I couldn’t leave Singapore without eating at a proper hawker centre. It was suggested to us that we visit the Maxwell Road Food Centre and as it was located in Chinatown, our intended destination one day, we headed there for lunch.

I decided to have my all-time favourite hawker dish – chai tow kway. Yes, I know I’d already had a good taste of it at the Straits Kitchen but I needed another plateful! There’s a bit of chili paste fried in with this one though it’s not exactly visible. To drink, I had my favourite drink that isn’t available in the UK – fresh sugarcane juice. You can’t make it with a regular juice; instead, the stalks of sugarcane are pressed through rollers and that greenish liquid is what results. It’s sweet (duh) and very refreshing.

Chai Tow Kway and Sugarcane Juice

My friend chose to queue at the stall with the longest line and was rewarded with this delectable looking plate of Hainanese chicken rice (boiled chicken served with rice cooked in chicken stock – sounds boring, tastes wonderful). I had a little taste – it was very good. Well worth the long queue!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

She also had this very cute cup of fresh soy bean milk.

Soy Bean Milk

For dessert, we split a deliciously crispy pisang goreng (fried banana) and a few pieces of hum jin pang (sweet five-spice dough fritters – the stall at this hawker centre is famous for them and I had to queue). Both were excellent – fresh and not at all soggy.

Pisang Goreng

Hum Jin Pang

As this hawker centre was right by Chinatown, it’s unsurprising that there aren’t many Malay or Indian food stalls. That was a bit of a shame but there were already so many options for us that we didn’t feel like it was lacking in anything. Finally, certain stalls only open for lunch or dinner.

Maxwell Road Food Centre
on the corner of Maxwell Road and South Bridge Road
Singapore