Back today at Pasar 216 Bedok Central, one of my favourite food centres in Singapore with lots of hawker gems. One of the well established stalls here with a constant queue is Prawn & Mee run by new generation hawkers Gladwin Yap and Raphael Sim who are Culinary Institute of America degree graduates.
As I worked my way up to the front of the queue, it was always the same dilemma at noodle stalls that I am trying for the first time. Dry or soup, dry or soup 🤔
If I opt for dry, I may not get to taste the soup. If I opt for soup,
I won't be tasting the stall's sauces for the noodles 🤷
Today, I opted for dry anyway, taking a chance with the small bowl of
soup that prawn mee stalls provide for the dry version.
Prawn & Mee was formerly Plum & Rice offering
Japanese umeboshi rice and porridge. Two years into Plum
& Rice, Gladwin and Raphael re-invented their stall entirely and
switched to Prawn & Mee to cater to the preferences of
folks who live in this old neighbourhood. But, Gladwin and Raphael also tweaked the traditional prawn mee dish to appeal
to younger palates.
I got the medium size serving, dry version (price $6).
The bowl of soup that came with it was huge, so I made the right
choice in choosing dry as I would have the best of both worlds
😄
They also have prawn and pork rib noodles but I shall save that for
future visits.
The noodles in the bowl were barely visible, covered by the four good size prawns and chopped scallion on top.
They were really generous with the sauce which is the drippy type.
The yellow noodles were done soft tender, just right for me. The sauce was drippy wet and tasted robust (but not over the top) savoury lardy spicy with flavours coming from prawn stock, fried shallot, lard, and sambal. The taste of fried shallot seemed dominant unlike the traditional which relied more on hae bee (dried shrimp) which can be a tad salty.
I like it that the prawns were shelled. They were meaty, tender crunchy and tasted sweet in the fresh prawn way.
The prawns were fresh enough for me to chew and suck the juices out of the heads till they were flat and dry (like squeezed sugar cane 🤭 ). Nothing fishy and no off taste / smell, all umami goodness.
They were really generous with the soup - giving us a whole bowl of it. I mean, knowing how much time, ingredients and effort go into making such a rich umami soup, I really appreciate it. The medium body soup tasted umami savoury with a slight spiciness and underlying vegetable flavour.
A solid traditional prawn noodle with modern touches by new
generation artisanal hawkers worth making a special trip to Bedok 216
food haven.
It is value for money - the dishes were conceived and produced with a lot
of soul. There's a lot of ingredients in the bowl too. Gladwin and Raphael shared that they had to work with low margins.
I need to be back for their prawn and pork rib noodle and also try
the soup version.
Written by Tony Boey on 19 Oct 2021
Totally agree they produce a great bowl of prawn noodles. I read from Seetoh (Makansutra)'s article that they enhance the natural sweetness of the prawn stock with mirepoix, a French technique of making vegetable stock reduction.
ReplyDeleteYes yes they learnt it at Culinary Institute of America
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