Jurong West Hawker Centre food guide: Pioneer’s new hawker haven

Get your comfort food fix just like Ah Ma makes it. Chye Lye has a small menu, but its few dishes will bowl you over.

Aside from conventional noodle soup dishes such as mee hoon kway ($5) and mee sua ($5), this growing chain offers less common options like sheng mian (literally translated to raw noodles) and tou chiam (bean noodles) served in a hearty pork broth finished with liberal dashings of Chinese wine.

Try the Ah Gong Tou Chiam ($5.50) - slippery smooth noodles with minced meatballs, sliced pork, pork liver, braised Chinese mushrooms, and an egg, topped with chives and finely sliced fried ginger.

Boldly laying claim to the famous Shenton Way mee goreng and West Coast Indian rojak, Muhammad Aizan is your friendly mamak stall that serves up everything from maggi goreng to mutton soup. The second branch of the Indian Muslim stall in Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre has a similarly wide variety of options and extended operating hours, making it popular among diners looking for a hearty breakfast or some late-night nosh.

Build your own plate of Indian rojak by choosing from a good variety of items like dough fritters with prawn, potato, or egg; crispy tempeh, tau kwa and more. Best enjoyed with the sweet peanut sauce that accompanies the dish.

Fire up some tradition in the form of seriously fresh fish in a charcoal steamboat. Generous chunks of angoli ($28), red grouper, or pomfret and vegetables (Chinese cabbage, seaweed, and tang oh) are brought to a roiling boil in a light stock that isn’t laden with MSG. The charcoal imparts a subtle smokiness to the entire dish, making for a flavourful affair.

Make it a complete meal with the addition of zi char favourites such as prawn paste chicken (from $10), cuttlefish kang kong (from $12), and hotplate oyster omelette (from $12).

One of the few halal stalls at Jurong West Hawker Centre, Rasa Sayang serves up affordable Western fare starting from $4.50 for a burger and fries set. The affable stall-owner said that the chicken chop ($6.80) is his bestseller. It comes with either mushroom or black pepper sauce, baked beans, coleslaw, and fries.

The aglio olio (from $3) options are popular with diners too – choose to have it with chicken ham and mushroom ($6.50), chicken chop/cutlet/fried fish ($7.50), and even salmon/lamb chop ($9).

Touted to be the number one pig leg rice in Singapore, the stellar quality of Shi Nian’s offerings are clearly consistent across its 27 outlets, including its latest at Jurong West Hawker Centre.

The best-selling pig leg rice ($5.90) dish comes with a tantalisingly tender portion of braised pork leg, a piece of homemade prawn cake, and some salted vegetables. Braised intestines, pig skin and other innards are also available as add-ons. Whatever you do, have your order with the tangy chilli for an explosion of flavours.

Simply named Viet Food, this unassuming stall boasts a small menu of authentic and affordable Vietnamese dishes (from $3), that are simply-executed yet remarkably tasty.

The Vietnamese grilled meatballs set ($4.50) has a smoky char that infuses throughout the slightly sweet soup in which they are served and comes with a portion of vermicelli and vegetables. For those in search of value, they offer a budget meal of Vietnam Mee ($3) which is essentially instant noodles with a hard-boiled egg and prawn.

Pan-fried buns (from $4.50) and dumplings (from $5.50) are clearly the name of the game here. Xiangyu offers an unusual but equally (if not more) tasty prawn version of the pan-fried buns in addition to the conventional pork fillings more commonly found. Think of the prawn filling found in dim sum, but in a crispy-based bao instead.

Be warned: these are seriously juicy and will squirt, so eat them as you would a xiao long bao – by slurping on the broth through a tiny hole before sinking your teeth into them.