Tiong Bahru Food Centre has 2 popular lor mee stalls - Lor Mee 178 and Tiong Bahru Lor Mee. Both stalls have their loyal fans, which one is your champion?
Both Tiong Bahru Lor Mee and Lor Mee 178 are well covered in social and traditional media. Lor Mee 178 perhaps enjoy the edge in social media.
From my observation, it appeared that Tiong Bahru Lor Mee's clientele are mostly locals and they enjoy less tourist traffic than Lor Mee 178.
This is the $4 serving at Lor Mee 178. Their main selling points are the shark meat nuggets and fried crisps.
Truth be told, I was a little disappointed with the shark nugget as there was only a small miserly piece of flavourless soft white meat inside the thick batter.
The larger piece turned out to be just fried dough with nothing "kosong" inside.
I like these chewy tender fried pork as they were well infused with robust savoury flavour.
The bits of crackly savoury fried crisps were nice as advertised.
Lor Mee 178's lor (the gooey sauce) is relatively clear and just slightly savoury sweet. Most of the flavours came from the raw garlic, chili padi, chopped coriander, black vinegar and sambal chili rolled and folded together. I enjoyed this combination of spicy tastes with gentle savoury sweetness holding it all together. Lor 178 use a generic yellow noodle.
Tiong Bahru Lor Mee's $4 serving come with a lot of things but neither shark nuggets nor fried crisps.
(This, of course, is not the original Tiong Bahru Lor Mee. That stall moved to Bukit Batok a very long time ago. I had that many times as I lived and worked near Bukit Batok in the 1990s but I have forgotten the details of the dish.)
There were at least 3 pieces of fish nuggets. The golden brown batter slightly softened by the gooey sauce and the white meat inside was flaky, soft and moist with a subtle sweet taste.
There was a large piece of crispy fried wanton which was nice.
Several tender slices of stewed pork, some lean and some with a bit of fat. Nicely savoury sweet. There were also braised egg and slices of ngoh hiang (Hokkien fried meat roll with Chinese 5-spice) but they were unremarkable.
Tiong Bahru Lor Mee's gooey starchy lor is brownish with more robust sweetness than 178's but it is still in the mild range. Again, it is the raw garlic, chili padi, coriander, black vinegar and sambal chili that dominate with the savoury sweet lor serving as the binder holding it all together. Tiong Bahru Lor Mee use a thick flat yellow noodle. I love it.
So, is it Tiong Bahru Lor Mee or Lor Mee 178? Well, Tiong Bahru Lor Mee's gooey lor has more robust flavours and it has a little bit more liau (ingredients). The shark nugget which is supposed to be the trump card of Lor Mee 178 was a little too small and not enough to tip it in Lor Mee 178's favour. So, yeah, it is Tiong Bahru Lor Mee for me in this hawker centre (even though truth be told, it too is not an outstanding lor mee).
If I crave for shark nuggets, I will have to go to Akau Potong Lembu in Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia 👈 click
Tiong Bahru Matrket & Food Centre
Address: Tiong Bahru Lor Mee unit #02-80 | Lor Mee 178 unit #02-23, Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road, Singapore 168898
GPS: 1°17'06.0"N 103°49'58.6"E 🌐 1.284986, 103.832940
Hours: Lor Mee 178 7am - 2pm (Mon off) | Tiong Bahru Lor Mee 8am - 2pm (Mon off)
Date visited: 14 & 15 Jan 2020
Dear Tony,
ReplyDeleteShark meat is supposedly high in mercury. Aren't we supposed to avoid eating shark meat like we avoid eating sharks fin?
Haiya scared here scared there. Shut up lah.
Delete