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| Beach Road Prawn Mee |
Beach Road Prawn Noodle and Blanco Court Prawn Mee are actually related, and they both have their own legion of long time, die hard fans (like Man City versus Man Utd 😬 ).
Stall name: Blanco Court Prawn Mee
Address: 243 Beach Road, #01-01, Singapore 189754
Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Bugis station
Tel: 6396 8464
Hours: 7:30am - 4:00pm (Tues off)
Beach Road Prawn Noodle and Blanco Court Prawn Mee have the same roots. Both are fourth generation of the street side mobile two basket prawn mee stall founded by Mr Lee Pee Tuan in the 1930s. Lee Pee Tuan came to Singapore from Fujian, China in the late 1920s and plied his trade at the old Blanco Road (now expunged).
There are two other related shops - Blanco Prawn Noodle House at Jalan Kayu and Jalan Sultan Prawn Noodle at Jalan Ayer.
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| Blanco Court Prawn Mee |
Both Blanco Court and Beach Road have a ngoh hiang partner and many people like to eat their prawn mee with crispy ngoh hiang.
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| Blanco Court Prawn Mee |
Though spanning two shop lots, both prawn noodle shops are often always full house during lunch.
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| Beach Road Prawn Noodle |
The serving at Beach Road Prawn Noodle and Blanco Court Prawn Mee look similar. Portions are about the same. Halved prawns over a mound of yellow mee sitting in a brownish reddish bowl of soup. No lean pork slices, a bit of bean sprouts and kang kong. Both give off a lovely waft of crustacean aroma as the noodles were served.
This is the smallest $6.50 serving. Both shops have the same pricing range for larger servings with combinations of big prawns, pork ribs and pig tail.
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| Blanco Court Prawn Mee |
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| Beach Road Prawn Noodle |
Both Beach Road and Blanco Court have robust tasting umami savoury soup made with pork bone, prawn, seasoning and soy sauce. Both soups have round body from dissolved collagen from pork bone, skin, etc. I found little to tell them apart. Both prawn mee shops probably kept faithfully to the "golden" recipe from the first generation.
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| Beach Road Prawn Noodle |
Both prawn mee shops provide freshly fried shallot and lard cracklings with Beach Road slightly more generous with it. The fried shallot, lard crackling and their aromatic oils add additional layers of flavours to the already flavoursome soup.
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| Beach Road Prawn Noodle |
Both soups are at just the right intensity and balance of flavours for me, so I did not use any of the condiments provided, except for.......
..... raw chili pepper which magically makes everything in the bowl tastes better.
Both Beach Road and Blanco Court prawn noodles are among my favourites in Singapore. There is really little to tell them apart, partly because they came from the same roots and also they have kept to the success formula that have served the extended family so well through four generations.
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| Blanco Court Prawn Mee |
I know...... after 500 words, got say like never say liddat 😬
So, if I am forced to pick one, I feel Beach Road has the slight edge with the bigger, firmer prawns with a bit more flavour.
Written by Tony Boey on 1 Jul 2022
Jasmine Adams said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"But if asked to compare, I can only compare Beach Road and Jl Ayer. As you mentioned, they must have the same recipes etc. And from my discussion with the lady boss at jalan ayer - she said to me that they are " kaki lang '". If I am not mistaken, all the " branches" have the same supply chain in order to take advantage of the volume . Maybe they even have their own prawn farm. I recall mentioning to her that the prices were different and she said that i was mistaken - as if they are a kind of " family franchise ".
Also , I think that the variation in the soup, because of the complex layers of flavours from the pork bones, prawn head and shell stock etc and that msg enhancement , the flavours can even vary from the time of the day one is served. The " mother " stock is kept on the boil. Perhaps they make a fresh batch everyday but from the robustness of the soup , such flavours can only develop if kept for a number of hours or overnight.
Maybe there is a mixture of older or newer stock. These are probably trade secrets that the " family" franchise shares."
Currently a convert from Blanco to Beach road now. Taste and quality wise they are pretty similar. However Beach road beats Blanco now in terms of service, friendly and they are really systematic and the noodles is served almost immediately after our orders. Beach road is also not stingy for the soup refills compared to Blanco.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteGeylang prawn noodle is not directly related to other 4 shops.
They are just a relative who happen to be taught the recipe by one of the owners of the 4 shops.
Same goes for Whitley prawn noodles and Whampoa 545 prawn noodles, who were family friends and were taught the recipe in the past.
Only Beach Road prawn mee, blanco court prawn mee, blanco prawn noodle house and Jalan sultan prawn mee are direct descendants of Mr Lee Pi Tuan.
Thank you for coming down to try our prawn noodles. Appreciate it!.
Would appreciate if you could amend the info on your blogpost.
I am part of the Lee family and am operating one of the 4 shops
I didn't mention Geylang in my post at all.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteGeylang prawn noodles are not related to the other 4 shops.
They are a distant relative who were taught the recipe by one of the owners of the 4 shops.
Only Beach Road prawn mee, blanco court prawn noodle, blanco prawn noodle house and Jalan sultan prawn mee are direct descendants of my great grand father.
Thank you for coming down to try our prawn noodles.