Piao xiang xiao chi 飘香小吃 is one of the rare stalls selling some of their food for as low as 90 cents and that seems to be a good bargain. The stall is only open at night and usually with a snaking long queue. It can be a bit of a wait as the stall hands are elderly ladies, so do be kind and exercise patience with them.
The stall is located in the center of Tanglin Halt Market and is extremely popular with the locals there. There are a few hawker centres around this area, so make sure you visit the correct block.
As with most economic noodle stall, they have the usual deep fried surimi such as seaweed chicken, nuggets, fish cake, fish balls, beancurd skin roll, sausage, luncheon meat and ngoh hiang. They also have deep fried bean curd, chicken wings, sunny side up eggs and steamed fish cake. These are the best umami items to go with a plate of economic beehoon or fried yellow mee.
The fried beehoon are constantly topped up with new batches due to the good diner crowd at Piao Xiang Xiao Chi. The fast turnover of the been hoon helps to keep them stay soft and chewy. The same goes for their fried chicken wings as well, the high turnover ensures that the wings stays fresh.
Beside economic noodles, Piao Xiang Xiao Chi menu also include peanut porridge, glutinous rice, red bean soup, black glutinous porridge and green bean soup. Most of the items are priced from 90 cents to $1.50 each except the fried surimi items.
The usual single portion of either fried bee hoon or fried mee is $1. If you decide to have a combo of fried beehoon and fried mee, it will be $1.30(shown above, wings excluded).
The fried mee are usually served with a teaspoon of chilli sauce that is almost sweet to complement the sweet savoury noodles.
The noodles are mildly seasoned and not overwhelmed by the umaminess of the seasoning. You can still taste the alkaline flavour of the yellow noodles with a subtle hint of bitterness.
The chicken wings are sold at $1 each. These are juicy inside but the skin is the dry and chewy type. The wings do not have a very strong distinct flavour from the marinade, is a kind of old school type of chicken wings. For one dollar, it is forgivable that the wings are the smaller types than our conventional chicken wings you get for $1.50-$1.80. It almost seems like kampong chicken wings that are very lean and skinny.
The Peanut porridge is a bargain at 90 cents only. Although the ingredients are numbered and few, the viscosity of the porridge made up for it. The texture of the porridge are grainy with soft broken and fluffy rice grains. The presence of crispy white baits, green onions, shredded fish cake and peanuts adds some umaminess to the porridge. The porridge is great for those looking for a light meal to end the day with.
Operating hours: 6pm till sold out
Location:
飘香小吃 Piao Xiang Xiao Chi
Tanglin Halt Market
48A Tanglin Halt Rd, #01-10, Singapore 148813