Review of Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle @ Amoy Street Food Centre

Ah_Ter_Fishball_Mushroom_Minced_Meat_Noodle

I had late lunch today at 3pm at Amoy Street Food Centre. Almost all the stalls were closed this Saturday afternoon. I nearly gave up combing the two storey hawker centre when I spotted Ah Ter Fishball Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle.

It was my lucky day. Uncle Ah Ter, the Man was in the house. Uncle Ah Ter's father founded this stall in 1958 and he himself is now in semi retirement. His son Gilbert (third generation) now runs the stall on weekdays and Uncle Ah Ter comes in on weekends. Gilbert created a media frenzy when he was named Most Handsome Hawker in 2005 by The Straits Times. Gilbert is so often labelled "hunky" in the media that it is a cringey cliché.

Anyway, today I had friendly Uncle Ah Ter which is fine by me 😄

I got the $5 set which consists of a bowl of noodles and soup.

It's a large mound of noodles - I chose mee pok tar (broad noodles "dry") this time. Just the antidote I needed for the famished me and it left me satiated for the rest of the day.

Not bad considering that I was almost resigned to starving this afternoon.

How I eat my bak chor mee. Well tossed noodles, bak pok (lard crouton), stewed mushroom and chili padi, all in one mouthful.

The noodles were done half a notch softer than al dente. Ah Ter put plenty of sauce into the bowl. It's a robust blend of savoury tangy spicy lardy sweet. The tangy taste of vinegar and ketchup was pronounced. Truth be told, I am ambivalent about it (I'm not a fan of sourish taste). Uncle Ah Ter told me that this is the same sauce for the past 50 years, so plenty of people like this more than me 👍

Of course, we can fix this easily by telling uncle to leave out the vinegar.

The soup comes with fish ball, pork ball, lean pork slices, pork liver, fish cake slices, and bits of fatty minced pork suspended inside. I especially like the pork liver which was cooked to the right tender-spongy doneness. (There was neither prawn nor her kiao or fish dumpling in my bowl, perhaps because they were sold out as we were near closing time. There was also no beansprouts.)

Ah Ter's soup is the best thing in the set for me. It has a round body, rich and smooth with layers of sweet savoury flavours. The depth of flavour reminded me of the soup we get at the end of steamboat sessions, capturing the essence of all the juices from ingredients that passed through it the whole day.

The fishball and pork ball were generic but they tasted okay and have nice texture.

A nice traditional comfort meal at an affordable price in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District. It's a boon for people who live or work around Amoy Street. Ah Ter is a popular stall with long queues during peak hours.

The flavourful soup is the best part of today's meal for me at Ah Ter, so next time I shall try their noodle soup version.