Bedok Food Centre (Bedok Corner) - Kampong Bedok

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Bedok Food Centre is a hawker centre affectionately known as Bedok Corner. Simply because it is located at the corner of Bedok Road and Upper East Coast Road. A place where you can find and taste traditional local delicacies such as satay, ayam penyet, laksa, rojak, bubur kampong (kampong style porridge), sup kambing (mutton soup), mee soto, chicken rice, char kway teow, gado-gado, Hokkien mee, roti john and snacks such as banana or chempedak fritters, epok-epok or curry puffs.

There is a popular local dessert cheng teng stall, a few seafood stalls that sell the local perennial favourites spicy sambal stingray or cumi sotong (squid) and many more. Bubur is congee or porridge and kampong means village. Chempedak is artocarpus integer, in the same family as jackfruit.

Bedok Food Centre
Bedok Food Centre a.k.a. Bedok Corner
The words food centre and hawker centres are used interchangeably, and they basically mean the same. In many countries the term hawker centre does not exist and is therefore quite unique to Singapore. Another term food court refers to food centre that are usually air-conditioned and they tend to be located in buildings such as shopping complexes or malls.

So, as you can guest food centre or hawker centre is not air-conditioned and are ventilated naturally or via the good old-fashioned ceiling or wall fans. Which is good for the environment as less heat from the condensers will be emitted in the already hot and humid tropical city.

Bedok Corner
Chicken Rice
You can go to Bedok Food Centre almost at any time, by yourself, with family or with your makan kakis for breakfast, lunch or dinner, in a pleasant calm setting. Though it tends to get quieter during dinner time as some stalls may close in the evening or when their food runs out for the day.

Many of the stalls there have been around and well known for a very long time now, since the good old kampong (village) days when the area is not as well developed into a middle-class mostly landed property. The term makan kakis means food buddies or friends.

Ye Lai Xiang cheng teng
Icy cheng teng
Makan literally means 'eat' and kaki mean legs. Both Makan and kaki are Malay words. So is kampong. The Malays may fondly remember the area as Kampong Bedok.

There is an army camp just opposite the hawker centre so it is an eating and hangout place for the soldiers. Being in the eastern part of Singapore and quite close to the airport, you will sometimes find airport employees having their meals there or the nearby Simpang Bedok.

banana fritters
Goreng pisang/ banana fritters
As there is no MRT nearby (one is another construction), the best way to get there is via own transport or by hopping into public buses nos. 10, 10e, 14, 45 and 531. The food centre is crowded especially during the weekend. Not all stalls open on Monday or Tuesday, perhaps it is a rest day for some hawkers after a busy weekend.

There are too many foods that I like there to mention here. I like laksa and fried banana or fritters. If you go to the hawker centre in the morning, you may to try kacang pool. Or comfort food such as bubur or porridge.

The food centre also has a few delicious ayam penyet stalls. Ayam penyet (flattened chicken) is quite meaty with a generous amount of rice is more of a lunch or dinner menu. I like tauhu rojak too, though this tend to get sold out pretty quickly. And look out for epok-epok or curry puffs. The epok-epok can be the original stuffed with kentang (potato) or the sardine version.

Bedok Corner
Satay, epok-epok and noodles stall
And the drink or dessert not to be missed is the famous Ye Lai Xiang cheng teng at $3 a bowl. You can have your cheng teng hot or cold. And you will find long snaking queue at TFF Boneless Chicken Rice stall. TFF stands for Tong Fong Fatt. Delicious chicken rice indeed. An update, TFF Boneless Chicken Rice is now known as My Nasi Ayam. Well, you can actually find snaking queues at many other stalls too like at some ayam penyet and epok-epok stalls. And check out nasi rawon and nasi jengangan too.

Ayam penyet is an Indonesian dish of flattened piece of chicken and served with white rice with side dishes of chilli sambal and vegetables such as fried tofu and tempeh (fermented tofu). Vegetables vary depending on stalls. There is also bawal (pomfret) penyet. So instead of chicken, it will be pomfret fish instead. Ayam penyet stalls at Bedok Cornet include Nur Indah Kitchen and Ayam Penyet No. 1.

Bedok Corner
Gado-gado
Other than affectionately known as Bedok Corner, the area was formerly Kampong Bedok Laut, laut is sea in Malay. You cannot see water or the sea from Bedok Corner anymore as the area opposite it has been reclaimed. And this pleasant food centre is now nestled among mostly landed properties, which of course used to be kampong (village) area.

Being quite close to Simpang Bedok, another foodie haunt, which is also along Bedok Road at the other end, makes Bedok Road popular with foodies especially during the weekends. For laksa lovers, at Bedok Corner you can find Laksamana and Laksa Siglap. The word Siglap is actually an area along East Coast Road, not far from Bedok Corner. Maybe that is where the laksa originated from.

Bedok Corner
Laksa Siglap
As can be seen in the top photo, the architecture of the food centre features Minangkabau style such as the distinctive steeply pitched roof. Minangkabau comes from the highlands of West Sumatra. The food centre's interior is arranged around a central courtyard and represents the communal life of Bedok's kampong past.

And something else from the past, the area used to be a vibrant rubber tree plantation area. The villagers were still tapping rubber in the 1970s.
Location: 1 Bedok Rd, Singapore 469572

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