Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle 🐟 Ghim Moh People's Favourite 太豐鱼圆面

Popular old fishball noodle stall in Ghim Moh Food Centre. Their springy noodles and lardy sauce are nice. I especially like their handmade fishball and fish cake as its savoury sweetness is among the best balanced of all that I've tried so far, anywhere in Singapore and Malaysia.

Stall name: Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle 太豐鱼圆面

Address: 20 Ghim Moh Road, stall #01-36, Singapore 270020 (stall inside Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre)

Hours: 6:00am - 11:00am (Mon, Weds, Thurs off)

The queue is often long at Thye Hong fishball noodle stall. Part of the reason is uncle Wee Pong Sai, 68, is a one-man-show - he works alone (since his wife passed away a few years ago). Uncle makes the fishballs, fishcakes from Yellowtail fish; cooks; serves, collects money and wash.

But, the crowd is good natured and have a mutual understanding with uncle. Everyone waits respectfully, no one complains, and uncle has a kind of easy going, jovial demeanour. Jokes with the cleaners who brought back his trays and bowls. I like the kampung spirit and friendly vibes here.

I opted for the minimum $3 serving and topped up with $1 of fishball (should have gotten more).

The noodles looked pale and wiry because the sauce was sitting underneath, hidden from view. Uncle didn't have time to toss the noodle in the sauce.

No problem lah.. . The noodles were well coated with sauce after some vigorous do-it-yourself tossing and folding.

It's the old familiar taste profile. Lardy, savoury, tangy, spicy flavours on the springy crunchy noodles.

Uncle was generous with the bak pok (lard croutons) even though I didn't ask for more. The bak pok were fresh and crunchy like greasy popcorns.

Thye Hong's fishballs were neither perfectly round nor smooth outside. The fishball pops open easily to a gentle bite. Inside, it felt light, soft-tender and has a subtle squeaky bite at the end. Nice!

The best thing is Thye Hong's fishball has a nice well balanced gentle savoury sweet taste. In most other fishball places, I struggled a bit to discern the fresh fish taste but at Thye Hong I could taste the sweetness quite easily.

(The clear soup which the fishball and fish cake slices were served in has lean pork slices which contributed to the soup's savoury sweet taste.)

Thye Hong's fishballs were good but I like their fish cake even more. The fish cake slices were roughly cut - thick but floppy soft.

Same mild savoury sweetness as the fishball but somehow it tasted better in fish cake form - the flavours come out a bit more.

Pro-tip: Ask for fish cake add on.

Simple and nice old school handmade fishball noodle. Just need to be patient waiting in the queue.

Thye Hong @ Ghim Moh looks like in its last legs - operating without a helper, much less a successor.

More top choices at Ghim Moh Food Centre 👈 click

Uncle Wee's younger brother David runs the famous Ru Ji handmade fishball noodle stall at Holland Drive Food Centre.

Uncle's nephew runs the Thye Hong fishball stall in Bukit Batok (which I have not tried yet).

More about Ru Ji, one of my favourite fishball noodle stalls 👈 click

Thye Hong Fishball got its name from the old Thye Hong Food Industry biscuit factory at the intersection of Alexandra Road and Tiong Bahru Road. The factory ceased operations in 1982. During its heyday in the 1960s, the 40,000 square feet biscuit factory was the largest in Singapore.

Among its many products was the iconic Marie Cream Cracker. When I was a child, even though our family was poor, we had tea twice a day (like ang moh like that 🤔 ). It was usually a cup of Milo and a couple of Marie Cream Crackers. We ate the crispy cracker by dunking it in hot Milo.

Thye Hong Fishball was a push cart stall outside the Thye Hong factory, hence the name. The stall was resettled in Ghim Moh Market & Food Centre when it opened in 1978, keeping the name Thye Hong to this day.

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Written by Tony Boey on 30 Apr 2021