Tiong Bahru lunch

This post is a little overdue, so bear with me. Here are some pics from the excellent lunch I had at Tiong Bahru market. This is the new market, all renovated and everything. So it's really spacious, and airy, and basically looks nice and new-ish.

Why Tiong Bahru market? Well, somebody watched this show on Channel 8, where Bryan Wong and Calvin Soh go around hunting for stalls with unusually long queues, after which, they will accost a few innocent bystanders to ask for their opinions. Once the reason for queuing is established, that stall is expected to serve a panel of judges, and then these judges (both local Singaporeans and local celebrities) will critique the food.

So this time round, it was Shark's Meat Lor Mee, and some super nice wanton noodles with uber-delicious char siew (roasted pork).

When I arrived at the market, Leonard and Tien were already queuing up. And it was horrendous! Post-TV show fame really helped the two businesses. Tien had like, 20+ people (shark meat lor mee) in the queue in front of him, and Leonard had about 12+ people (wanton noodle stall). I looked on in disbelief for abit, and decided to ATTEMPT to locate another stall with a moderately long queue so that by the time I bought my food, I would more or less be able to sync with them. Alas, it was not possible. Shark meat lor mee, and uber-delicious char siew wanton noodle stall just were too much.

This was my lunch - simple pig's innard's soup with rice. The stall had a modest queue as well, signifying some form of popularity (of course its queue paled in comparision to the other two stalls'), so I figured I'd buy this, and hope that I would at least take a long time. However, because it was a soupy dish, my queuing adventure was over in about 20 minutes. Leonard and Tien carried on with their individual missions, determined to make this trip to TB market worthwhile.

This was the length of the queue from the shark meat lor mee stall. Check out the number of people in front of, and behind, Tien. Siao right?!?!

So anyway, I bought my food, and stared at it for quite awhile, intending to wait for the two of them. I decided to stop when I received the following SMS from Tien:

"R u sure u wanna wait for the next Singapore shark lor mee idol n wanton idol. Just eat first. We r still in top 5."

Damn funny...

So I started eating lor...very very SLOWLY of course. Heh.

They finally came back with the food!!! (After about 10-15 more minutes of waiting.) The total waiting time for the food came to a grand total of 1HR! Amazing! The things we will do for food...seriously man...hahhaa...that being said...it was really worth it. Here's the proof.

Uber-delicious char siew with wanton mee Superstar.


Shark meat lor mee Idol.
(queue so long, don't buy TWO bowls is siao lor...^_^)

Looks good right?!?!?! And trust me, it really was good lor. If you've ever watched those crazy Japanese anime where the characters eat something, and lightning flashes through their heads, well, this is exactly how these two dishes tasted. To be very honest, the char siew was really really FARKING GOOD! And the shark's meat (actually it's just fish...BUT VERY GOOD FISH! The texture's totally different) was DIVINE! Very very good...totally lived up to all the hype. Hahaha.

Before

The two 'idols' and the 'not-so-idol-ish' pig's innards soup

After

But heck...EVERYTHING was GREAT! Yum!

If you noticed, there was a lone piece of char siew left. Don't worry, it was well taken care of by dearest Leonard. Hahaha...

PS: Some people have the funniest faces when they managed to buy the dish they have been craving for the entire week. It's a deranged, overly happy look that borders on insanity. But there there, we still love you... =P

** Please feel free to click on the photos to get a better look (especially at the food!). ^_^**