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Shimei East Kitchen

Hidden in a sleepy belt along Bedok North Ave 5 are buildings which are extraordinary! Why do I say so? Well Singaporeans have always been complaining that there are not many places to visit in Singapore besides the gamut of shopping centres in Orchard Road and the City areas. If you are one of these Singaporeans lost for places to visit on weekends or sick and tired of visiting those shopping centres again and again on weekends, only to find yourself jostling with the jam of crowd, then you should really consider the hidden jewels in Singapore, for which I have always uncovered in this website. Today, let me unveil to you the gem of these aforementioned buildings!

Though they look non-descript, these buildings are really repositories of some of the greatest food one can find in Singapore! The two buildings are Gourmet East Kitchen and Shimei East Kitchen, just a stone drop away from Changi Simei!



You look at the wordings inscribed on the top of these two buildings and ask yourself or me: “Are you sure these two buildings are kitchens? You must be kidding, a whole building as kitchen?” Well, do not underestimate this simple word ‘kitchen’, inside these two buildings are many where many food companies, wholesalers of food, kueh, frozen food, distributors of other food, catering companies.. these two buildings are food kingdoms! And why are these so attractive a jewel to us Singaporeans? Well as wholesalers of these food, the prices are the best! Significantly much lower than their equivalent retail prices!

On this lazy, cool and breezy Saturday afternoon, my Dear and I decided to explore this gem of a food haunt and to clinch some of the best food offers in town.


We started on the top floor (6th floor) of Shimei East Kitchen and explore the shops level by level down. What greeted us was a plethora of empty spaces of the food companies:






At this time, to our disappointment, many of the shops were closed. Haiz, undeterred, we explored further, shop after shop. The building hosts some of the best food names in town:



I must tell you that those many of the shops were closed, they were still operating at that time, around 4pm in terms of preparing the food. My Dear and I partook in the best aromas we ever have sniffed: aromas of frying red hot ‘balan-chem’ chilli, fried ikan bills and many more! We even caught sight of very old traditional machines, which I have thought have been ‘extinct’ in Singapore, machines that grind the coffee beans, one by one, filling in the air with the rich aroma and so on. Too bad, initially I would like to take some photos of these ‘treasures’ for your viewing but due to privacy issues and restriction, you would have to make a trip there to find out more!

Soon, my Dear and I reached a confectionary which is churning out very warm and freshest breads, the aroma is simply HEAVENLY! We approached the lady boss and asked her what was on offer.

To our surprise, we saw on sales ‘rainbow breads’!




Wow what a rare find! These breads are normally not sold or available on the market as these are normally sold to the ice-cream mobile peddlers plying their trade on the street, scooping out spoonfuls of ice-cream onto these ‘rainbow breads’, helping to satiate the thirsty passers-bys. THESE RAINBOW BREADS ARE HENCE A MUST BUY! Soon we bought these breads and ice-creams from the NTUC nearby to create our own ice-creams breads, yeah!

We also bought a giant bread, uncut! Not those that you see in the confectionary. But real uncut bread, that reminds me of a childhood story in which a hen bakes a cake, ya a BIG bread as follows:


How do I settle this bread? Do look out for my upcoming post soon!

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