I was introduced to Siang Siang by a friend who grew up with this fishball noodles from the Kampong Chong Pang days. We come to Chong Pang Hawker Centre for lunch occasionally and we would often have Siang Siang fish ball noodles. We would never get tired of it.
Today, looking at the stalls from the vantage point of my favourite perch at Chong Pang, not much has changed in this old, slightly grimy food centre.
I actually fumbled my order.
I said to the friendly order taker that "我要大的 I want a big bowl" when what I had in mind was more fish balls. When I realised that "我要大的" just means more noodles, the order taker had already shouted my order to the lady boss.
So, I returned to my seat. Siang Siang is one of the rare hawker stalls in Singapore that still serves food at your table.
As it turned out, I need not have worried.
My memories of how this bowl of noodles tasted were vague, except that it felt nice and comforting. I am like most people - I do not analyse my food (before I started this blog). Anyway, it still felt good as I ate these noodles today while torrential rain poured on Christmas Eve in the tropics.
The large mound of generic mee pok 面薄 (flat yellow noodles) came tossed with a copious amount of soy sauce, lard and chili paste blended together. That's the way I like my mee pok, wet with robust flavours as the generic eggless mee pok does not have much flavour in itself. It's that familiar savoury, porky and slightly spicy taste enveloping the noodles which were cooked soft al dente.
The bean sprouts though were slightly overdone and limp for my taste buds.
I finished the whole mound effortlessly and quite enjoyed it too.
The soup was very slightly cloudy, tastes a little sweet and a little more salty with flavours of chai po (vegetable preserved with salt).
My bowl of "大的" came with 6 of these fish balls. The tender, slightly bouncy fish balls tasted fresh and had a gentle fresh fish flavour. The lady boss told me that the fish balls are made with Yellowtail fish 番薯鱼 or 西刀鱼 Ikan Parang, depending on availability.
When I greeted the lady boss (after my meal) and told her that I haven't been back for some time because I have moved, the first thing she wanted to know was "is the taste the same?" She is customer oriented 👏👏👏
"Same.., same" I replied.
Kelvin, the younger brother of the founder has taken over as the older Mr Kang has retired after 30 years at the stall. Mrs Kang still helps out at the stall.
->> Nothing exquisite but a comforting, satisfying, tasty bowl of fish balls and noodles at a very reasonable price (SGD3.50 for "大的"). Prices no change between 2015 and 2021 😱 I shall be back.
Restaurant name: Xiang Xiang 香香鱼圆面
Address: Chong Pang Hawker Centre, Blk 105, Yishun Ring Road, 01-177, Singapore 760105
GPS: 1.431786, 103.828666
Hours: 6:00am to 4:00pm (Closed on Monday)
Non Halal
Date: 24 Dec 2015. Updated by Tony Boey on 8 Mar 2021
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Thank you Gary for your comment.
ReplyDeletefew days before cny u can buy their precook fishballs
ReplyDelete