The annual Geylang Serai Ramadan Bazaar is back in full swing, and will be running for a full month from March 8 to April 9. This year’s theme is Semangat Raya, meaning ‘spirit of Hari Raya’. There will be over 500 food and retail stalls at the bazaar – slightly fewer than last year’s 700 due to ongoing works around the area.
To keep things affordable, most F&B stalls will also be offering two items priced at $3 each. You can expect smaller, mini-sized snacking portions for these, while bigger portions or signature items from the stalls will be available at a top-up.
Read on to find out what we managed to get for $3 and other items that you should try.
Grab a bag of fried chicken skin from Jom Lekor. For $3, you’ll get a generous amount of crispy, well-seasoned pieces . The signature lekor ($7) – Malay fish crisps – are freshly fried in-house and come in flavours like chilli kicap, samyang, and Thai sweet chilli. You can also get a bowl of customised Jom Mie (from $6) at the store. Simply choose from the range of instant noodles available, select your preferred spice level, pick your favourite sides, and watch them fry it up on the spot.
For a quick snack, drop by the Indian rojak stall Ministry of Rojak, where you can get vadai – a savoury Indian snack – and a cup of warm, comforting teh tarik at $3. If you’ve worked up more of an appetite, get the rojak-in-a-cup or sharing sets that feed up to four, consisting of an assortment of dough fritters and fried snacks like tempeh, cuttlefish or chicken cutlets.
Krumbz n Kraves has a unique snack – the mozzarella carbonara popiah – that goes at $3 for two pieces. It’s loaded with melted cheese and cream sauce for a satisfying cheese pull. They also offer other fried snack options like Argentinian squid ($10) and Shihlin chicken ($7), alongside different seasonings to choose from.
Other $3 snacks include grape tanghulu at the Korean Tanghulu store and fish otahs at Syrarizz’s. Wash it all down with a cup of refreshing coconut water ($3) with generous amounts of coconut flesh from Co-Cane, or your choice of Thai iced milk tea ($3) available at various stalls around the bazaar. Flavours include the classic Thai milk tea, green milk tea, as well as more unique flavours like taro.
Make sure to try dendeng ($6 for 100g) – a staple snack during the festive Hari Raya period. Thin, charred beef slices are fired up over charcoal and have a texture similar to jerky, or bak-kwa. Also stop by the Chai-O-Clock to try dahi-puri and pani-puri ($7 for 5 pieces), which are popular Indian street snacks featuring crunchy chickpea shells stuffed with chaat masala, tamarind chutney and other spices.
The Geylang Serai Ramadan Bazaar runs daily from 10am to 11.59pm with an extension until 6am in the lead-up to Hari Raya on April 10.