1st April 2021. 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee is the most popular char kway teow stall in Golden Mile Food Centre. Its main selling point is it has no pork, no lard and yet according to its many fans there is no compromise in taste.
I am a sort of char kway teow nazi (so I am biased), I mean I like my CKT no holds barred with full blown lard and bak pok (lard croutons). The more, the merrier.
No pork, no lard fried kway teow, isn't that a waste of calories? Not to mention char kway teow blasphemy?
That's why even though I passed 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee stall countless times, I didn't try it till today. I just needed to know what is it about this healthy choice(?) char kway teow that packs in the crowds day after day. 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee enjoys one of the longest queues at the popular Golden Mile Food Centre.
The minimum $4 serving is all I needed to satisfy my curiosity.
The fried kway teow and yellow noodles have cockles, shrimp, egg, and topped with blanched choy sum and fried whitebait. The trademark leafy choy sum greens shout out 91 Fried Kway Teow's healthy lifestyle credentials.
"The kway teow mee fried with greens is good" according to the Singapore Michelin Guide.
Really no compromise in flavours?
The couple of prawns were okay - shelled, fresh, soft-crunchy and sweet enough. Only two or three blood cockles but they were fresh, and bigger than at many other CKT stalls (though not that big here either).
A lot of blanched choy sum greens and a handful of fried whitebait, so 91 is two up on other char kway teow stalls. In particular, I know of no other CKT stall that has fried whitebait. The little fish were crisp and tasted savoury-salty. Truth be told, I personally felt it is out of place in a plate of char kway teow.
The 91 thousand dollar question, how were the fried noodles?
They were quite flavoursome in that the strands were well enveloped in a savoury-sweet sauce. There's a bit of charred taste which many people refer to as "wok hei".
Personally, I felt the flavours were more seared on the outside of the noodle like a caramelised sauce than flavours infused into the core of the noodles.
I would describe it more as dry chow mien than old school char kway teow (but in reality, that doesn't exist in Singapore anymore).
Eh.... personally, I still prefer char kway teow with death wish amount of lard and bak pok (for that distinctive taste and aroma). I also like to have lup cheong (Cantonese wax sausage) in my char kway teow which is missing at 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee. Without these, I felt 91 Fried Kway Teow Mee's healthy choice CKT is rather flat tasting.
What do you think? Is healthier choice the future of char kway teow or is it an April food joke?
Written by Tony Boey on 1 Apr 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments submitted with genuine identities are published