RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: BUKIT TIMAH FOOD CENTRE @ BEAUTY WORLD

The nearest food centre to my office is the one that I frequent least. That is the great irony of it all, and we had a chance to correct that slight by this visit. And we realised what we have missed all along. The original Bukit Timah Food Centre, located next to Pei Hwa Presbyterian School and erected in the mid 1970s, was demolished in 2023. It then moved to the large empty field in front of Beauty World MRT station. In actual fact, it is now located on the original premises of the now-fabled Beauty World.

Old Beauty World, demolished mid-1980s.

Old Bukit Timah Food Centre & Market,
demolished 2023.

The Beauty World of old was a shanty town, a ramshackle rabbit warren of shops and food stalls that had too many fires for its own good, and was shut down permanently in the 1980s. The present Bukit Timah Food Centre, an interim location, has that similar vibe of busyness, randomness and chaos, and with a wide variety of food stalls distributed over a large area. There are so many choices that it is almost bewildering.

There's even an annex block
to this food centre.

We decided on a few food stalls, had an enjoyable dinner, the dishes are displayed on this page together with where we bought them. With that, we also made the promise to come back and try the other stalls on another day.

Yong Tau Foo in soup

White Chai Tow Kuay (Carrot Cake)

Chicken Chop with Rose sauce (creamy tomato)

Ice jelly with longans

BUKIT TIMAH FOOD CENTRE

2A Jalan Seh Chuan

Singapore 599213

Corner of Upper Bukit Timah Road

and Jalan Jurong Kechil

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.