Sinagpore Hawker Stalls at East Lagoon Food Village

I’d been hearing about the wonders of Singapore street food and hawker stalls for years, from friends, from Top Chef, etc. My first time in Singapore I was alone, only in town for 29 hours, and too intimidated to brave it by myself. This time I had a friend and plenty of time! (Btw, it’s totally fine to go by yourself)

So after we completed our self-made walking tour in the morning, we jumped in a cab and headed to the East Lagoon Food Village, which according to online reviews, is considered one of the best places for Hawker stalls. We were going at lunch, which meant alot of the places wouldn’t be open, but we hoped it would also be less crowded/more manageable.

Two-thirds of the shops were shut, but the ones that were opening were bustling. Which was helpful, since supposedly you can tell the best place based on the length of line. We grabbed at table in the sun, and I set up first to hunt down some satay.

All the places I tried said a wait of 40 minutes, so I eventually just picked the one with the longest line and ordered about 40 pieces of mixed satay — pork, beef, mutton, and chicken which cost us somewhere around $5USD.

It arrived much sooner than that. And WOW was it good. Funnily enough I liked the mutton most (not a huge mutton fan).

In the meantime my friend took her turn, trying to find a place that served both Nasi goreng (my pick) and pineapple rice (her pick). Once that order was placed I went off to get us drinks, hopefully one that involved a coconut.

I wound up getting two — the regular coconut water and the Thai coconut water (the vendor was clearly confused that I wanted two coconuts and two bottles of water).

I favored the Thai coconut, but a little of either went a long way.

While we were waiting for the second round of food to arrive, the heavens opened up with a torrential downpour. The problem was, we hadn’t been able to find a table with an umbrella or covering, so we had to grab everything and run for the nearby covered walkway, anxiously keeping an eye out for our food.

The runner from that stall happened to come by enroute to someone else and saw us. Asked where our table was — when we pointed to the flooded area, he told us to go find another table, he’d track us down “you’re too pretty not to notice” HAH! Much relieved though (since we had our hands full with the coconuts, bags, etc) we finally found a covered table in a much less popular area.

And he did find us, unfortunately the order was wrong — two orders of pineapple rice, but we decided to just suck it up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great dish and the best it had going for it was the orange color…

I was still a little hungry so my friend offered to go track down some fried carrot cake for me see if there was anything else she wanted. This dish was much better but I was pretty full at this point so I only managed some of it.

The rain had started to clear up, so we picked our way through the center and out onto the beach, which was lovely, but I wouldn’t have wanted to swim in the water that so many tankers were docked in…

The best part was watching two kids literally drawing lines in the sand. 🙂

We were able to catch a cab back to the hotel almost immediately, and were soon headed back to pack up and get ready to go to the night zoo before my 2AM flight.

Next post: Singapore Night Zoo

3 Days In Singapore Trip Report:
Finally Getting to fly Singapore Airlines First Class
Overnight at the Sheraton North Houston
My Flight is Cancelled. Or is it?
Singapore Airlines First Class: Houston to Moscow
Race to the International Business Lounge Shower in Moscow + General Impressions
Singapore Airlines First Class: Moscow to Singapore
Spa in the Sky
Grand Hyatt Singapore Review
Grand Hyatt Singapore Club Lounge Review
Nude Swimming Experience
Free Ice Cream & Rained Out Twice In An Hour
Acrophobia Over Sentosa & Gourmet Street Food
Chinese New Year Walking TourÂ andÂ Hawker Stalls at East Lagoon Food Village
A Shift in Hippo Karma At The Night Zoo
A Visit To The Private Room At SIN
Singapore Airlines First Class SIN-IAH: Blind Champagne Tasting
How Much Did the Trip Cost?