Geylang from Morning Market to Late Supper

Most people who come east stop at the Peranakan terraces in Katong. Carry on a little further and you're in Geylang, where the east does its everyday eating. Mornings belong to the Malay market at Geylang Serai and evenings to the hawker centre on Old Airport Road. Late at night, the crab houses and frog porridge pots of Geylang Road take over.

You can't do all of it well in one go, so pick the meal you came for. On a first visit we'd make it an early dinner at Old Airport Road, because several of the east's best-known stalls share one roof. The catch is that the famous stalls wind down early in the evening, so aim to arrive by about 6.45pm. If Malay food in daylight appeals more, start at Geylang Serai, and keep the late suppers for a second night.

Morning at Geylang Serai Market

Geylang Serai Market is the Malay heart of the east, a food centre and a wet market, the fresh-produce kind with the fish on ice, under one roof. Come hungry in the morning for nasi padang, rice with your pick of curries and sides, and kuih, the bite-sized sweet cakes. It's a working market, so dress modestly. Paya Lebar MRT, on the East-West and Circle lines, is the nearest station, and you walk over from the mall side. Eunos, one stop east, also works if you're happy with a longer walk. It's more than ten minutes' walk from the Katong terraces, so give it a morning of its own.

When you've eaten, City Plaza next door is a bargain mall with a whole floor of fabric, handy if the market put you in the mood to shop. If you still have room for another plate before the evening, Haig Road Market is the food centre on the Katong side.

Dinner at Block 51

Old Airport Road Food Centre fills Block 51 Old Airport Road, a few minutes on foot from Exit A of Dakota MRT on the Circle Line. It's a hawker centre, one of Singapore's covered halls of small cooked-food stalls with shared tables, and it's where we'd send anyone for dinner in the east. For lunch, sit down before 11.30am if you want a seat, and eat before 2pm, when many of the famous woks start scraping down. If you'd like a host, the Hawker Champions After Dark crawl meets at Block 51 at 7pm.

Char kway teow, flat rice noodles fried hard in a smoking wok, draws some of the longest lines. Dong Ji Fried Kway Teow at #01-138 cooks one plate at a time in a drier style closer to Penang's, usually from 11.30am to 7.30pm, and closes on Thursdays. Lao Fu Zi at #01-12 holds a Bib Gourmand, Michelin's nod to good cooking at modest prices, and closes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We'd queue for Dong Ji first. On a Thursday, when Dong Ji rests, Lao Fu Zi is the swap.

Save room for the rest of the hall. Nam Sing Hokkien Mee has been frying its prawn noodles in stock here since the centre opened. To-Ricos Guo Shi does kway chap, flat rice sheets in a dark soy broth with braised pork and offal, and it still has a queue at 3pm. Famous Old Airport Fried Oyster is the stall people mean when they talk about orh luak, the crisp-edged oyster omelette.

When Dong Ji's line wraps past the drinks stall, Circuit Road Market is where many residents go instead, with the same east-side hawker cooking and shorter queues. It's a short taxi ride from Old Airport Road, which beats a long walk on a full stomach.

Supper along Geylang Road

After 9pm the eating moves out to Geylang Road itself and the lorongs, the numbered side lanes that run off it. Geylang's night food means frog porridge, durian stalls and zi char, a family-style kitchen with a long menu cooked to order, still serving at 1am. Some of the lorongs are also a licensed red-light district, so follow the woks and the queues, and if a lane has no food in it, keep walking. People live along these lanes too. Photograph the street and your dinner, and keep the camera out of doorways and windows.

Two crab houses anchor the late shift. No Signboard Seafood is known for the white-pepper crab at its original Geylang restaurant, with chilli and black pepper as the other sauces, so choose one and commit. Sin Huat Eating House is loud and famous, and there's no laminated menu: the uncle at the wok decides what you're having, and cash is the safer bet. Go with someone who's been, or treat the bill as part of the story. Either one is a whole evening, so we'd give crab its own night instead of adding it after Block 51.

Carry cash anyway. PayNow, Singapore's bank-transfer QR code, has spread through the stalls, though not every one takes it. At the hawker centres you return your own tray to the racks. At a zi char table the staff clear, claypots included.

A guide for the first night

If you'd rather have company in the lorongs, the Geylang food tour runs for three hours with a guide who knows which doorway leads to frog porridge and which lanes to leave alone. On a first night we think it's worth the fee. After that you'll know your way to the good woks on your own.

Aircraft at Paya Lebar

With a child in tow, the Air Force Museum at 400 Airport Road makes a daytime outing from Paya Lebar, with aircraft parked on the ground. It's open 10am to 5pm and closed on Wednesdays, and adult tourists pay S$8. Paya Lebar is the nearest MRT station, and buses 90 and 94 serve the museum, though the 94 has no Sunday service. We'd pair it with the market in the morning and leave the frog porridge for another day.

Ramadan and Hungry Ghost month

During Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, the Hari Raya bazaar at Geylang Serai turns the evenings into a night market in the weeks before Hari Raya Puasa. Bring an appetite and dress modestly. Leave the drone at home too, since this is the community's festival as much as a place to eat.

In Hungry Ghost month, the seventh month of the lunar calendar, offering tables go out along the lorongs. Walk around them, and keep your camera off the food left for the dead. At any time of year, Foo Hai Ch'an is a working Buddhist monastery in Geylang East, and a quiet stop between meals.

One day across the east

For a full day, start among the terraces in Katong around 9.30am, then head to Geylang Serai for nasi padang at about 11am. Spend the hot afternoon somewhere with air-con, and be at Dakota's Exit A by 6.45pm to reach Dong Ji before it closes, unless it's a Thursday. Head into the lorongs after 9pm only if Block 51 was a snack rather than a meal, and save No Signboard or Sin Huat for a different night.

Geylang Serai and Block 51 both open on Mondays. It's the stalls that keep their own rest days, and hours change, so check Dong Ji and Lao Fu Zi before you set your heart on one. Then eat the way the east does, one plate at a time.