Stalking Pek Kio Market & Food Centre today, I noticed that there were three wanton mee stalls in this small hawker centre (less than 50 stalls). Only Soon Kee Wanton Mee had a queue and it was 10 deep even at 8am on the Friday morning when I was there. Naturally, it was the first WTM stall I tried out here.
Seven or eight people ahead of me and it took me about 15 minutes to make it to the head of the line - pretty quick.
I opted for the smallest $3.50 serving which is already quite substantial in my opinion. (Normally, I get the smallest serving so that I can try more stalls at the hawker centre.)
It's a huge mound of egg noodles set in a pool of reddish-brown sauce and topped with a generous amount of char siew slices.
Some people say that specks and splashes of sauce on the rim of plates are
unprofessional but personally I feel that it is part of what makes hawker
food charming to me. It's a certain no frills, no pretences, down-to-earth
come as you are, authenticity I like.
Of course, for atas
restaurants I expect squeaky clean rims lah... .
A lot of thick, slightly greasy sambal at the bottom of the mound.
A quick toss coated every strand of egg noodle with sambal with plenty to spare.
The egg noodles were relatively heavy gauge. They were done soft-tender.
On the outside it was soft but there was a subtle resistance at the core. The thick strands felt spongy to the bite. I like it.
It was quickly obvious to me that the main draw of Soon Kee's wanton mee was their signature sambal. It was mildly spicy (nothing sharp) with a pronounced underlying umami-savouriness from dried shrimp. Yes, it was basically a spicy sambal or hae bee hiam.
There was neither lard nor sesame seed oil in the spicy sambal sauce.
They gave a lot for char siew for a $3.50 serving. The char siew slices were tender and coated with food colouring. They tasted sweet with underlying savouriness.
The wanton mee set come with a small bowl of soup with three small wantons inside. The soup was sweet and slightly porky. The wanton skin was relatively thick and the minced pork ball inside was soft-tender and nicely seasoned the old way with sesame seed oil. Nice 😋
I enjoyed Soon Kee's wanton mee with their signature spicy savoury sambal sauce but with neither lard nor sesame seed oil, I am a little ambivalent about it.
Any fans of Soon Kee here? I would love to hear your views 🙏
Of course, the most famous stall at Pek Kio food centre is the legendary Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 14 May 2021
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