King of Fried Rice, Famous Eunos BCM & Nam Sing Hokkien Mee Opening At Ion Orchard

Hawkers’ Street takes over the defunct food court-style eatery Let’s Eat!. It is run by Universal Dining, a concept under food service provider Select Group that also operates Chinatown Food Street and International Food Hall at Changi Airport’s Terminal 4. Details are still scant for now (hoarding for the eatery is still up), but 8days.sg has reached out to the company to find out more about Hawkers’ Street’s opening.

Meanwhile, here are the six hawker brands to expect:

Nam Sing is a well-known Hokkien mee stall at Old Airport Road Food Centre. Run by three brothers, the stall usually boasts a queue at peak hours for its prawn and ikan bilis stock-infused bee hoon and noodles, which are tossed with wok hey-kissed eggs, sotong and prawns.

Located in Jalan Besar, Scissors Cut Curry Rice specialises in Hainanese curry rice, with ingredients like pork belly, chicken chop, cabbage and beancurd puffs drenched in a robust curry. We find the curry rice there more than decent, but what makes Scissors Cut so popular is also the fact that it opens till 3am for supper.

The family-run Famous Eunos Bak Chor Mee claims to be the first to introduce bak chor mee to Singapore in the 1920s, when hawker Chen Lian Fu migrated here from China and began selling his signature noodle dish in Kampong Chai Chee from a bamboo pole slung over his shoulder. He later moved his business to a hawker centre in Eunos, where his family continues to sell their much raved-about minced pork noodles, which comes with liberal helpings of pork lard, vinegar and chilli.

Ann Chin Popiah was founded in 1958 by the late Mr Lim Kam Chwee, a former coolie from the Fujian province in China who made a name for himself selling his handmade popiahs from a pushcart. He was exceptionally well-known for his thin, silky popiah skins. His children now run the second-gen biz, which has several outlets in Singapore including Chinatown Complex Food Centre. In 2018, it also earned a Michelin Plate nod from the Michelin Guide Singapore, which awards the Plate to eateries with affordable good food.

Now an ubiquitous chain in Singapore with 20 outlets, Jian Bo was founded by a Mr Wang in 1958. The Teochew immigrant made a living selling steamed chwee kueh topped with preserved radishes and chilli from a pushcart at Tiong Bahru Market. The business was later taken over by its current owners - a husband-and-wife team - in the 1990s, who swapped pork lard with vegetable oil for healthier chwee kueh.

Compared to the other five hawker brands at Hawkers’ Street, King of Fried Rice is the newest player, having opened only in 2018. But within three years, it has rapidly expanded to five outlets in Singapore, plus a cloud kitchen. It was started by former Jumbo chef Lester Li, whose wallet-friendly version of Din Tai Fung-style egg fried rice with pork chop and shrimps proved to be a hit. It recently opened a cloud kitchen at Tampines Mart for food deliveries, and will also open a new branch at Yishun’s Wisteria Mall.

Hawkers’ Street, #B4-66 Ion Orchard, S238801. Open daily 10am-10pm.

Photos: Yip Jieying