An afternoon in Chinatown + Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice

Recently, we have been challenged by our church community magazine to plan a date for $10 or less. Not to show off, but Ms Budget said that was too easy because we go for such dates rather frequently; we enjoy them!

Case in point: Last week we went for two such dates (and apologies for not updating this blog last week!)

On Sunday, we went to Chinatown. Now Chinatown is a fascinating place, if you haven't been there before or in a long time. Sure, Chinese New Year is a great time to visit Chinatown to soak up the atmosphere, but the place is knee-deep in culture and other oddities on any other day of the year too!

Chinatown itself is well-known for finding great bargains and cheap food. But here at our Budget Couple blog, we look for more than great savings; we also look for good deals, especially when it comes to food. A friend said that the cheapest food anywhere in Singapore is still hawker centre, but not every hawker centre with cheap food serves good food.

Over in Chinatown, we went to a place recommended by Ms Budget's colleague, and we're going to share it with you now.

Along Smith Street, off New Bridge Road, directly opposite Chinatown Complex, you will find a row of shop houses. At one of these shop houses there is a branch of the famous Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice.

The address is: 56 Smith Street.

What's so good about this? For one thing, it's only $2 per plate. Of course the shop also sells other dishes, such as oyster sauce vegetables, chicken feet, etc, but all these come at $3 or more. You want a good deal? Stick to the standard plate of chicken rice.

What's more, ordering the $2 plate of chicken rice gives you a medium-sized bowl of soup that comes free, together with a Mentos breath mint. This is to counter the smell of garlic which will inevitably emanate from you after chowing down your chicken rice with dark soya sauce and mashed garlic.

But! We don't recommend their drinks. Save it for a $3 coconut that you can both share. Unfortunately, we forgot the address of the place...

We won't tell you where else in Chinatown to go, because everywhere is great fun just walking around and seeing everything that is there. Instead, we'll show you just some of what we came across:

Here, two uncles are selling photocopies (and some originals) of personalities and photographs of Singapore in the 1950s.

Two old ladies chatting as they display their metal jewellery for sale.

A man examines a piece of jewellery... perhaps to buy for his wife?


An older uncle trying to sell a middle-aged uncle some trinkets.

Speaking of trinkets, there are tons of stuff there. What caught Mr Budget's attention were some old coins and dollar notes. There were the old S$1 coins - the silverish ones, not the gold ones we have now, and dollar notes having the same serial numbers or special numbers that people might want to buy. But why would we pay $3 for a coin marked $1, and that is no longer in use?

Hence, look around, but you don't have to buy anything. You will want to, though. What you will definitely need is a cap or sunshade, and carry around a bottle of water, because the heat these days is a real scorcher.

At the end of the afternoon, after much walking around, we recommend hopping onto the North East Line, and taking the train a couple of stops to Dhoby Ghaut for... you guessed it! A foot massage at TT Quick Massage!

Next week: Another $10 date, this time in a relatively secluded place!