58 Minced Meat Mee 利發肉脞面 PK. Which is the Best Bak Chor Mee at Marketplace @ 58 Upper Changi?

Judging by the queue at The Marketplace @ 58 near Tanah Merah MRT station, most people here are fans of 58 Minced Meat Mee stall. There is another soup bak chor mee stall 利發肉脞面 in the same hawker centre. I tried both this morning, one after another. Which is the best?

Once I got to The Marketplace @ 58 food centre, I quickly get in line for 58 Minced Meat Mee in case they sold out lah. When it comes to serious matters like the best hawker stalls in Singapore, he who hesitates is lost 😂

58 Minced Meat Mee is run by the third generation descendent of 陈联福 who created the uniquely Singapore soupy bak chor mee dish and first sold it in Chai Chee in the 1920s.

Important business of the day done, I roamed around The Marketplace @ 58 food centre and spotted 利發肉脞面 stall. No queue at all. I decided to splurge the rest of my day's calorie and cholesterol quota on this bak chor mee stall. Nothing to lose, right?

58 Minced Meat Mee is good - no need to say. But, 利發肉脞面 stall I found out, is no sloth either.

I had the largest $4 serving at 58 Minced Meat Mee and just the $3 serving at 利發肉脞面 stall as that was the limit of my tummy space. Actually, 58 Minced Meat Mee's $4 serving was big enough to last me till dinner 😂

First things first, the soup - this is soupy bak chor mee mah... .

Both soups were nice and there was little to tell the tasty rich umami savoury salty sweet soup of the two stalls apart. Both have blanched minced pork suspended in the soup thus sweetening the dish.

Owner of 利發肉脞面 stall Mr Loh was a staff of 58 Minced Meat Mee stall for some 15 years before starting his own business.

Both 58 Minced Meat Mee and 利發肉脞面 serve their noodles done to a tender springy, chewy bite which I like.

Both stalls use original bak chor mee noodles from Lau Boon Heng Food Manufacturing in Chai Chee (which is the only original BCM supplier with the original recipe from soupy bak chor mee creator 陈联福). Other stalls just use generic mee kia which you will know the difference once you have been a bak chor mee fan for long enough.

The minced pork wanton is where the two stalls differ. I found 利發肉脞面's wantons better formed and slightly bigger. The minced meat ball inside were about the same except that 58 Minced Pork Mee's wanton has more pronounced umami savoury Ti Poh (dried sole fish) taste whereas it was hardly discernible in 利發肉脞面's wanton today. For many people, that's the tie breaker.

So what do you think?

Really, both are good, rich soupy bak chor mee. If I don't have time or I am feeling lazy to queue, I will just go for 利發肉脞面 stall #01-168 and still be happy. The taste is about the same except for less Ti Poh in the wantons at 利發肉脞面.

58 Minced Meat Mee's prices are already very competitive, and 利發肉脞面's bak chor mee still managed to be 50 cents cheaper for the same serving size 😮

Bedok folks, do you know how lucky you are? 😄

The Marketplace @ 58

Address: 58 New Upper Changi Road, Singapore 461058

Nearest MRT: Tanah Merah

Stall #01-151 58 Minced Meat Mee

Hours: 6:00am - 2:00pm (Mon, Weds, Fri off)

Stall #01-168 利發肉脞面

Hours: 6:00am - 2:00pm (Mon, Fri off)

Date visited: 19 Nov 2020