I have visited Zion Riverside Food Centre a couple of times and noticed that practically every hawker stall is plastered with newspaper cuttings featuring the stall, or photos of celebrities visiting the stall. Tell me, is the food there really that good? I’ve had the ichiban congee which was awesome. But that’s also one of the handful of stalls that doesn’t boast of any media coverage or star visits.
Another stall that I have tried and concurred that the food is nice is mohammed sultan road hot & cold cheng tng. When people ask where to find the best cheng tng in Singapore, this stall always comes up!
You would find this sweet and syrupy dessert here served with generous loads of fruits and nuts, so you really feel like you’ve got your money’s worth! The cheng tng here is very cheng (clear) and liang (cooling) too.
SGD1.50 ($2 for takeout)
The most basic cheng tng at the stall comes with fresh longans (my favorite!), sago balls and gingko nuts. I had the cold version which felt super refreshing after the hot congee I had right before.
I love the white sago balls by the way. There is a certain soft but firm and chewy texture that makes it really addictive! My Mom makes green bean soup with the mini version of the balls and it feels really nice chewing them.

SGD2.50
For a soup with even more ingredients, go for the pricier gingko nut longan soup. You get dried longans and a large amount of the chewy gingko nuts.
Although some people claim that authentic cheng tng must be served hot, I think many of us would appreciate the chilled version much better in the sweltering hot weather of Singapore. The problem is that the hawker tends to top it with a heap of shaved ice that eventually dilutes the soup. So what I usually would do is ask him not to add the ice, or simply scoop the ice aside.

For those of you that patronise Zion Riverside Food Centre regularly, what else is good over there? I know there is always a super long queue at the corner char kway tiao stall. I’m quite curious about the Clementi brothers’ rojak too.
Zion Riverside Food Centre
86 Zion Road #01-32
Singapore 160086
Bus services: 5, 14, 16, 32, 51, 54, 64, 65, 75, 123, 139, 186, 195, 970
Nearest MRT: Tiong Bahru
Opening hours: 11am – 9:30pm (Closed on Monday nights)
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14 responses -
Looks really good! Especially during these hot days.
Pretty near my place. I’ll check it out soon!
Thanks.
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These few days are absolutely positively scorching!! I’m really thankful that there are inventions like these to keep me from evaporating into the air from all that sun power.
I love ice kachang too, but it’s a bit hard to judge which stalls have good or not-so-good ice kachang? The quality of the coloured sugar syrup on the ice? The granularity of the ice shavings? Or the power of the durain heaped on top of the whole thing?
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The one time I forgot to Ctl + C my comment before pressing Post, WordPress gives me an error, and loses my comment! :(
Anyway, I wanted to say that I’m positively grateful that there’re desserts to save me from evaporating into the thin air, these few days being mercilessly hot.
I was also thinking about how you would review ice kachang. It’s a dish that’s made up predominantly of ice shavings topped with 4 different coloured sugar syrups, and drowned in liberal quantities of condensed milk. Is it how diabetic the syrups would make a person? The granularity of the ice shavings? Or the power of the durain perched right on the heap of the stack?
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Ah, the Cheng Tng sounds lovely. I shall ask one of my friends to check through your food reviews of hawker food when she’s back in Singapore, and see what she would be keen to have. I have wanted to bring her to try great hawker food (her request too) when she’s back. This will be a post for her to check out. Thanks.
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A nice recommendation for a hot weather in Singapore…
Looks so refreshing… Feel like having it right now…
Really like the layout of your blog. Got bus number, got map… Wow…
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Slurp~~ O_O those dessert pictures certainly makes me drool… btw how is their ice kachang?
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hi veron, one thing to add on. I have been following ur blog for years and am glad that it is still doing well if not even better now. I’m loving it =D
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Thanks for your pointers, Veron. :)
With appreciation, py.
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Incidentally i just ate at the cheng tng…its good, but I find the ginko nuts too hard.
For a twist, try the cheng tng at Bakerzin…its very pricey, but chock full of ingredients.
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Hi, stumble on your blog while searching for zion road info. Next to the chng tng is a fish soup stall that I regularly patronise when I am there (once a month). Fish meat is fresh and the soup naturally sweet. Had tried the chng tng but like Pete said the gingko nuts are hard. It is also bitter. The bitterness is from the poisonous pit which I suspect was not completely removed. Diagonally across from this stall there is a stall (3rd stalls from the end of hawker centre) selling curry chicken mee. This is totally different from the one at Hong Lim, try it. Just had it last Sat. Note: ask for the “fat” noodle. Sorry if I am long winded.
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Ichiban Congee – It’s Cheap, It’s Yummy, It’s Ichiban!





