Woon Woon Pek Beehoon Review: Giant Seafood White Beehoon At Changi Village

Opened in July last year, the phrase “I wish I had met you sooner” has never felt more apt, as I served my National Service just down the road. There is no question that hawker stalls can serve restaurant-quality dishes, and Woon Woon is a fine example.

Woon Woon Pek Beehoon - Giant Seafood White Beehoon At Changi Village Food at Woon Woon Pek Beehoon The stall specialises in white beehoon. You can have it with your choice of seafood – fish, prawns, crayfish or flower crab. Each dish comes in three sizes, with rates starting from $5 for a plate of Lala Slice Fish White Beehoon . The highlight for us, that said, was their massive Seafood Platter ($35) meant for three to four people.

With a bowl twice the size of my head and brimming with slices of fish, prawns, crayfish and lala, we attracted plenty of curious onlookers. Unlike certain dishes where the scent of seafood is masked by spices and curries, the freshness of each and every element used in seafood beehoon can be very telling.

But there’s no worrying about freshness here, as Woon Woon’s stock of crayfish, flower crabs, lala and prawns are brought in fresh and wiped out by the end of each day. The seafood is then simmered in broth, allowing each component to soak up its essence, before being added to a bowl of white vermicelli, spring onions and cabbage.

I lost count of the number of clams there were, and three of my colleagues who were sharing another bowl – yes I finished one by myself – struggled to finish all the ingredients. The slices of fish they serve are thick with a company and tender texture – nothing like the rubbery ones I sometimes get at fish soup stalls. While not the biggest ones around, the size of the prawns were made up for by its quantity.

Fleshy and chewy, each of them soaked up the full flavour of the broth, with every bite being an explosion of juicy goodness. Melding the dish together was the savoury-sweet broth that was full of taste thanks to the crustaceans.

From the first mouthful to my last, I couldn’t stop chanting, “It’s so good.” to my colleagues. There was also none of that MSG-induced thirst I encounter so often nowadays, even at the end of the meal.

Ambience at Woon Woon Pek Beehoon Changi Village Hawker Centre may be one of the most famous hawker centres around, but at the end of the day, there’s a reason why prices can be so competitive here. I perspired as much wolfing down the dish as I did for a run that morning, so it definitely won’t be the most comfortable setting you’ll ever eat at.

The verdict If it’s testament to how good the dish is, I finished an entire Seafood Platter all by myself. Eating seafood is a pricey affair, and Woon Woon just about manages to keep it affordable.

It’s still not something I’ll eat every day, but certainly a dish you can treat yourself to now and then.