It was the usual queue, about 6 - 8 deep this morning at the stall.
Waited about 15 minutes - easy peasy.
When I was a child, my immediate neighbour in Toa Payoh block 65 (now
demolished) was a wanton mee hawker. He made wanton mee at home at night
- many hawkers did that in the 1960s.
Many evenings, the neighbourhood children would take turns to bounce on the fat bamboo pole
he used to knead the dough. We watched him make the dough from scratch with flour and
eggs. The smell of kneaded dough and fresh noodles were heady and
wonderful. (Nobody does bamboo pole WTM in Singapore anymore.)
I don't remember eating his wanton mee but my family often ate WTM at
the stall ran by two sisters at the small hawker centre at Lorong 5 Toa
Payoh. The hawker centre is still there today but all the old stalls
were long gone. The best char kway teow, hor fun and prawn mee were also there (but gone).
Anyway, is Yi Shi Jia Wanton Mee's 70-year-old recipe, the 1960s Singapore WTM I am
searching for?
There's only one way to find out.
I got their signature spicy wanton mee for $3.50.
Mound of noodles sitting in a dark reddish brown sauce and topped with char siew slices, plus stalks of choy sum greens.
The noodles were well coated with sauce after some tossing.
The noodles had a nice crunch to the bite, almost like Sarawak kolo mee but lighter. Nice.
The sauce tasted savoury spicy with a bit of underlying lard flavour. No, it isn't the wanton mee sauce of my childhood.
There was neither aroma of lard nor sesame oil and the chili sauce lacked zing.
The char siew were the lean and dry type. Chewy, savoury, sweet.
No bak pok (lard croutons) in the plate 🤔
I like their soup - it has that nice old school pork taste and doesn't have the anchovy flavour more common nowadays.
The thing I like most at Yi Shi Jia is their wantons. The skin is thin and silky smooth. The fat-lean minced pork ball inside is soft, porky sweet and has nice sesame seed fragrance.
Nice wanton mee (though not the same as the old school type I am looking for) and I am especially pleased with their wanton and soup. Whatever I am eating here at Kovan, I would consider pairing it with a bowl of wantons and soup from Yi Shi Jia.
Next time, I shall try Yi Shi Jia's tomato sauce wanton mee.
Pro-tip: Ask to replace the lean dry char siew with smooth soft wantons 😄
(I like the authenticity of videos by Getting Lost.)
Written by Tony Boey on 8 May 2021
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