East Coast Lagoon Food Village

I only found out this morning (after googling) that the correct name for the East Coast Lagoon/East Coast Hawker Centre/East Coast Food Centre was the East Coast Lagoon Food Village. What a mouthful!

The husband and I go there quite frequently because we really love some of the food served there. It's also good because parking is free after 10pm, there are no touts harrassing us (like at Newton Circus) and I think it's also a pretty well-designed hawker centre. I like how NEA has done up the place, using dark-brown timber and sand-coloured tiles to bring out the beachside concept.

We were there last night for dinner around 9.30pm because the husband had to work late. The primary reason for our frequenting the place is Meng Kee Satay Bee Hoon, which always has a long queue of hungry people who are willing to patiently queue up for at least 20-30mins. Ok, not all are patient but they still queue anyway. They open every day (except Tuesdays) from 5-11pm which suits us fine, since we usually get there pretty late anyway, usually after getting back from the airport.

The husband (not in picture below because he was too far back in the queue) waited for 30 mins before managing to order. Meng Kee is the one with the yellowish signboard.

When he finally came to the table balancing 2 plates of Satay Bee Hoon rather irritated and hungry, the first thing I told him was WAIT CANNOT EAT I WANT TO TAKE PHOTO. The satay sauce has just the right combination of flavours and is blended real smooth. They serve tau pok, cuttlefish, tau geh, kangkong, pork slices, pork liver and cockles (we usually omit the last 2 items) which go really well with the bee hoon and sauce. You can get $2, $3, $4 and $5 servings.

We also love the oyster omelette (or luak) and chicken wings at Song Kee Fried Oyster (Stall 15) and Ah Hwee BBQ Chicken (Stall 14) respectively. Our strategy is for my husband to queue for the satay been hoon, and when he's placed the order, to dash over to Song Kee to order the or luak. My responsibility is just to sit down and get the table : )
Song Kee is one of our 2 favourite or luak stalls in Singapore. The other is at Newton, but we are boycotting the place for the time being because the touts were really active the last time we were there. Here, they fry the starch to just the right level of crispiness on the outside with the inside still soft. They are also generous with the egg. The oysters don't really matter to us beacuse we don't eat them anyway! Shame, I know, but we would rather not take the risk. This is a $3 serving below.

The chicken wings ($.120 each) are considered the best BBQ chicken wings in Singapore by my husband. That's a big honour since he doesn't usually like chicken wings (too fatty and too many bones). Ah Hwee does a pretty good job of making sure they aren't charred but are yet cooked through on the inside.

Our dinner in its full glory

After going home, we were craving something yummily cold. Again, thanks to my previous favourite airline, there was a 200ml bottle of bubbly that had been in our fridge for some months.

Check out the cap! It's designed to look like the cork of a champagne bottle but is actually a screw cap. Thank goodness. I can't imagine all the in-flight passengers popping corks in the aircraft (or maybe that's what caused the hole in the cabin...maybe it wasn't the oxygen tank after all)

A wonderful conclusion to a great dinner

Since I haven't got many of these small bottles left, I would like to make an open plea to Qantas to please please make sure that:

a) Oxygen tanks don't explode anymore

b) Your aircraft don't plunge rapidly mid-air

c) Your pilots don't collide planes into each other on the ground

d) Snakes you are transporting on passenger planes don't escape

e) Your landing gear systems don't suddenly malfunction, and

f) Your engines don't spontaneously catch fire.

Because, unlike the airline I am forced to fly now, you:

a) Give mileage for discounted flights

b) Serve much much much better food and alcohol

c) Give good service without making your staff look like they are begging

d) Don't play annoying music during your safety video, and

e) Despite all the above problems, have never had a crash.