Fei Zhai (Fat Boy) Pork Rib Prawn Noodle @ Pepys Road Pasir Panjang 肥仔排骨蝦麵

Fat Boy Prawn Noodle at Pepys Road in Pasir Panjang enjoy cult status among its loyal fans. It's an old school kind of prawn mee.

Stall name: Fei Zhai Pork Rib Prawn Noodles 肥仔排骨蝦麵

Address: 114 Pasir Panjang Rd, Singapore 118539

Nearest MRT: 5 minute walk from Pasir Panjang station

Hours: 5:00am - 1:00am (closed at 11am on Sat & off on Sun)

Reached here at 8am smack into the office breakfast crowd. Waited about 15 minutes for my turn - queue was about 6 - 8 persons deep.

Hovered around the full house kopitiam with my tray of food in hand looking for a seat. A couple got up from their table, so I moved over to take over one of their vacated seats. A young lady who was still in the queue waiting to order her prawn mee dashed over and snapped sharply "This is my table!", pointing to a half empty bottle of mineral water on the table. Okay..., taking the ugliness art of chopping to a new level - chopped the table while the previous couple was still eating 🤔

Oh well, move on 🤷

Found another seat 5 minutes later, sharing a table with one of Fat Boy's long time fans. Uncle took a bus here from Telok Blangah for his weekly fix.

I opted for Fat Boy's big prawn mee ($7) and added stewed pig tail for another $2.

After vigorous tossing, the greasy sauce was just sufficient to cover the yellow noodles. I always like the tender, spongy texture of yellow noodles. The sauce tasted savoury, lardy, umami-spicy from hae bee hiam (chili sauce with dried shrimp). There was also flavour and aroma from fried shallot oil. But today, I found the saltiness and alkaline taste from the yellow noodles not shy in interfering with the sauce flavours, sometimes even overwhelming it.

The two large prawns were fresh, quite sweet and I felt, reasonably priced for $7. But, they were neither shelled nor de-veined. Not an issue for most people but I prefer keeping my hands dry and free to take photos of my food 😝

If you are a pig tail lover like me, you gotta have this add on for $2. It is done like the chicken feet at dim sum places - marinated in Chinese 5-spice powder, soy sauce, etc., then deep fried and stewed till tender.

The pig tail meat is fall-off-the-bone, soft-tender, moist inside while the outside has a bit of residual crispness. It tasted quite similar to dim sum chicken claw, which is nice but I wish it can be different. The robust taste of 5-spice and savoury sauces thoroughly infused the fibres of the pig tail.

Looking across the table, uncle sharing our table was having mee hoon, regular sized prawns (shelled) and pig tail.

So, this is what regulars are having - bee hoon or kway teow that do not have that salty-alkaline taste, plenty of sauce, fried shallot oil and lard, shelled prawns and pig tail.

Uncle gave me another tip. You can get free soup top ups, if you appreciate it. The tea colour soup tastes crustacean umami and slightly peppery, the old school way though I would prefer it with more depth and intensity.

I'll be back and will have it uncle's way.

     

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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            A post shared by Tony Boey Johor Kaki (@johorkaki)          

       

     

           

Written by Tony Boey on 24 Aug 2021