Buddy DJ is a big fan of Prawnaholic stall at Pasir Ris Central Hawker Centre, so we met up there this morning. DJ was right, I was quite blown away by Prawnaholic's modern prawnographic take on our humble old prawn noodle.
Prawnaholic is on the upper level of the beautiful new generation "hipster" hawker centre. It is very clean, spacious, high ceiling, cooled by huge ceiling fans, flooded with natural light, breezy natural wind, overlooks Pasir Ris Park and just 350 metres from Pasir Ris MRT station. I vote this the most beautiful hawker centre in Singapore (but it is located at the far east of the island).
Back to Prawnaholic stall, truth be told, though I consider myself open minded, deep inside I still have a certain skepticism about "hipster hipster" gentrification of our classic hawker dishes.
Before anything, I instinctively reached for a sip of soup subconsciously. Oh my, I was blown away, right away by the well balanced crustacean umami savoury sweetness. Hey, hey, better sit up and pay attention to this prawn mee.
The bowl was so crowded - 2 good size prawns, a minced pork ball, torched pork slices, an onsen tamago (sous vide) egg, sambal chili at the side, teriyaki sauce(?), fried shallot and pork lard on top. The mound of yellow noodles underneath was hardly visible.
To me, the only way to eat generic noodles is with full blown robust flavours - there's no room for subtleties in noodle dishes for me 😄
Prawnaholic hits the spot with me with full on robust savoury lardy flavours with sweet, spicy and eggy notes from the teriyaki sauce, sous vide egg and sambal chili. The fried shallot and crackly pork lard added flavours to the noodles too.
Alan the youthful boss took the trouble to shell the prawns. The two prawns in the serving were good size, fresh, had a nice tender crunch and tastes sweet in the prawn way.
Sweet savoury tender juicy fresh meat ball. Not really remarkable but the flavours and texture went well with the dish.
The torched teriyaki kurobuta pork slices were a nice touch with complementary sweet savoury toasty flavours that blend in well with the rest of the dish. I like the fat-meat ratio of the pork belly and its tenderly soft crunch to the bite.
Nowadays, it is hip and trendy to serve fried salmon fish skin as a side dish but Prawnaholic does it better than at most places where I've eaten this. It was fried to an almost greaseless crisp. Even the last piece which had cooled after 2 hours of chit chatting was crisp and grease free. The fried fish skin is eaten with a sourish eggy wasabi mayonnaise.
I didn't speak with Alan as he was busy. DJ who was buddies with Alan since he started here at Pasir Ris said Alan had worked under the mentorship of renown chef Sam Leong. After leaving school, Alan started as a kitchen hand in one of chef Sam Leong's restaurant. Chef Sam impressed by Alan's dedication took him under his wings and mentored him on the craft and also about life.
After 5 years, Alan struck out on his own, starting with Prawnaholic at Pasir Ris Hawker Centre. Alan chose prawn mee because it is his favourite dish and his mum often lovingly made it for him while growing up. To his mum's recipe, Alan applied the knowledge and skills from his 5 years with chef Sam Leong, and we have the Prawnaholic prawn noodle we enjoyed today.
On a side note, Prawnaholic reminds me of My Noodle Story - another young hawker startup that turned a traditional hawker classic on its head in a tasteful, tasty way. In the case of My Noodle Story, they transformed wanton mee without changing its essence.
Restaurant name: Prawnaholic 虾の传人
Address: 110 Pasir Ris Central, stall #02-12, Singapore 519614 (Pasir Ris Hawker Centre)
Tel: +659751 4417
Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm (Mon off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 5 Aug 2020
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