China Street Cooked Food Rickshaw Noodles @ Maxwell Market Food Centre Singapore 拉車麵

China Street Cooked Food Rickshaw Noodle is one of the last places in Singapore to taste this humble but historic heritage dish. It is the cheap sustenance that once powered the human drawn rickshaws that plied Tanjong Pagar and Kreta Ayer. The rickshaws were long gone but rickshaw noodles 拉車麵 and the nearby rickshaw depot building remain as reminders that early Singapore was founded on the bare, sweaty backs of our hardy pioneers.



China Street Cooked Food Rickshaw Noodle was founded by current owner Mdm Soh's mother Teo Aw Teow back in 1943. Mdm Teo's was one of about 5 back lane rickshaw noodles stalls serving rickshaw pullers around China Street. Mdm Teo sold rickshaw noodles at 2 cents a bowl then.

Human powered rickshaws were common in India and China, and introduced in Singapore in 1880. They were the main form of public transportation in Singapore until the introduction of trishaws, electric trams and buses.



Rickshawmen were coolies from China and would pull their two wheelers bare footed and shirtless under the blistering tropical sun. Rickshawmen were very poor, and relied on cheap simple meals such as rickshaw noodles to fuel their overworked muscles.

China Street Cooked Food is the only rickshaw noodle stall left in Chinatown today - it moved from China Street to here in Maxwell Food Centre in 1986. Current owner Mdm Soh Poh Tee in her 80s now, started working at her mother's stall since she was 18 years old.

I asked Mdm Soh why she persisted in selling rickshaw noodles when almost every stall has already long closed. I was hoping expecting some overused pseudo heroic sound bite that goes along the lines of "preserving our cultural heritage, blah blah blah". But no, she and her helper (a relative) said there are still people who need affordable meals i.e. there is still a market for it. I appreciate their authenticity and candidness. Cheap sustenance for low income folks like the rickshaw pullers of old (my words).



The heavy gauge round yellow noodles are kept simmering in a steel basin of chicken bone, dried shrimp and chai sim (greens) broth.



Despite what Mdm Soh said, today's rickshaw noodle did underwent a slight gentrification along with Singapore's greater affluence. Rickshaw noodles are now more of a side dish, a carb to complement the fried fish balls, fried tofu, meat rolls (ngoh hiang), fried prawn, luncheon meat etc.



Mdm Soh snips the long yellow noodles into shorter strands. The short noodles made it easy for busy rickshawmen to finish everything in a few quick slurps direct from the bowl sans chopsticks or spoon.



Mdm Soh now sells rickshaw noodles at S$1 a serving (which won't be enough even for petite ladies). The fat yellow noodles were slurpiliciously soft and smooth, slipping easily down the throat.



The clean tasting soup was really quite flavourful with sweet savoury flavours imparted by the noodles, chicken bone, dried prawn and chai sim. The yellow noodles also gave the soup a slight alkaline note. In house fried shallot added a bit of aromatics and a dash of pepper added a bit of mild heat.

Truth be told, not many will appreciate this unInstagramable dish today, especially when one is not aware of its historical context. I like this humble dish. It's quite amazing when I try to put myself in a tired rickshawman's bare feet, and think about how contented (?) he might feel when he tasted the same dish over half a century ago after an exhausting long trip.

(Mdm Soh said in the old days, the soup was also flavoured with pork blood but this ingredient is no longer available in Singapore. This reminds me of Thai boat noodles which are still flavoured with a splash of raw pork blood just before serving. You can still get this in Bangkok today.)

Across the road from Maxwell Food Centre is the historic Jinrikisha Station building. Built in 1903, the Jinrikisha Station is the depot of rickshaws in old Singapore. Today, the Jinrikisha Station building is owned by Hong Kong movie star Jacky Chan and is used as an entertainment and office hub. How apt it is that the last rickshaw noodle stall in Singapore is directly across the road from the rickshaw depot of old Singapore.

Restaurant name: China Street Cooked Food Rickshaw Noodles
Address: Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, #01-87, Singapore 069184  
GPS: 1°16'48.5"N 103°50'41.9"E 🌐 1.280129, 103.844979  
Waze: Maxwell Food Centre
Hours: 5:30am - 12:00 noon (Fri off)

Non Halal

 



Date visited: 9 Nov 2019