Stalking Taman Jurong Food Centre, it was obvious that Feng Zhen Lor Mee on level 3 is one of the most popular stalls here judging by the constant queue. I am told that the queue pre-Covid was much longer as busloads of Malaysians would drop by for the famous fish lor mee here. Nowadays, waiting time is within 15 minutes.
Feng Zeng stall is located just at the top of the escalator at level 3 and the queue snakes around the corner, nowadays usually 6 to 8 deep. The queue clears fast.
They also have prawn mee and laksa but most people are here for their lor mee.
There are several Feng Zhen lor mee stalls run by children and grandchildren of the matriarch - this stall at Taman Jurong is the grandmother's stall. The stall has been around for nearly 50 years. (I need to try the other Feng Zhen stalls.)
$4 got me a large mound of noodles submerged under thick brown sauce topped with braised egg, fish cake slices, fried fish, and fried pork ball. There's optional vinegar, chili sauce, cut chili, cilantro and chopped garlic - I everything also want 😄 (There used to be a $5 serving but I don't see it anymore on the menu.)
First things first, the lor (sauce), since this is lor mee. The light brown colour sauce was thick, gooey, smooth, starchy and tasted mildly savoury. I prefer this than those very dark and salty ones.
Tossing and folding the contents in the bowl, I mixed the gooey sauce thoroughly with the vinegar, chili sauce and chopped garlic. The resulting sauce clung to the thick flat, soft-tender noodles turning the whole dish deliciously savoury, tangy, spicy, garlicky 😋
There's lots of liau 料 (ingredients) in this lor mee. Instead of the usual doughy fish nuggets, Feng Zhen gives hand pulled shreds of fried fish without batter. The fried fish tasted savoury with a bit of fresh fish flavour from the moist white flesh. The golden brown fried outside was crisp, chewy and a bit "leathery" like jerky. Nice.
Another Feng Zhen signature is their fried pork balls which, like their fish, is freshly fried at the stall.
The outside was fried to a golden brown crisp while the inside was tender and moist. The pork ball was mainly savoury with a bit of sweetness from the pork and some seasoning.
Jeng Zhen is old school in that it gives no quarters in the pork fat (lor bak) department. There were several pieces of these nicely tenderly juicy, savoury sweet braised pork belly.
One of the best lor mee that I've tasted so far.
I am burping garlic now 🧄 🤭
Written by Tony Boey on 7 Oct 2021
I'd say west is best. 'cos my fave lor mee stalls are all in the west: Feng Zhen, Sheng Yi Fa at Clementi, Tiong Bahru Lor Mee at Bt Batok and Hai Tang at Mei Ling St FC (closed down) :-)
ReplyDeleteThe lor mee at the Clementi coffeeshop behind Clementi Mall is damn good in my opinion. Will have to try out this mentioned Feng Zhen lor mee stall at Taman Jurong then know which one is better. :)
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