I like this no frills, old school prawn mee conveniently located at the heart of town. Founded in 1928, Blanco Court Prawn Mee is in the fourth generation now. The recipe for the soup hasn't changed since the beginning.
Blanco Court Prawn Mee started as a street side stall in the 1920s. A map of Singapore from 1913 showed a Blanco Road though I can find nothing else about it. Map courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
The stall later moved into a coffee shop in Blanco Court building before relocating here in Beach Road in 1978. Blanco Court building itself was rebuilt, expanded, and reopened as Raffles Hospital in 1997. Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
When you are here, wait outside for the staff to assign you a table.
Queue, make your orders, inform the staff of your table number, pay, and the food will be delivered to your table. A simple and effective drill executed efficiently.
Today, I ordered only the smallest serving for $6.50 which comes with noodles and three prawns (split into halves). There was no sliced lean pork. This was my second meal in quick succession (I just had chicken rice nearby before walking over).
They have bigger servings with options for bigger prawns, pork ribs and pig tails. Next time, I shall go for the pig tails.
I am here for the soup, which was excellent. It is made with prawn head, pork bone, pig tail, and a blend of seasoning and sauces.
The soup had a full, round viscous body from collagen extracted by boiling pork bone, tail, etc. It had a robust umami savoury flavour from prawn head and an underlying porcine savouriness from pork bone. Prawns and pork provided their natural sweetness for balance. The sprinkle of fried shallot, shallot oil and lard added their flavours and aromas to the soup. The flavours were well balanced and intensity at the right level for me. I love it.
The finger size prawns were fresh and had slight crustacean sweetness. I don't like to peel prawns as I have to keep my fingers dry to take pictures 😬
The thick bee hoon and yellow mee were generic but well blanched and did their job as carbs.
There's a bit of bean sprouts (I don't mind more) but kang kong was missing (and, I felt its absence) 🤔
I enjoyed this prawn mee with one of the best old school prawn soup in Singapore.
Written by Tony Boey on 25 Jun 2022
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