New York City’s West Village is hiding a gem. It’s called Chomp Chomp! This hidden gem is where Chef Simpson Wong is serving up flavorful Singaporean Food. Wong is giving New Yorkers an authentic taste of Singaporean hawker food. What is hawker food? It’s similar to street food, though in Singapore, street food vendors have been housed in open-air food courts called hawker centers for decades now. His menu is a litany of Singaporean specialties, many of which are incredibly hard to find in the United States.
We stopped by Chomp Chomp a few days ago where Chef Simpson Wong prepared a few popular Singaporean dishes. My favorites were the following:
hah zheung gai: Shrimp paste chicken wings, Chinese celery, crispy garlic, chili.
Fried Hokkien Mee: Stir-fried noodles with seafood and Yu Choy in shrimp stock.
Other popular dishes include, oh luak, a Chinese-Singaporean family favorite featuring oysters and garlic chives fried in an omelet and served with a vinegary chili sauce. Lighter appetizers include popiah, a homespun Singaporean summer roll that’s packed with shrimp and sauteed jicama, cereal prawns, crispy prawns crusted with cereal and curry leaves.
If you’re looking for entrees, don’t fete as Chomp Chomp has Hainanese chicken rice, Singapore’s national dish tender chicken served with pandan and garlic-inflected rice; BBQ stingray, otherwise known as skate slathered in sambal belacan then wrapped in banana leaves and grilled; Peranakan-style chap chye, a complex and hearty vegetarian stir-fry of mushrooms, tofu, vegetables, and glass noodles; tau eu bak, a Teochew dish of pork belly braised in soy sauce and garlic that’s a staple in many Chinese-Singaporean households.
To wet your palettes, the beverage list features wine, beer, and cocktails inflected with Singaporean touches such as a Sentosa Margarita – a citrusy cocktail that’s a perfect foil for the spice and char of Southeast Asian flavors and named in homage of Singapore’s island resort getaway.
This cute location is recommended for fun outings with friends and families or a great meeting spot for a Tinder date. Chomp Chomp is located at 7 Cornelia Street (between Bleecker and West 4th Street) and is open for dinner Monday – Thursday from 5:30PM – 11:00PM, Friday – Saturday 5:30PM – 11:30PM, and Sunday 5:30PM – 10:30PM. Chomp Chomp will also serve lunch Monday – Friday from 11:30AM – 2:30PM, and brunch Saturday – Sunday 11:30AM – 3:30PM.