Today, I met up with Daniel, Sylvia and family at Queenstown MRT station to start our whole day food trail. We had a perfect plan laid out. Food trails with Johor Kaki always start with a perfect plan ๐
After I hopped into their car, I casually mentioned that I missed the old school wanton mee at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Alexandra Road. But, the wanton mee stall disappeared when Tjao Sin Eating House was demolished to make way for Alexis condominium.
Ding, ding, ding, ๐๐๐ it instantly rang a bell with everyone in the car. "Yes, yes, yes! it is one of our favourites too" everybody chimed in.
"We know where it has gone. We can go there first."
Dang, dang, dang. Perfect plans always unravel once the food trail with Johor Kaki starts ๐
Mdm Tan's uncle started his wanton mee stall in the 1960s at Hock Lam Street. Hock Lam Street was a foodie haven and his stall was known as Hock Lam Wanton Mee. Of course, the most famous stall there was Hock Lam Beef Noodles.
If anyone knows Hock Lam Wanton Mee and wonders where it has gone, it is now here at Block 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1.
When her uncle retired in the 1990s, Mdm Tan set up her own stall at Tjao Sin Eating House at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Alexandra Road. As Mdm Tan's wanton mee is the only stall that opened during the daytime at Tjao Sin Eating House, her stall was known as Tjao Sin wanton mee to her customers. Actually, Mdm Tan did not give her stall any name at all.
Mdm Tan ran the stall here for 16 years and had a huge following. I remember the mornings were always full house with many office workers working nearby having their breakfast ritual here. It was during this time that I began eating at Mdm Tan's wanton mee stall whenever I am around this area.
Around this time too, Daniel had been tabao-ing (taking away) Tjao Sin wanton mee for Sylvia and future mother-in-law ๐ So smart lo ๐ ๐
Then, 12 years ago, they demolished Tjao Sin Eating House to built Alexis condominium and Mdm Tan moved her wanton mee stall here at Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 which is anchored by Hong Kong Street Chun Kee restaurant.
But, Mdm Tan actually never gave her stall any name and so since then she sort of disappeared to some of her fans including me. Without a name, her stall is also invisible on social media. Fortunately, Mdm Tan was able to rebuild a new following here.
Thanks to Daniel and Sylvia, I rediscovered one of my nostalgic favourites again.
Some things have not changed at Tjao Sin Wanton Mee. The same old school aroma of sesame oil and lard greeted us when the plates of wanton mee arrived at the table. The same pocket friendly prices - $3 small serving, $4 large serving.
There was plenty of sauce though I remember there was even more in their old place, if my memory serves me right. The char siew was just ok, but their main draw for me was the egg noodles and sauce.
The egg noodles had a nice tender crunch to the bite. The lard, sesame oil, chili sauce wrapped every strand with lardy, aromatic, spicy hot flavours, taste and smell.
Lard lovers can help themselves to their hearts' content. Plenty of lardy flavour but today they were not very crackly.
The wantons with minced pork and prawn filling were nice. The soup have just mild anchovy flavour i.e. slightly bland.
Tjao Sin Wanton Mee regulars will ask for a sunny side up fried egg to go with their noodles. It's the only place I know that serves wanton mee this way.
It works for many of us - the runny yolk folded into the noodles, gummy up the strands making them more slurpy. The savoury spiciness of the sauce is complemented by the egginess of the sunny side up yolk. The fried whites too add another layer of soft texture to the dish.
Keep an open mind, try it and let us know how you feel about this way of eating wanton mee.
(Note: This fried sunny side up and wanton mee combo is no marketing gimmick. There is a heartwarming back story to its creation, best told by Ricky Hee, the nephew of Mdm Tan, the lady boss. Scroll down to the comment section below for the full account by Ricky Hee.)
Fans of the no name wanton mee stall at the old Tjao Sin Eating House, if you are looking for your old favourite breakfast or lunch hangout, they are now at Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1.
Thank you, Daniel and Sylvia for reuniting me with my old breakfast wanton mee.
Restaurant name: No name wanton mee stall (formerly at Tjao Sin Eating House)
Address: 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1, Singapore 150125 (wanton mee stall is sharing space with Hong Kong Street Chun Kee restaurant)
Hours: 7:00am - 4:00pm
Date visited: 17 Sep 2020
Thank you for the info. This was my favorite lunch hangout in the late 80s and early 90s. Without a doubt my best wtm stall. Was there every week. Just parked my car behind the small lane next to Telecom and walk straight up. Still remember talking to an 65 year old commando ranger there was recalled by police to help track and find those lost in mandai forest. The noodle and chilli were perfect mix you can't find else where. The fat lady always drama with the kopi kia.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insight :-D
DeleteThe WTM was pretty nice, although the portion in my $4 plate was on the small side. The coffee is nice, but they don't serve their toasted bread with butter, only margarine.
ReplyDeleteThis wanton mee stall is famous for offering fried egg with their wanton mee. Ricky Hee shared how this unique combination came about in Heritage Singapore Food Facebook group (on 22 Dec 2020):
ReplyDeleteQuote "I’ve seen a number of posts on the Wanton Mee Stall at Blk 125 Bukit Merah Lane 1 Coffee Shop.
More interestingly, a lot of the comments here have highlighted, why is there a sunny side up egg (hor bao tan) in this traditional noodle or “how come got fried egg ah?”.
I thought I can help share & clarify (do pardon me if the post is a bit longer, but it’ll explain the egg situation). ๐
I returned to SG for my NS, and stayed with my maternal auntie (the owner of the stall). My Hainanese side of the family are very accomodating and looked after me very well. During my NS days, I worked at the shop on the weekends to help out with cleaning the tables & serving the food as they were chaotically busy.
As I am a vegetarian, I definitely can’t have the char siew or wanton, so my options were very limited. Therefore, my kind auntie would fry the eggs for me to supplement my protein intake and add more veggies.
Ever since then, whenever I return to SG, I would swing by to visit her at the stall and ask for her “custom special made” vegetarian noodles with extra veggies & fried eggs!
Now, to the main point, around 4-5 years ago during my trip back when I visited her at the stall, she would prep 3-4 of these fried eggs (HBT). Then, as she was bringing it to me at the table infront of her stall, a curious customer looked on, and asked her, “Auntie, ๅฏไปฅๅ ่ๅ?” (Can add egg ah?)
My auntie smiled casually, and replied, “ๅฏไปฅๅฏไปฅ！ไฝ ่ฆๅ ็ฒ？（Can can! How many you want?). Thereafter, there was a small queue waiting for the eggs.
A few months later after this incident, I was back in SG and visited her stall. Now... things were a bit different. There were a number customers ordering 1 or 2 eggs, for adults or the kids. It appears that the HBT is a secret dish in the menu that only the regulars know. That was when I realised the WTM has EVOLVED.
Now, to the traditional WTM food lovers, it maybe a bit of taboo and different. “Wah, why got egg one?”.
To me, the egg is simply there because of my warm & loving auntie’s kind hearted gesture for his NSF vegetarian nephew.
AND I FREAKING LOVE IT!" Unquote