Ah Hwee Bbq Chicken Wings & Spring Chicken is one of the must try stall at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. They specialized in barbecued chicken wings that are too good to resist. East Coast Lagoon Food Village will be seeing a surge of visitors in the coming months due to the closure scheduled on 1st November 2020 for an R & R works (repairs and redecoration) and to reopen on the 1st Feb 2021. It should be having a new look progressively with our anticipated East Coast Plan.
History of Ah Hwee BBQ Chicken Wings and Spring Chicken
The stall first set foot in this hawker in 1979 and has since been there. It was a family business that involves the father aka boss, mother and son. The father used to grill the chicken wings all by himself, with the mother doing the marination of the wings and the son taking orders.
The lady boss revealed that the secret to their savory wings is in the marination. The marinade for the wings consists of 20 types of ingredients such as ginger, five spice powder, Chinese wine, and maltose. The maltose is the secret to crispy skin and the mild sweet flavors in the wings. These wings then need to be marinated for at least 2 hours. The seemingly neat looking wings drew a big fan base soon and needed more wings to be ready within the same time frame.
Ah Hwee BBQ Chicken Wing & Spring Chicken
The boss then thought of a rack that could grill up to 100 wings without compromising on the quality of the wings. He came up with a multi-tiered grill rack that could allow the wings to grill slowly and evenly on low heat with charcoal. In his consideration is that the rack also needs to ensure that the juices of wings do not drip onto the charcoal that could create unwanted soot or smoke that could affect the flavors of the wings. With these thoughts in mind, the multi tier “HDB-like” chicken wings rack is born. This greatly reduced the waiting time for customers and created a more productive way of barbecuing wings too.
This more than 40 years old stall still peddles the same old school barbecued chicken wing and is currently helmed by the second generation- the son – who does equally good barbecued wings.
These wings are sold at $1.30 each with minimum order of 3 wings. They also have spring chicken on their menu and we will try it on our next round.
These wings are presented on a grease paper atop a Styrofoam disposable plate with 2 chilli dips and a lime. The piping hot wings are served straight from the grill. The heat from the wings will most likely melt the Styrofoam plates and you ingesting the foam unknowingly. The boss has taken note of these small details by segregating the hot wings from the plate using the grease paper. I placed order for one plate of wings and was told to self collect later. Before the time was up for the wings, the boss surprised us by delivering the plate of hot wings to our table. His move speaks volume of the great customer service he is offering even though it was a “one man show” on that particular day.
Each $1.30 chicken wings consist of a winglet, drumlet and a mid wing. These whole wings are cut into 2 parts for ease of consumption, again a display of thoughtfulness from the boss with consideration of the diner’s experience.
The wings are grilled to an amber hue with sheen. The skin is grilled till paper crisp and of a taut texture. It has smoky sweet flavors with a gingery undertone.
Under the skin is a pack of moist and succulent meat. Each bite is meet with savory juices oozing out. The meat is not overly umami and is easy to enjoy the neat clean flavors of the meat.
Even though these wings are grilled over charcoal, the wings are well done without much burnt and bitter dry edges that are common to bbq wings. This is achieved by having a good control over the amount of heat the duration of grill that the wings received.
The chilli sauce adds a saline, spicy and gingery flavor to the sweet wings. The zest from the lime juice also helps to whet your appetite for more wings with its subtle tang.
Napkins are also provided to clean your fingers after savoring the wings.
It is a wholesome experience with Ah Hwee Bbq Chicken Wings and Spring Chicken right up till the flight with the last wing. You should try this flight to nowhere today at East Coast Lagoon Food Village too. See you there!
Opening hours:
3pm to 10.45pm(Mon-Thurs), 3pm till 11 pm(Friday), 12pm -11pm(Sat), 12pm to 10.45pm(Sun)
Ah Hwee Bbq Chicken Wings and Spring Chicken 亞辉烧鸡翅 Location :
East Coast Lagoon Food Village
East Coast Park Service Road, unit #01-14, Singapore 468960
Tel: +65 9837 5172