Yue Lai Xiang Delights @ BLK 22 Sin Ming Road. United Colours of Artisanal Mee Hoon Kueh & Ban Mian Noodles

Buddy jio (invited) me to join him at Yue Lai Xiang Delights at block 22, Sin Ming Road for mee hoon kueh and ban mian - two comfort dishes which I like.

Yue Lai Xiang Delights 越来香 is a stall in Wan Hao coffee shop at the corner of HDB block 22, Sin Ming Road.

Yue Lai Xiang 越来香 means "beyond delicious" in English which is a clever play of words on the famous Chinese song 夜来香 (the name of a flower). The menu is overhead on a huge, bright signboard.

Two of us, buddy ordered one Dry Mee Hoon Kueh (price $4.80), one Premium Rainbow Mee Hoon Kueh (price $9), and a side dish of stir fried Mani Cai or Sayur Manis (price $2).

Two of us, I ate most of it because I am ~~greedy~~ tasting mah. Actually, it was delicious, that's why 😄

OK lets start with the atas Premium Rainbow Mee Hoon Kueh. In the bowl of soup, there's mee hoon kueh of several colours, lean pork slices, clams, prawns, an egg and Sayur Manis.

First things first, the soup. It is made by boiling pork bones, Ikan Bilis (sun dried anchovies), tee poh (dried sole fish), corn etc. The full bodied soup tasted mildly savoury in layers from the pork bones, anchovies and tee poh with a balancing sweetness from corn.

What is missing is a layer of MSG umami, but I don't miss that. The soup was tasty enough as it was made with plenty of pork socket bones and anchovies, so no need for synthetic taste enhancers.

Stall holder Joy Yeo hand kneads the mee hoon kueh dough herself from scratch using a blend of different flours.

Joy rolls and tears the flatten dough by hand when there is an order, so the kueh is always fresh.

The thing I like about hand torn mee hoon kueh is each piece is different even though they are roughly the same size and thickness. Joy's mee hoon kueh is relatively thick which I like as it has more tender, springy chew to the bite.

A signature of Yue Lai Xiang Delights is their rainbow colour mee hoon kueh.

All the rainbow colours of Yue Lai Xiang mee hoon kueh are natural organic - butterfly pea flower for blue, beetroot for purple, pumpkin for orange, spinach for green...., you got the idea. Joy's family is Hokkien Peranakan, hence the fusion of Hokkien comfort dish and natural colours in food.

Each of the different natural colours impart their own subtle flavour to the basic mee hoon kueh making the dish more tasty i.e. not just eye candy (except for the butterfly pea flower which, of course, doesn't add any flavour).

There's a runny egg in the bowl adding body and egginess to the soup.

The finger size prawns were fresh. I appreciate it that Joy deshelled the prawns, making it easy to enjoy the crunchy, sweet, meaty crustacean.

There were a few fresh, tender, juicy and sweet minced pork balls inside.

The clams though meaty doesn't have much flavour but together with the prawns and pork, they added their umami and sweetness to the MSG-less soup.

I am a mee hoon kueh snob in that any MHK that doesn't come with Mani Cai (Sayur Manis), I will not eat it. Many mee hoon kueh places in Singapore use Chai Sim or worse, Yun Choy which messes up the taste profile of the dish.

Yue Lai Xiang Delights does not compromise on this - they use only fresh Mani Cai from Malaysia. Mani Cai leaf though thin is chewy, crunchy and its herbaceous green taste is perfect for mee hoon kueh.

The mee hoon kueh comes with a small dish of crispy fried dried anchovies for added savouriness and umami in the soup. But, I didn't use it as the soup was already flavourful enough for my tastebuds.

We also had the more down-to-earth "normal" mee hoon kueh sans prawns, clams - the "dry" version. It comes with the same soup in a separate bowl, so we won't miss out on that 😄

A good toss coats the kueh, lean pork slices, other ingredients and bak pok (lard croutons) inside with the savoury-lardy-spicy sauce based on a good quality soy sauce, lard and a bit of sambal chili (as we opted for spicy).

At Yue Lai Xiang Delights, they fry their own pork lard fresh and not buy them ready made from suppliers in large tins. You will be able to taste the difference by paying attention.