H O U G A N G

The first thing I associate with Hougang is Math tuition. Cos I attended Math tuition in Hougang for about 4 years, from Sec 3 to the end of JC. And the second thing was… ‘My ex lives there.’ HAHA. But strangely enough, even though I live pretty close-by and attended tuition there, I don’t really know the area? My dad would usually send me to tuition by car and I’d take a nap on the way there, so I wasn’t familiar with anything in Hougang. (Other than the MRT station, I guess.) Since I wasn’t really sure how or where to start my research of Hougang, I asked a friend to ask his uncle, who lives in Hougang, about it. His uncle said that Hougang is a heavily residential area and that he couldn’t really think of any good place to check out. So I decided to go down the Singaporean route and ask about food, but his uncle said there isn’t much good food around??? But of course I didn’t believe that. THIS IS SINGAPORE. WE HAVE GOOD FOOD EVERYWHERE. So I turned to Google.

The first link I looked at was ‘12 Eateries In Kovan & Hougang That’ll Make It Your New Favourite Food Spot‘. I was in the mood for dessert, so off I went to Ciel Patisserie.

(The awkward composition is due to the fact that the two girls who worked at the shop stared at me from time to time and it felt weird pointing the camera straight at them. ^^”)

I ordered a dessert they named ‘Coco’ and it was pretty nice. A bit too much cream for my liking, though. But I did enjoy the pastry. It was situated in quiet place, so I got to enjoy my dessert peacefully while just chatting with my friend.

It turns out that another place on the list was right beside it!

Lickers is an ice cream place and their flavours look pretty cool! There was one that was blue with bits of cookies (I think?) in it that was called Cookie Monster. Their cones looked pretty big too. But sadly, I was too full to try it.

I decided to take a walk around this area (which my friend called the outskirts of Hougang) for a bit. And I tried my hand at Franck Bohbot’s quasi-perfect symmetry.

I also found out that Kovan MRT is under the Hougang area on the map??? Which reminds me, I was so confused about which part is Hougang and which part isn’t because Hougang, Kovan and Serangoon are all pretty linked?

When I walked further down, I came across a statue.

Apparently since the pre-war times, this part of Hougang was a duck and pig farm and this sculpture is about a farmer at the duck farm.

Opposite the statue were these house-shaped display cases. The glass was pretty dusty and old, so it was difficult to get a good picture of the things inside.

But there were traditional objects from the past in the cases. The centre case held a time capsule.

Central Hougang

Since I didn’t know much about Hougang, I decided to take pictures while driving from the outskirts to the central part of Hougang. So the upcoming photos may be blurry because I didn’t set my shutter speed high enough. ^^”

While driving, I saw this pretty cool, modern looking building and I thought it was a mall. It turns out that it was actually a residence and it had some shops below, but most of them were closed for rent.

Quasi-perfect symmetry Round 2. Hahaha. The only shop (or one of the only shops) that was open here was a cake shop.

My friend parked the car and we were off again.

We got really excited when we saw Phoon Huat because we were just thinking of baking something and a store that specialised in baking stuff appeared!

It was pretty fun looking through the store cos they have a lot of baking things that normal supermarkets don’t carry.

While walking around, I noticed quite a few cobblers around. And there were other useful shops like the barber.

And lots of supermarkets or fruits and vegetable stores.

I noticed this little collection of roots being sold opposite a fruit and veggie store and my friend said that some people grow stuff by themselves and sell it. I don’t know how credible he is, but I bought his explanation. Hahaha.

It seems that Hougang Central Court is the place where people like to chill.

There was a trading card shop there and a lot of people were gathered around the table just watching people play card games (I think? I was too short, so I couldn’t see much). But I guessed that they were probably playing card battle games like Yu-gi-oh or Duel Masters.

There were kids just sitting in the mini playground and eating ice cream. And under the shade, there were elderly men playing Chinese chess and other games.

There was also a wall mural nearby.

I went into Hougang Mall for a short break and drink, then I went to sit outside Hougang MRT and record the passing crowd. The range of people was quite big. There were elderlies, parents with really young children and teenagers. It was pretty crowded for a place as simple as Hougang Mall.

I went to explore a different part of Hougang and saw these really colourful chairs. But they were cordoned off.

There was a cordoned off playground beside it, but clearly these parents and children didn’t care about that.

For dinner, I went to 21 Seafood, which has some special offer for crabs -2 small crabs for $30. And then the small crabs ran out, so it became 2 for $50. That ran out too, so it became 2 for $60. Anyway, the waitress told us that the best time to come was from 12 to 4 pm.

The queue seemed pretty long, but the wait wasn’t too bad actually.

And there’s the crab! The meat was really good and fresh.

Overall

I think Hougang was a pretty nice place. It has quite a few statues (like the one near Kovan MRT and there’s one near Hougang MRT that I heard of, but haven’t found yet) to remember our roots and past. Since it’s so residential, it has a lot of shops located below and around the houses, making it very convenient for people, especially elderly people, to buy things or get things done. There are also quite a lot of food places for people to eat at, and I look forward to exploring more of Hougang and its food. :3