Singapore’s BEST Hawker Center!? STREET FOOD Tour of Old Airport Road Hawker Center

Hey guys, Mike Chen. I am here at one of my all-time favorite hawker centers here in Singapore, Old Airport Road Hawker Center. Since coming back to Singapore, I haven't really done a video about this place. Haven't really even been, I think I've been here once in a one thing. And I just see that there are a lot of new stalls that are open. So today, let's go eat a lot of stuff. Whoa, I don't think I've ever seen this bao place before. Vegetarian place. I really like that biryani place. All right, I'm gonna come back to this bao place. That looks amazing. I think I need something savory and breakfast-y right now. I know exactly what I'm gonna get. Oh yeah, this is the place I was looking for. Changfen, Changfen. I like a Changfen. Start off the day with some rice noodles. So I got some scallop Changfen, and they're nice enough to give me a pidan Changfen, which is a century egg Changfen. Never had this before. This is really interesting. By the way, I just wanna say, this hawker stall, the people are so nice. I've been wanting some Changfen. Mm, that's really good. The scallops are so tender too. There's really nothing that beats freshly made Changfen. It's soft, it's springy, it's delicate. It's just so satisfyingly yummy. Scallops, not a very common Changfen stuffing. Really light, really sweet. The spicy sauce is really good too. Century egg Changfen. This is gonna be so interesting. Oh, oh that's really nice. If you guys never had century egg before, it's an acquired taste. But if you do acquire it, it's amazing. The flavor is rich, it's extremely deep. The egg yolk becomes almost like a custard-y texture. And leaves this really yummy, fermented flavor on your tongue. It actually works really well with the Changfen. The Changfen and the egg yolk, both really soft. And unlike the typical ingredients, like beef or shrimp, the century egg is pretty much pure umami. The texture works, the flavor really works. I'm surprised more people don't do this. This is a really good combination. Couple of things I wanna try from this place, and they told me they make everything in-house. This is a xia zhao, so thin layer of tofu skin on the outside. I think inside is shrimp cake. I love this. Wow, this is so good. The outside crunch is just amazingly subtle, but you definitely feel it. Inside you taste the shrimp, there's some water chestnuts in here as well. Great texture, even better flavor. I know this is fried, but this is also so light as well. I really, really like this. Last thing they wanted me to try was their dumplings. Thin outer wrapper, inside whole prawn in here with the pork. This is very nice as well. I'm just gonna add a little bit of my own chili oil onto this. By the way, new improved, much spicier, Mike's hot oil is out. This is the crispy garlic version. Any chance I get to use this, I do it. Absolutely perfect with the dumplings. That's so nice. That is so nice. Fair warning, this will burn you. But if you like spicy as much as I do, you'll enjoy that burn. Ooh, that's garlicky. Anyway, if you want to pick this up, mikeshotoil.com. I'll put the link down below for you. Also, for the holiday season, all the hot oils are 15% off. I think you guys are gonna really like this. Put some of the hot oil on the chonfin as well. This tastes pretty much good with anything. Only bad thing about this, and I'm sorry, we still haven't figured out international shipping. So it is still US only, unfortunately. Prawn noodle I just showed you guys was one of my all-time favorite stalls here in this hawker center. Last time I was there, it was definitely a hidden gem. Not a lot of people knew about it. I think they got pretty popular now. Anyway, they told me live shrimp doesn't get there for another 30 minutes. So before then, Girl's Paradise is opening in about five minutes. All right, so they're not gonna be ready for another 30 minutes either. Let's go get a bowl. So I got liu sha bao and xiao long bao. So liu sha bao is the custard with a salted egg yolk bun. And everything here is freshly made as well. So obviously you're gonna start with the liu sha bao first. Just like a watch. You don't want this thing to stop running. Thick, rich, creamy, salted egg custard. And the bun that's enveloping it is absolutely fluffy, airy perfection. This place, as soon as I walked up, you could smell that delicious flavor of the yeast. They sell mantou here as well. Steamed buns for $2 for five pieces. I bet you they're steamed buns delicious as well. I feel like the salted egg flavor is not as pronounced as some other salted egg buns I've had in the past. But you can definitely taste it. And the filling is much thicker and richer as well. That definitely goes really good with the bigger, airier bun. The bun itself is absolute marvel. It's so delicious, white and puffy. It looks so pretty. It tastes so good. This is a delicious bun. I'm so excited for my soup dumplings. Whenever I pass by a soup dumpling place at a hawker center, I don't pass it up. Got some vinegar and scallions. I'm gonna go ahead and add my hot oil to it. Soup dumpling, nice, thin skin, giant meat filling. Really juicy. I don't think I've had a bad soup dumpling stall at any hawker center so far. A lot of times in the US, you go to a place that sells soup dumpling, a lot of times it's not that great. I mean, I went to one that stood up to frozen soup dumplings. I think they're Trader Joe's, by the way. Steamed it up and served it to you. In Singapore, go to any hawker center. If you see a soup dumpling place, more likely than not, it's gonna be pretty awesome. This place is really good. I don't know why there's nobody here. They sell awesome soup dumplings here. Really good soup dumplings. One of the reasons I wanted to come here on a Friday is because JJ's Special Beef Noodle is open today. So JJ's Special Noodle is one of the most popular stalls here at Old Airport Road. They specialize in noodle soup. They also have a tri version, which I got. The beef is really, really good. So it's dry rice noodles. Noodles are extremely beefy. And give you a side of soup as well. This is so, so good. One of the best beef broths I had in Singapore so far. And I love getting the dry noodle just because I love the texture of all dry noodles. There's a lot of sprouts and raw onions in here as well. So every bite, you get a nice crunch. Along with your chewy rice noodles, the beef is tender. It's marinated beautifully. A lot of tendon and fat on these pieces as well. The best is take a bite of the dry noodles and sip with the beef broth. Oh, that broth is so good. And I just noticed they have Wagyu as well. So got a bowl of their Wagyu beef noodle soup. Well, the broth in this bowl is way lighter than what I got here. Still really beefy. It's got a nice clean taste to it. And for 13 Singapore dollars, which is about nine bucks, they give you a lot of Wagyu. Look at this. So if you hold it up to the light, you can see all the marbling and fat coursing through this piece of beef. Oh, that is very, very tender. Very tender, very beefy, very melt-in-your-mouthy. Not aggressively seasoned. It really focuses on that nice, clean beef flavor. I think I like the broth in this little bowl more. Maybe because this one is just not as diluted with the noodles and such. But the dry noodles, delicious. Also, the uncle gives you so much meat. There's so many big chunks of beef here for a $5 bowl of noodles. Same for the Wagyu beef bowl as well. You definitely get value for money at this place. It's so light and sheng. When you take the sip, you taste that mild flavor, but at the same time, there's a subtle umami that just courses through your taste buds. Roast Paradise, one of my all-time favorite roast meat places here in Singapore. I've had a lot of roast meat in Singapore. This place, to me, is still one of the best, if not the best, I've had here. And I especially love their char siu. Super juicy, freshly made every single day. Beautifully charred on the outside. That's just so good. I love how the flavor changes with every couple of chews. And also the juice that's leaked into every grain of rice. It just makes me so happy. Like I said, this thing is so nicely charred on the outside. And when this goes in your mouth, the flavor, especially from the fattier pieces, is almost too much. Every time you chew more of that delicious pork, the juice flows out from the meat. And about four or five chews in, you taste that delicious caramelized outer shell. And there you taste the sweetness of the honey that makes this even more perfect. And make sure you try to ask for the fattier pieces. I think I did get a couple of lean pieces today that are a little bit on the dry side. I think that's the first time I've ever had meat here that didn't just completely melt in your mouth. That bite was absolutely perfect though. Also, I got the roast pig. I love this. Look at that crispy pork skin with a giant layer of fat underneath. That's just so good, so good, so good. You can dip it into the honey mustard sauce to kind of cut the richness of the flavor a little bit. The outer skin just melts in a flurry. As soon as you crunch down on that roast pig, the skin just starts to disintegrate. And all that nice fatty porky flavor just dribbles across your taste buds. This is one of those places that whenever I'm in this food center, I always have to go there. But this is probably my most anticipated plate of food today. The live prawn mee. I still remember this from so many years ago. I remember there was a stall, there was really nobody there. I see this auntie taking live prawns from a fish tank. So I got a bowl and right away, it became one of my favorite foods at this hawker center. I mean, just look at how beautiful this is. One, two, three, four, five giant prawns over noodles, sprouts, greens in this broth. Oh yeah. Oh, it's raining. As long as the rain doesn't get into my broth, I'm good. Maybe I shouldn't chance it. All right, now I can eat in peace. Oh my God, this broth is amazing. It's the same reaction like I felt last time. The broth is so clear and light and shrimpy. The flavor just coursing throughout every single drop. And when it touches your tongue, it feels like someone is just singing it a gentle lullaby. It's still so comforted and happy. Look at this giant prawn. Prawn, of course, take the head off. That is just pure flavor. Pure flavor. It's unbelievable how sweet that prawn is. I mean, everything about this, the natural sweet flavor of the prawn is getting the ultra spotlight here. It's just so naturally sweet. You can taste that in the broth. You can taste that when you slurp the noodles. Man, definitely taste that when you bite into the prawn itself. Like I said, pure flavor. Besides the sweet flavor, the texture of the prawn is so nice as well. And that thing is so bouncy and fresh. Everything about this, from the noodles, to the broth, to the prawns, to the crispy pork skin they put on top of the noodles. That's awesome. This is just a bowl of pure bliss located in this hawker center. Also, the uncle and auntie who run the stall, they're showing me around. They're so nice. She still remembers me from like three years ago. I love reliving amazing food memories. And this is definitely one of my all-time favorite foods here in Singapore. So if you ever come to Old Airport Road, you gotta get this prawn noodle. It's about on my way to get some dessert. Then I walked past a stall that's just open selling claypot rice. Ooh, this thing looks so good. So an individual portion is $6 Singapore dollars. That's pretty darn good value for money. So this is a chicken one with additional Chinese sausage. Sweet soy sauce added in. I'm just trying to scrape all the rice from the pot so I get some of those nice crispy edges. This is a delicious bowl of claypot rice. Ton of crispy rice from the parts where it touches the claypot directly, which is pretty much the essence of claypot rice. Chicken. So much good flavor and texture in this bowl of claypot rice. Salted fish here, chicken, lobster, greens. There's a lot of meat here too. This is very, very good value for money. Rice is delicious. The sweet soy sauce soaked into every single grain. And the rice itself, you taste the smokiness of the meat in almost every single bite. If you mix this well, you get some of that crunchy texture of the crispy rice. Again, this chicken is just ridiculously tender. Flavor perfectly. That's a $4 US dollar bowl of claypot rice. It's absolutely delicious. This is such a good deal. And also with the sweet soy sauce soaked into this pot, this is basically just a giant bowl of pure umami. This is a really good place. I'm gonna grab some dessert right here. Look at this, fried bananas. I don't think I've had fried bananas yet since coming back here. And everything with a fried banana. I miss this. It's so good. Whenever you see a fried banana here in Singapore, you get a fried banana. It's really fun day to be able to come back here and try out some new place I've never been before. And also able to get some of my all-time favorites. But going to hawker centers, exploring hawker centers, one of my favorite things to do here in Singapore. It's still raining really hard. Gotta get to the bus. As always, all places I went to listed down below for you guys. Thank you all so much for watching. Till we eat again. See you later.