Joo Chiat Place Fried Kway Teow • Best Char Kway Teow in the East? 如切坊炒粿条

You know, these days with unabating Covid numbers, I won't go out unless I really have to. Today, despite my cardiac rehab appointment (after my operation in July) and the blistering hot weather, buddy insisted that I really must try Joo Chiat Place Fried Kway Teow. "Old school, lah", "peel their own see hum, lah", "powerful wok hei, lah", "hidden gem, lah", "underrated, lah" aiyah I go pay the stall a visit at his insistence 🙄 My annual char kway teow quota is two (plus one), so I am CKT miserly 😂

Stall name: Joo Chiat Place Fried Kway Teow 如切坊炒粿条

Address: 59 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427783 (stall inside Dong Cheng Eatery directly across the road from Guan Hoe Soon Peranakan restaurant)

Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm (Weds off)

Look at that blazing sun beating down mercilessly on the little nondescript corner coffee shop (at the intersection of Joo Chiat Place and Tembeling Lane). The blue hanging sign says Old Place Seafood, the main tenant inside Dong Cheng Eatery.

Joo Chiat Place Fried Kway Teow is obviously popular judging from the queue at the stall at lunch time.

Lady boss, Ms Ling's iron spatula disappeared in a pall of smoke, she stirred it vigorously and pulled out plates of smoking dark noodles every two minutes. (She serves black and white versions but it appeared that most customers opted for black.) 

After seeing the black magic, I said to buddy "You go and get your own, I am not going to split this with you" - I can be bad like that 😝

Our usual protocol is to order just one serving and split the dish so that we can share the calories and also try out more stalls in one outing.

The noodles - a mix of kway teow and yellow mee - were well fried till there were visible signs of caramelisation outside. The smokey flavour of wok hei was clearly discernible.

The noodles were relatively dry with enough sauce but not much grease.

The noodles were fried with lard but lard flavour and aroma were not pronounced in this char kway teow. The slick of lard was also not felt much on the lips. We didn't get any bak pok (lard croutons) in our serving. (Shall ask for it next time.)

There's fish cake slices, lup cheong (Cantonese wax sausage), eggs, blood cockles and bean sprouts. Everything was stir fried together in a well balanced blend of sweet, savoury, salty sauce (in that order). The flavours were not as intense as I like.

There was neither garlic, chai poh, nor prawn, so the dish felt lacking in depth as flavour and aroma from these were missing. In that sense, this char kway teow was relatively flat tasting though smokey taste was pronounced.

The chili sauce was hardly detectable in my portion, so if you like it hot, ask for extra chili.

The good size see hum (blood cockles) were thoroughly cooked through, which I prefer nowadays. A couple of the largest were thumbnail size. There was no taste of cockle blood, neither in the cockle nor the fried noodles.

Easties' choice with little grease but the toasty smokey "wok hei" stood out.

    

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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

       

     

            

Written by Tony Boey on 8 Oct 2021