Stumbled upon Meng Boon Teochew Fishball Noodle at block 45 Sims Drive which is a short walk from Sims Vista Market & Food Centre. Meng Boon is an old noodle stall with a loyal, multi generation following.
The queue can get long during lunch, so they have a paging system. Order, pay, take your pager to your table, come back to get your food when your pager buzz. Simple.
While waiting, this proudly laminated, ancient (1988) newspaper cutting caught my attention.
"Tow kay, is that you?" (referring to the newspaper cutting).
"Yeah, 1988. I was 26, now I am 60" replied tow kay Ng Meng Boon in this sweat soaked signature Teochew chef "uniform" - thin, plain white T-shirt.
The stall was founded by Mr Ng's father in the 1940s at Lim Tua Tow market in Serangoon. Mr Ng's son will take over the stall when he retires.
I got the smallest $3.50 serving. Waited only 5 minutes at 7:30am.
I had mee pok - today, the noodles were done a little soft and they were quite wet. The sauce was mild - lardy, sweet, savoury, spicy, tangy but all gentle without sharpness. Presence of lard was felt the most - which is great as it was freshly made.
The blanched minced pork and pork slices were slightly chewy and didn't have much flavour.
The over sized lard croutons were so good. Crisp and saturated with fresh grease.
The generic fishballs were light, gently bouncy and very smooth. The sweet savoury flavour fishballs tasted good.
Meng Boon's signature is their fried fishball. Only Meng Boon has it in Singapore (though it's not as hard to find across the Causeway in "Little Swatow" i.e. Johor Bahru).
The soup was nice with pronounced sweet savoury chai poh (preserved radish) taste.
If you like fried fishballs, Meng Boon at Sims Drive is the place for it. Next time, I shall get more fried fishballs and also ask for more sambal and black vinegar as I felt the sauce mix for the noodles need a bit more kick.
Written by Tony Boey on 3 Nov 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments submitted with genuine identities are published