Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre closed for renovations; expected to reopen on May 19

Scene at Tiong Bahru market. Photo: Coconuts Media
Scene at Tiong Bahru market. Photo: Coconuts Media

If you failed to grab your last bite at Tiong Bahru Market and Food Centre before it closed for renovation works, don’t feel bad. According to an announcement from the National Environment Agency (NEA) the repairs, redecoration and renovation works are expected to last from today till May 19.

While three months isn’t that long of a wait, chances are, following the reopening of the hawker centre, one or two popular stalls may no longer be there because recent sales figures haven’t been looking so good for some of the Tiong Bahru hawkers.

We do expect some of the popular hawkers to stay though — here are two such stalls.

Jian Bo Shui Kueh
Jian Bo Shui Kueh’s famous chwee kueh. Photo: Bryan Chihan / Facebook

One of them is Jian Bo Shui Kueh: a franchise stall that can be found all over Singapore. From its humble beginnings in Tiong Bahru Market as a small chwee kueh stall back in the 1960s, it has since expanded its business to 14 outlets – excluding the flagship stall – and included more varieties in its menu. It even has a website of its own. Reviewers of the chwee kueh have always praised the aromatic preserved radish mixed with sesame seeds.

Zhong Yu Yuan Wei Wanton Noodles
Best char siew wanton noodles in Tiong Bahru. Photo: Sufei Shaw / Facebook

The other is the famous Zhong Yu Yuan Wei Wanton Noodles (忠于原味云吞面), which was featured in an episode of Channel 8 variety show 排排站查查看. In English, it reads “Loyal to the Original Taste of Wanton Noodles”, and boy, does the stall deliver. Famous for the Bu Jian Tian (不见天) char siew — roast pork that ‘doesn’t see the sky’, which technically is a polite form of describing the pig’s armpit — the stall is never seen without a long queue every day.

As for the hawkers, take a well-deserved rest for three months and let the war of the queues rage once again come May.

tiong bahru market mural
Photo: Coconuts Media


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