When SUMO Big Prawn's noodles starring their lobsters first appeared on my Facebook feed, I didn't really pay much attention. I am not a big fan of gentrification of our street food culture. But, when I saw that they also have "normal" prawn mee, I went down to Ang Mo Kio Blk 628 food centre to give SUMO Big Prawn a try.
来到新加坡, 要试试刚刚开的这家虾面档. 这当有野生的海虾, 龙虾还有拉拉. 这家的汤头很香甜, 有浓浓的虾香味还有猪骨香. 龙虾面$18到$24块新加坡币. 也有$5块钱的普通下面. 价钱有一点偏高. 不过是值得的, 因为海鲜很新鲜. 在新加坡宏茂桥大牌628小贩中心.
SUMO Big Prawn is a hawker stall located at one end of Blk 628 market and food centre in Ang Mo Kio. The decades old market and food centre is clean and airy. I feel very comfortable and at home here. It is a short 10 minutes walk from Yio Chu Kang MRT station.
Youthful stall owner Desmond runs SUMO Big Prawn with his wife, and Jeffrey, his business partner.
Desmond is no newbie to the hawker scene. He was working at his dad's Yong Heng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee stall 永和興炒福建蝦面 at the same hawker centre for 11 years before striking out on his own with SUMO Big Prawn, just last month.
The signature broth at SUMO Big Prawn is developed from Yong Heng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee's stock.
Practically growing up at Blk 628 market and food centre, there is a lot of synergy in Desmond's supply chain. Desmond gets his seafood from Sean, a fishmonger at the wet market. Sean supplies Desmond with wild sea prawns from Malaysia (Johor).
Desmond keeps his premium lobster and crayfish fresh in a sashimi chiller. This must be the first sashimi chiller in a HDB hawker centre 😃
For my first visit today, I ordered the big prawn bowl for SGD8. (Next time, I shall try the crayfish bowl for SGD13 - crayfish is my idea of best value seafood 😉).
In the bowl, there were prawns, la la clams and fried belly pork - all were fresh.
The full round bodied broth had layers of bold and robust savouriness from crustaceans, pork bone, chicken, sio bak (roast pork belly), fried shallot oil, garlic oil etc This was balanced with sweetness from the la la clams, Chinese cooking wine etc. No MSG. In my opinion, the broth was a little over the top, over exuberant mishmash of flavours. But, this will appeal to folks who like their soup to pack a lot of kick.
The SGD8 bowl comes with 4 of these good size, ultra fresh wild caught sea prawns from Pontian, Johor (Malaysia). Meaty with lovely firm bouncy meat that tastes of fresh prawn sweetness and sea spray on our lips.
The la la clams were clean tasting, sweet and very well cleaned. There was not a trace of sand anywhere in the bowl.
There were a few slices of roast pork belly dropped into the soup. Actually, I feel these pushed the savouriness quotient a bit too much for my liking. Next time, I shall ask the boss to leave the sio bak separately in the noodles and not in the soup.
I asked for the noodles to be served separately as I wanted to taste the soup by itself (the default is to serve the noodles inside the soup). SUMO Big Prawn Noodle does not provide a tossing sauce, so I made do (with Desmond's suggestion) with their chili sauce and chili powder.
LOL they were super powderful (Desmond did warn me). My swollen lips were about to drop off from the heat (exaggeration, but you get the idea 😉). Next time, I will hold back on the chili a bit.
Burp.. burp... Shiok 😋
3-Star (out of 5). A very promising new start up. The savoury sweet flavours come on a bit too strong for me at the moment. But, seafood ingredients are all top notch and the young knowledgeable founders are full of enthusiasm and commitment. I'll be back for more and know for sure that with their can-do spirit, SUMO's offering will be more refined over time. SUMO is one of the new, up and coming stalls to watch.
Restaurant name: SUMO Big Prawn Noodle
Address: Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 Blk 628 #01-72 Singapore
GPS: 1°22'52.0"N 103°50'27.8"E | 1.381116, 103.841055
Tel: 9299 2621
Hours: 9:00am to 9:00pm (Monday off)
Date visited: 5 Oct 2016
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Tried out sumo big prawn after reading your blogpost! Love their lobster! so big and sweet.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it too. Your blog is very interesting :-D Nice!
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