to give it a visit. And while you are there, you MUST try the Tiong Bahru Pau!