Food Review: Woodlands Centre Food Market Seafood Soup

How far are you willing to go for good food?

That was the question of the day when my Breakfast Brunch club bus driver decided to bring us to Woodlands for seafood soup. This place is so far out, it is literally a 3 min walk from the Woodlands checkpoint to Johor Bahru. We almost needed our passport to have this!

I was however intrigued. It felt like going to a foreign country, driving into the very congested Woodlands Centre carpark filled with malaysian cars. Parking was quite the challenge since luck has to be on your side. It was for us on that Sunday noon.

Going up the Woodlands Food Centre, it was like a time warp where the hands of change has yet to touch this little enclave. We climbed up to the 2nd floor of the food centre and found a seat just near the stall we drove all the way for.

It's called Wei Wei Shi Pin, and they sell grandmother prawn (?!?) seafood soup and pig's trotters. As you can see on the signboard they were on the Channel U show. **EDIT: Apparently my friend told me 虾婆 that's written in the photo below means Crayfish. Not grandmother prawn. HAHAH. My chinese is awesome.


Look at the amount of clips and bowls they have! There's also a sign there saying they need to hire helpers. This is one busy stall and we experienced that first hand because we waited more than an HOUR for our seafood soup. Can you imagine? We were famished not having eaten anything before this. 

But is it worth the hour's wait you ask?

Well, here's what was served. Its the most interesting bowl of seafood soup I've ever had in a hawker centre.



And the answer to whether the drive and the wait was worth it or not was -- YES!

Ok no maybe not for a repeat visit for a while. 1 hour is really too long, they could have been more efficient. But for first timers who read about this the first time, or if you stay really near Woodlands, GO AND TRY IT.

The soup is very delicious and sweet - much like how the soup of steamboat meal will taste like after 5 hours of putting ingredients inside. The prawns gives the soup its seafood-y sweetness and there are meat 'balls' inside that is very satisfying and juicy. They are more like meat chunks. Coupled with the slight sour tomatoes and the bits of mushroom and fish slices, it comes to be to most unassuming but surprising soup of all. Went really great with a bowl of rice and there is no post-meal MSG dryness in mouth, since they use only the good stuff.

I'll give the pig trotter's a skip though. Never a big fan and theirs is not that great.

So - how far are YOU willing to go for food?

Yan Ji Wei Wei Food Stall 炎记威威食品
Blk 4A #02-11 Woodlands Centre Road Food Centre
(Closed on Mondays)
6 comments
  1. the food looks so good!!! i would try it.... if i stayed nearer to woodlands hahaha. ok lah if i'm free, i will try this one day. it really looks yummy!

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  2. @jjjayne: haha go! its quite good if you are looking for something more special among the usual hawker fare.

    otherwise there are plenty of other more accessible yummy food to try, I wrote about some on my blog, maybe u can take a look.

    btw i like ur new hairdo, and I'm thinking of doing the ombre hair thingy soon! ur post helped w all the pics :)

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  3. I ate there before and yes the food was really good. I didn't have to wait one hour cos it was not during the lunch break.

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  4. The Seafood Soup looks interesting!

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  5. little did u know, the boss name was ah hui, and if u notice that his stall was all male no female worker, reason? well the rules was set by ah hui's father, that no woman inculded ah hui mum was allow to cook. dont ask me why, i wish i kw that too. and the soap was half full, not because they are stingy, it's because if u drink too much of the soap u will feel the soap too salty, so half full is jus right.

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  6. Guys I am staying in woodlands, and I found a place that's just taste the same.. even the way they cook oso the same. It is located at marsiling blk 19.. go try it for your self

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