Lion Dance in Wet Market - Chinese New Year 2017

Chinese new year lasted for 15 days, throughout the 15 days, it is very common to see Lion Dance Performance near us.

Saw one Lion Dance Performance in the wet market while I was doing my marketing.

Lion Dance Performance at some of the stalls to usher good luck for the stallholders in the new year. Stallholders need to pay a token fee to the lion dancers for the performance infront of their stall.

Tiong Bahru Housing Estate and Market

Tiong Bahru is one of the oldest housing estate in Singapore and were gazetted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority for Conservation.

It has a very famous market with lots of food stalls selling very good food.

On the ground floor is the wet market selling vegetables, poultry, fruits, etc.

The cooked food stalls were on the second floor of the market.

It is not difficult to figure out the famous and good food stall, just look out for the queues during lunch and dinner time.

This used to be a famous coffee shop but has since closed for renovation. Doubt after renovation, they were the same owners.

The apartment blocks have very unique spiral staircases which makes them outstandng from the rest of the apartment blocks in other parts of Singapore.

The estate consists of about 30 apartment blocks with a total of over 900 units. The apartment blocks are made up of two to five-storey flats and the units are assorted three to five-room apartments.

Took these photos recently, the hanging of flags were due to the recent celebration of Singapore's birthday on 9th August. On normal days we dont hang the flags on our apartments, they can only be hung for one month from 9th August to celebrate the occasion.

Spotted a couple of hotels in the vicinity.

Found this nice bakery shop selling very tasty and good nonya kuehs.

My World Tuesday -A walk along Balestier Road - Balestier Market and Stone Lions

Today, I will introduce Balestier Heritage Trail. You need good walking shoes to walk the whole trail, I manage a few spots only cause some are closed on Sunday or under restoration.

The road was named after Joseph Balestier, the then colony's first American consul from 1837 to 1852 and the owner of a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) sugar plantation called Balestier Plain, which failed and was put up for sale. Balestier was in Singapore between 1834 and 1852 and was a botanist and agriculturist. The road was named after him as it was where his plantation was located. You can read more from source.

Balestier has a rich history and many Singaporeans come here for its delicious local food found in shophouses. Expect queues especially at well known stalls/restaurants.

I found the stone lions that once grace the Oasis Restaurant in Kallang. Seems like the lions had shifted here to Balestier Market but the Oasis restaurant has shifted to Toa Payoh. You can see my other photo of the same lion that was once at Oasis Restaurant in kallang in my previous post.

Because of the heavy traffic along Balesteir Road, this is the best position to photograph the two lions. These lions are not the original stone lions that once guard Merdeka Bridge (now Benjamin Sheares Bridge). These are just clone of the original lions. The original stone lions are now at SAFTI Jurong.

The market is no longer the wet market that I once knew. It is now privately owned and a food court. It was so quiet when I visited in on a Sunday, many stalls are emptied and not many customers in the food court.

I guess not every upgrading is good especially at Balestier Road where there are lots of famous eateries/restaurants in here.

In my opinion, a market should be a market and nothing else.


Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Marymount Part 2

Shunfu Estate is a very small town off Marymount Road. Normally, I dont come here cause I dont have any friends staying around here. I used to shop at Thomson Plaza, at Thomson Road which is a road away from Shunfu Estate.

I am surprised to see so many people in the hawker centre despite the town being so quiet and small.

Whampoa Estate Part 5-Wet Market and Hawker Centre

My contribution for pink saturday are some interesting scenes in the market.

This is a hawker centre where they sold mostly local food and the prices are quite reasonable . This estate is so old and most of the hawkers are long timers and the food they sold are so good.

Just walked across the hawker centre is the wet and dry market. The wet part sold fishes, chicken, vegetables, etc , while the dry sold dry groceries , clothes, cloth, household items, etc. Did you spot the "P" in Whampoa as a contribution to Pink Saturday?

Did you spot any pink dress in the above photo?

Stalls selling dry groceries like curry powder, spices, pepper, mushroom, nuts, etc

Inside the market will be the wet part, where they sold poultry, fishes, etc

As it is near noon, the market is close for the day, so the stall holders has to wash and keep their stalls clean.

I hope you enjoy the introduction of the market and hawker centre. :)

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Kreta Ayer Wet Market - Final Part -Exotic Animals

Today my post is the final part of Kreta Ayer Wet Market.
This stall sold exotic animals.

The above is known as operation fish or Snakehead Fish.

In Asia, the snakehead fish are eaten in two ways. The smaller snakehead fish also nicknamed Operation fish, also known as Haruan, is recognized in Asia Pacific countries as a remedy for healing of wounds and it is best consumed as a herbal soup after operation/surgery. It is true cause it is quite effective but you need to cook with some herbs.

The bigger snakehead fishes are used for cooking with porridge or mee hoon (rice vermicelli).


The cages you see in the stall contained only certain exotic animals such as turtles, eels, frogs, etc. It used to sell snakes, small creatures but I think they are not allowed to sell many exotic animals anymore as they are endangered species.

We have frog farms in Singapore and they are breed to be sold to customers. Favourite dishes are the frog legs cooked with spring onions and ginger, frog leg porridge claypot, etc.

The kreta ayer wet market is located at the basement of chinatown complex at Block 335 Smith Street. You can view the map showing how to go to Kreta Ayer Wet Market from Chinatown MRT Station from map .

Kreta Ayer Wet Market - Part 4 (Chicken Stall)

Still at Kreta Ayer Wet Market.........today my trip is to the chicken stall.

At the wet market, we could buy the whole chicken or just other parts of the chickens. These are not frozen chicken but fresh chicken. The black chicken you saw in the chiller are used for herbal soup. Traditional Chinese soup made with Silkie also uses ingredients such as Dang Gui or tang kwei, wolfberries, etc.

From the wikipedia source, the black chicken is known as the Silkie. You can learn more about it from here.

The chickens and ducks are first slaughtered in the slaughtered house and then distributed to the different stalls in the market all over Singapore. The chickens are to be kept in chillers for hygenic purposes and prevent food poisioning. Customers can see them through the glass window of the chillers and choose their chickens by pointing them out to the stall vendor.

The same way of storing in chillers goes for pork, beef and muttons too.

Tomorrow will be a very exiciting post which would show some exotic animals. This is the only wet market that sell these animals.

Kreta Ayer Wet Market - Part 3 (Fish Stalls)

The guy behind this fish stall is giving the look that he dislike me taking photo...hehehe. Glad that I did not took photo of the fishes at his stall....lol or maybe he is jealous I did not take photo of his stall...hahaha

Fishes like the above are going cheap at 11.30 am almost closing time. The fish vendor would chop the large fish into smaller pieces (about 300 to 400 gm) and sold them for about $5 and cheaper if you buy more.

Each plate of the above fishes (numbered about 5 to 6) cost only $4.

Prawns can go for about $6 to $7 per kg.

More photos of the stalls in the wet market coming up tomorrow.....

Kreta Ayer Wet Market - Part 2

Hahaha...yesterday, many complimented that the market looked dry for a wet market. Here is another part of the market which is wet. The reason for being wet was mostly the fish stalls vendors washing the floors because of the fishes they sold. If they do not spray water, the floor would stink because of the scaling, cleaning of fishes they did for customers. The scaling and cleaning of fishes are free of charge for the customers. Now you know why it is known as wet market.

Customers buying fishes from a fish vendor.

Fishes and prawns are cheaper at this market than other wet markets around Singapore.

Best time to buy cheap fishes and prawns would be after 11.30 am. The market operates only half a day. Therefore the fish vendors are eager to get rid of their fishes at cheaper prices around that time before they call it a day at 1 pm.

More photos of fish stalls after skywatch friday.

Kreta Ayer Wet Market-Part 1

This is the basement of Kreta Ayer. It is known as Kreta Ayer Wet Market. Why wet market? The floors and surroundings are often routinely sprayed and washed with water—to the extent of flooding it at frequent intervals—which gave it the name "wet market". (For more information on wet market, you can view it from here.

Look at the newly renovated market, it is spacious and very clean. It is so spacious and suitable for those in wheelchairs to move about. Bravo because the population is aging and we need more places to be user friendly to those in wheelchairs.

Pork Stalls

Fruits Stalls

Vegetables Stalls

The floorings of the above stalls are cleaner and drier. My next post will show the seafood stalls that have wet floorings...lol

Kreta Ayer Market-Shopping

Still at Kreta Ayer. Kreta Ayer Market consists of a wet market in the basement and shops on the ground floor while the food centre is on the 2nd floor (which I had posted a photo yesterday).

On the ground floor are many shops selling clothes, shoes, bags, cloths, etc. It is very spacious and it is non air conditioned. But you wont feel sweaty although it is non air conditioned because it had a very high ceiling and plenty of walking spaces.

This is the place to shop and you could bargain for your products.

My next few posts would be the wet market in the basement. It would be very interesting to some of you all.