Delightful Malay Food at Haig Road Food Centre

Haig Road connects Katong and Geylang, two of the most popular eating places in Singapore. It should come as no surprise to find plenty of food establishments in and around Haig Road. There are many restaurants, cafes and food stalls in the modern air-conditioned One KM Mall. If you want a purer experience of eating good local street food, head on to the Haig Road Market & Food Centre. What to eat there? There is a wide variety of options.

The Haig Road Food Centre is divided into 2 halves – with rows of stalls selling Chinese food in one half and stalls selling Indian and Malay food (mainly halal stalls) in the other half. Haig Road Food Centre is quite well known for its “Hollywood” wanton noodles, Sarawak kolo mee and Yong Li kway chap. Recently, we enjoyed some delightful Malay food at Haig Road Market & Food Centre – mee rebus, mee siam, kueh-keuhs and the famous putu piring.

There are a number of stalls selling mee rebus, the popular Malay dish of yellow noodles with thick sweet-savoury gravy. Much has been written about the version by Afandi Hawa & Family (#01-21). We ordered a plate from #01-18 – Hj Waliti Hj Mauki. It came nicely garnished with a boiled egg, beansprouts, green chilli, fried shallot and two limes. The gravy had a good flavour and texture – not starchy but thick and smooth. The noodles were nicely cooked so that they remained firm and the beansprouts had a refreshing crunchiness.  It was a delicious plate of mee rebus at $2.50.

#01-10 – HJH Aishah Omar & Family Malay Rie & Yong Tau Fu is a stall that seems to be popular and has a tempting array of Malay dishes. We wanted something light and so just ordered a plate of mee siam from the stall. Their mee siam was a simple dish. A very light sweet-sour gravy was poured over a plate of fine bee hoon which had been seasoned. The dish was garnished with a boiled egg and spring onions. The gravy was thin and had a sweet-tangy taste with taucheo (fermented bean paste) adding a savoury element. It was a light and enjoyable dish at $2.50.

#01-11 – Nur Kidayah & Family Goreng Pisang & Kueh Mueh Food Stall sells a wide variety of traditional kuehs, epoks and deep fried items at prices ranging from 50 cents to $1 per item.  We tried their goreng pisang and awol-awol and they were very good.

You cannot go to Haig Road and not take the opportunity to have putu priring. Putu piring are Malay steamed rice cakes made from rice flour encasing a filling of gula Melaka (palm sugar) and served with freshly grated coconut tinged with a little salt.

#01-08 – Traditional Haig Road Putu Piring is reputed to make the best putu piring in Singapore. Each puti piring is freshly made at the stall with a secret recipe for their flour mix. The preparation at the stall is like a very efficient production line and a small batch of perfectly steamed putu piring is ready every 2 minutes or so.

Their putu piring are moist and have a very nice soft texture. The gula melaka and the rice cake almost felt like they were melting in the mouth. The contrast provided by the salted grated coconut makes the simple rice cake a most delectable delicacy. This is a definite “must try” food of Singapore.

They sell a packet of 5 for $2. You can buy to take-away but the putu piring are best enjoyed steaming hot. There is almost always a queue at the stall except on Wednesday – because they are close every Wednesday.

We thoroughly enjoyed our simple lunch at Haig Road Food Centre. There is so much more to try there. Other Malay food at the Haig Road Market & Food Centre that are popular include satay, roti John and nasi padang. We are adding Haig Road Food Centre to our list of Places with Cheap and Good Food in Singapore.

Haig Road Market & Cooked Food Centre
Blocks 13 &14 Haig Road
Singapore 430013/430014

Nearby station:  Paya Lebar

Se our post Good Food at Geylang Serai Market & Food Centre for more delightful Malay food.

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a Singapore food blog by ordinary people looking for places to eat