SUKA MAKAN: SOME SHOPS ON CHUN TIN ROAD, OFF UPPER BUKIT TIMAH ROAD

It is common practice to sometimes have meals near your workplace. Chun Tin Road is walking distance from Bukit Timah Plaza, and is where I sometimes have meals with friends, usually at Wednesday lunchtime. There used to be a French restaurant (Vis a Vis) on this short stretch of 1960s shophouses, and there is a good vegetarian restaurant (D'Life) still here. But on this occasion, I opted to go Korean and joining me was the jazz-crossover pianist Tze Toh, who regularly hangs out in the Beauty World area for food and inspiration. This is what we had.

The informality of this Oven Fried Chicken Korean outlet is what brought me here years ago. The food is simple, unpretentious and fairly reasonably priced. A nice kimchee stew (not the full-blown Army Stew variety) is filling enough, and the fried chicken is good enough to write home about.

 

OVEN FRIED CHICKEN

16 Chun Tin Road

Singapore 599603

Tel: 6463-3505

A long-time favourite is Ng Kim Lee Confectionery, the only shop from the 1960s that is still running to this day. This family-run business has been handed to the next generation, but still maintains its standard in local pastry favourites like lao po bing, beh teh saw and other assorted yummies. 

NG KIM LEE CONFECTIONERY

4 Chun Tin Road

Singapore 599591

Tel: 6466-3515

The Beauty World district has its own history, which began when Cheong Chun Tin, a rich merchant bought a large plot of land and erected rows of shop houses on what is Cheong Chin Nam Road today. It's history is nicely summarised on the heritage boards erected just outside the Beauty World MRT exit.

Beauty World also holds special significance for the Chang family, simply because it was the original location of Chang Clinic when it opened in 1965. Chang Clinic moved to Bukit Timah Plaza in 1978. The shanty town businesses of Beauty World were later cleared and relocated during the early 1980s, after sustaining a number of fires. All there exists today is the original staircase running down from Chun Tin Road to a public carpark below.

The red arrows indicate roughly where
the old Chang Clinic was located.