1$ Singapore Street Food?! CHINATOWN COMPLEX FOOD - Cheap MICHELIN HAWKER Street Food in Singapore

For lunch, I brought you today's bamboo nasi rendang, beef with the gravy and the nasi lemak. In today's video, we're going to take a peek into Singapore's Chinese culture, history and cuisine as we explore Chinatown. We'll see elements of old Singapore blended with the modern city through the shophouses, murals, temples, restaurants and hawkers. Joining me today is my all-time favorite makan kaki, Bruce Matthew, who was born and raised in Singapore. We're gonna eat our way through the streets of Chinatown Singapore. So there are a few murals like this around Chinatown. I mean, of course, it's different. The artist that did this is a local. His name is Yip Yiu Chong. So as you can see, this is a very old school calendar. And there's a date on it, 1979. 12th of January 1979. And what you can do is, you can actually take a picture like this. And you look like you're sitting down. Pagoda Street. Don't ask me why it's called Pagoda Street. Until today, a lot of people trying to figure out. Oh my gosh, this is such an old school spot. I mean, the smell, the vibe. Every corner of this shop is just nostalgic. Wow, these are priceless. It just brings me back to childhood. Look at this. So cool. Old telephones, cameras, everything old. What a cool place. One day is definitely not enough to explore the area. So Bruce and I met up the next day to makan at Chinatown Complex Food Center. Located at the heart of Singapore, it's one of the biggest and most famous hawker centers around the Lion City. With over 260 stalls, they offer value-for-money dishes from Michelin-starred stalls to old school traditional ones. We're eyeing on some Cikwe, Bihun, Batang, peanut and cuttlefish porridge, and a surprising halal Muslim food stall specializing in Bamboo Nasi Rendang. Let's eat. So guys, today we have got something very special. We are down at Chinatown Complex and the first stop is, are you ready? Cikwe. Thank you. What do we got here? Okay, we have here today the Cikwe. A very simple food. You have your starch part of all this. The most important of them all, are you ready? It's the Cai Po. This one, oh this is the killer. Cai Po is a preserved vegetable. When it's fried with love and care, TLC, lots of TLC. I tell you, this simple and cheap dish will taste absolutely heavenly. Begin. Actually, first time seeing a very big Cikwe. The more traditional ones will be the small ones. Yeah, I want to try without the sambal first. Okay. So I see why it's preserved, like you get that umami, you get the savoriness, you know, non-mamaic taste. The Cikwe is melting in your mouth, like very soft, smooth. That's what Sade says, right? I like it. I'll try it with the sambal. Very important element in any Cikwe, or any dish. Too big, you know what? Too slow in eating it. You want to just take and shovel it into your mouth. Now you have the contrast. Oh, spicy. Yes. You keep coming back for more. You can handle the heat. Yeah, love it. Coming from a family that's not very well-to-do, this is a simple yet filling breakfast to have. So this is mostly a breakfast item for Singapore and Chinese, would you say? Okay. Very simple. I think it can be hearty at some point and very flavorful. It's starch, you know? Yeah, starchy. Gives you all the energy you need. Good place for a first stop. Enough of all the talking, let's do the eating. So we're here at Jia Ji Mei Shi. We are here. Jia Ji Mei Shi. Jia Ji Mei Shi. See. Jia Ji Mei Shi. Jia Ji Mei Shi. It's okay, like forget it. Forget it. It's okay. Before us is the bee hoon and then cuttlefish, peanut, porridge, congee, and dao zhang. Especially got a bean dumpling for you because I don't think you've tried this before. No. The norm that you get on the outside will be more of the ba zhang, you know what I mean? This is very different. It's made with green beans on the inside. Sweet. Yeah, sort of like a bit sweet. I can't call it a dessert, like it's a meal in itself but you know, we try, you know it. Are you ready? I'm super ready. Let's go. Let's do this. It's my first time having just cuttlefish and peanut combo on a porridge. It's already seasoned well. Savory enough, right? Yeah. The cuttlefish gives it that sweetness to the porridge. The peanut is not super soft. Just a little bit of texture. Add maybe more pepper but that's just me. I mean, I love pepper too. So we set this aside. Next one, bee hoon. Okay, so I've asked for extra sweet sauce and then chili at the side. So this is a very Singaporean breakfast. Still called like economy bee hoon because it's supposedly very cheap. You can add your tau kwa, your bean curd, I don't know, chicken nuggets or fish fillet. It's all up to you. I think this is the more traditional. The plain, the better. I go with the sweet sauce of course. Yeah, sweet sauce first. Cheers! With the sambal. The sambal, lightly sweet but it's not spicy. Wow, this one is nice. I understand why people are ordering this bee hoon and then porridge side by side. But mind you, it doesn't have to be this way. You can have any combination you like. Because in the Philippines, we eat bee hoon with rice, you know. Like together. What? That's how flavorful our bee hoon is. Okay, let's go for the tau kwa. Let's move on. I'll try the as it is first. Oh la, she ate the whole sauté. She ate it all. Whenever I eat dumpling, I always need to have sauté inside. If not, I will not touch it. And just eat the whole thing. Try it with the sambal. This is very filling. Okay, so of these three, which is your favorite? I am surprised that I like the porridge. The simplicity of it. Because it looks so plain. Because I grew up eating Filipino porridge that is very, very flavorful and savory. So I have that standard of getting the same flavor. And this is surprisingly flavorful. For me, this one. I love my dumplings. I love my dumplings. Nyonya chang, bak chang, whatever chang. Oh my god. Whatever chang. Yeah, me, me. Being a Katong boy, all right. Born and bred in Katong. I was brought up with kimchus, nyonya chang. It has been a staple my whole life. This one to me is Sibe Besar. Sibe Hotiang. Bolonglong Sour Plum. Bolonglong. That's the name of the fruit. Oh, sour plum. And mild. Okay, we have had two rounds of breakfast already. Now comes the main event. Lunch. For lunch, I brought you today's bamboo nasi rendang. Oh my. This is an absolute must try. I'm so excited. You're excited. I mean. I'm very excited too. Halal food, Muslim food in Chinatown. Why not, right? Yep. I will not say too much. You try and then you tell me what you think about it. So there are two. This is the beef and this is the chicken. Okay. Okay. Try the rice first and you tell me. Wow, very fluffy. Is this basmati rice? Yes, basmati rice. You can taste the leaf already. Of course you can. You can eat the leaf if you want to. It's very fragrant. What if I tell this is nasi lemak? This is actually coconut rice. Do you believe me? Really? Yep. So nasi lemak wrapped in the daun lerek. This is actually coconut rice. But does it taste like coconut rice? No. Exactly, right? After it's wrapped in the rice, you cook together with the meat, the rendang. Oh my gosh, I tell you. The flavor of the meat permeates through the rice and then you get the daun lerek. You steam it in the bamboo. It's like three, four, five flavors pressed together into the rice. Now I'm excited. Yes, you try it. You try it. So just try the gravy with the rice first. Oh, I love the sauce. I'll have a bit of gravy for you. Okay, all yours. Beef with the gravy and the nasi lemak. So tender. Yes, so tender, right? So nice, right? Wow, so good. This was my first impression when I had this. You know I do food distribution to the old and elderly. After that, I came here for dinner. I ordered this and I tried it. I said, what a nice nasi briyani. I thought it was briyani. Next two Fridays, I came. I couldn't get anything because it was packed. The queue was long when they tell me it's nasi lemak. Don't think I get it. Let me try the chicken this time. Ayam rendang. The meat, I mean considering it's a big drumstick, it's very moist inside. Seasoned really well. Oh man, but what's so special about this is even if you eat the rice alone, it is that good. The only thing I will add is potatoes. That's just my preference. But this on its own, all the flavors, perfection. It is super duper good. It just disintegrates out of the two. The daging, the beef is really my top favorite. We've already had breakfast but I feel like I'm hungry again. For this, you can afford to put on the extra pounds. It's that good. If you miss this, I'm telling you, I feel so sorry for you. Especially for tourists who are staying in nearby hotels in Chinatown. No need to go Geylang Serai. No need to go there. This is what we call the char kway teow. I think a lot of people have the misconception that this is a Hokkien dish whereas this is actually a Teochew dish. Way back, way back when it was first started. It's supposed to be a dish for the common man where they use rice noodles, just fried with lard and then the sauce and there you have it, the meal itself. Through the ages, you know there are improvements to it where you put the lap cheong, the cockles, the fish cake, the what not. But even the noodle right, it's just originally just kway teow. Yes. This one is from I like this. The wok hay and all that. Wok hay, freshly fried and it's on the savory side because some kway teows can be a little too sweet. They have two versions. One is a drier version. I like the wet one. So there's just bean sprouts and then some fish cake. Egg, cockles. And it's due to people like the cockles cooked. Still raw, I like it raw. Yeah, the raw, the fresher. So you can really taste the freshness of it in the Philippines. When we cook the noodles, we don't have cockles. Yeah, only in Singapore. So is this something you'll come back to have again? Why not if I'm around the area? No need to queue with the more famous stalls, you know, and it's equally good. Chinatown Complex is a place to come to whether you're local or you're tourist to get a feel of what Singapore food is like. It's about everything for everyone. Chinese, Indian, Malay, Halal, everything all under one roof. There's a lot of stalls here, like there's different color coding. There's like more than a hundred stalls here. Yeah, you might just be confused. There's blue, yellow, red and what else? Green corner? I think so. You'll find a lot of local dishes with the auntie uncles serving you with their heritage, the recipes that's been passed down to them as well. Chinatown Complex is more of the Cantonese area. So people down here largely speaks Cantonese. Okay guys, I tell you what, we're not going to talk anymore. So that's the end of today's video. Thank you so much Bruce again for touring me here at Chinatown Complex. What was your favorite today? My favorite of course is the Bamboo Nasi Rendang. That one was the bomb. Was it the bomb or what? Yes, you wouldn't expect. It's very surprisingly good and it's in Chinatown and oh my gosh, Bamboo Nasi Rendang is my new found love. I hope you guys will come down here and try and I tell you, you will not be disappointed. If you try, you say not nice. I tell you, I let you take the plate and try it. Please do follow Bruce at BruceMatthew on TikTok or go to my Facebook and Instagram, BruceMatthew. Instagram, I guess, will be bruce__m0812. All right, that's it for today's video. Thank you so much for watching. Until we meet again in Singapore. And it's see you next time. See you next time.