Xiamen city in Fujian province of China has an iconic prawn noodle dish. Sea prawns are plentiful along Fujian's shoreline, especially during summer, hence prawn noodle 蝦麵 is also called summer noodles 夏面 in Fujian.
Xiamen Prawn Noodle Comes to Singapore
Misrule, incompetence at the top, endemic corruption leading to rebellions, suppression, civil war, foreign invasions, defeats, anarchy, famine, and disease. Many were desperate to leave China at a time when British Malaya was hungry for manpower for its booming plantations, mines and ports. Most of the Chinese migrants from this period were from the provinces of Guangdong (which at that time included Hainan island) and Fujian.
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| Telok Ayer Bay in 1856 |
The first junk of migrants from Xiamen, Fujian arrived in Telok Ayer Bay in 1821, two years after Raffles founded Singapore for the British East India Company in 1819. Most migrants came with nothing except the shirt on their backs and owing money for their passage to Singapore. But, they did bring along intangibles like their culture, one of which was their cuisine which remains Singapore's heritage to this day.
At the embarkation and disembarkation points in Xiamen and Singapore, there were temples where migrants prayed for journey mercies before setting off and on arrival at their destination. In Singapore, they go to Thian Hock Keng temple at Telok Ayer Bay which was founded in 1821 as a simple, makeshift shrine.
Migrants from Guangdong and Fujian brought their respective cuisines. The Hokkien migrants brought prawn mee 蝦麵 (among other dishes) from Fujian. We look at the evolution of Xiamen prawn noodles in Singapore through the story of well known prawn noodle brands.
Evolution of Singapore Prawn Noodle
Blanco Court Prawn Noodle
The founder of Blanco Court Prawn Mee came to Singapore in the 1920s and began selling prawn noodles in 1928. In the beginning, the dish was simple like its precursor from Xiamen - just small prawn, lean pork slices, kang kong (water spinach), fried shallot and fried pork lard. The prawn broth followed the Xiamen style of using prawn head and shell. Water used to blanch prawns and pork slices were combined with the prawn broth for more volume and flavour.
This put paid to the rather prevalent urban legend that prawn mee came about in Singapore and Penang during the Japanese Occupation (1942 - 1945). It is said that prawn mee was created from meagre resources such as small prawns, a bit of lean pork, weeds (water spinach), noodles and a broth made from discarded prawn shell and head because of shortages during the war. In fact, there was already prawn mee in Singapore before the Japanese arrived.
The pork broth is made separately by boiling pig skin, ribs, socket bone, and tail. When ready, the prawn and pork broth are combined together into a prawn and pork blend which is viscous, and rich with crustacean umami savouriness complemented with porcine sweetness and savoury flavours from seasoning and sauces (such as fish sauce). A bit of lard rounds up the soup.
(Over in Xiamen, they do not have a "dry" version but there is an option of having fried rice with a bowl of prawn head soup.)
Also in the 1960s, chili powder is added as a condiment (like they do in Penang) to Blanco Court's prawn noodles as an option. I may dust some chili powder onto my dry noodles but never into my soup as that would throw the exquisite umami savoury sweet flavour off kilter.
Ah Kwi Mee Udang
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| Toa Payoh 1966. Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore |
When I was a child in 1960s Singapore, we lived near a prawn noodle stall at Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Food Centre. (The food centre is still there though our flat block 65 had been demolished 😢 )
There was a prawn noodle stall where the broth was made mainly by boiling pork bones with soy sauce and fish sauce. There was a touch of prawn taste in the soup but only in a complementary role in the mainly porcine savoury soup. There were fried shallot and fried pork fat (lard) which contributed a lot of the savouriness and aromas of the dish. We had this prawn noodle occasionally at that time.
Ah Kwi's father used to run a push cart prawn noodle stall at Singapore's Hong Kong Street. In 1964, Ah Kwi's father pedalled his prawn noodle stall across the Causeway to peddle his food along Johor Bahru's Jalan Wong Ah Fook.
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| Ah Kwi at his Jalan Wong Ah Fook stall in 1971 |
When Singapore became independent in 1965, Ah Kwi and his dad remained in Malaysia. And, that's how a nostalgic taste Singapore prawn noodle ended up in Malaysia to this day.
At that time (1960s), we would eat the noodles and then scoop in cooked rice to finish off the porky prawn broth. That counts for two meals, eaten a few hours apart. Not sure if we were the only family stretching our family income that way.
I brought a few Singaporean friends to taste Ah Kwi's prawn noodle but none were blown away because they didn't have the nostalgic attachment to the taste profile 🤷 My friends are either young or had a more privileged childhood than me 😬
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| Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodle |
From around the 80s, Singaporeans become more affluent.
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| Sumo Big Prawn Noodle |
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| One Prawn & Co |
The soup too shifted to more robust crustacean umami as Singaporean tastebuds are partial to mind blowing depths of umami savouriness. Prawn noodles that cost double, even triple the average price start to become common.
Prawn noodle hawkers have their preferred prawns but they also adapt their recipes depending on what species of prawns are available locally. In Xiamen, the preferred species are 金狗蝦 and 天狗蝦. In Penang, they like 九節蝦. In Singapore, we use sua lor 沙卢, ang kar 紅腿, white prawn and tiger prawn.
Singaporeans love their prawn mee. Prawn mee is probably more ubiquitous in Singapore today (every hawker centre has at least one prawn mee stall) than in Xiamen where the dish originated.
Written by Tony Boey on 17 Aug 2022
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Yes, I agree with you that Ah Kwi's prawn noodle is probably close to the original also as shown in the picture. In the early 60's we stayed in Queen Street and there used to be an elderly man with clay pot of soup and bowls and utensil etc, including small pails for washing, balanced over his shoulder with bamboo pole. The important ingredient, other than the soup is the freshly fried shallot in pork lard with crispy bits. The prawns are sliced like the photos together with sliced boiled pork and kangkong. Nowadays, prawn noodles becomes too atas with big prawns etc and unfortunately, some don't even have kangkong.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Your comments are spot on. I should highlight the important role of fried shallot and lard. Appreciate also your insights from the 1960s. (From Tony)
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ReplyDeleteJasmine Adams said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Really enjoyed reading your article on the origins of prawn mee soup and what is termed as Hokkien mee. When I was looking at the very authentic hokkien mee recipes , I was really surprised at the rempah base which featured galangal / lengkuas as a big flavor note. And in Penang Hokkien mee, the red tinge from the soup comes not just from the prawn " oil" exuded with the prawn heads and shells ,but from the dried chillis used.
Todays prawn mee in tje Blanco type prawn mee stalls is so very different from the old style prawn mee, where the sweetness of the pork broth is emphasized - i recall that rock sugar was even used to enhance the sweetness of the pork broth. Today, as you mentioned , Singaporeans want a robust prawn pork broth and toppings of big prawns and lean pork. No more is the flavor of a good pork broth appreciated in a bowl of prawn mee. We associate a good pork broth with ramen rather than prawn mee !
I consider myself one of the " traitors" to that original taste of dark soya sauce pork broth as I consider 545 Whampoa in Tekka as the best and Blanco court family chains a close second !"
Adrian Tan said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"A wonderful write up about the origin of prawn noodles by the master food blogger, Tony Boey aka Johor Kaki. Inside the article he describes of the migration of many Chinese from Southern China to Nanyang, which is principally, Malaya, of which Singapore was part of, in the early 19th and 20th centuries. With the migration, many of these Chinese came empty handed with only the shirts on their backs. But, with the journey and leap of faith, they also brought along their cultures and cuisines.
My paternal grandfather passed away in 1941, just before the war, 3 years after getting married and when my father was barely 1 and a half years old. Naturally, I never met him, and the only thing I know about him was that he was a teacher. It never occur to me to ask my grandma when she was around, what kind of teacher. LOL! He arrived in Singapore, with his brother, my late granduncle in the 1930's, and apparently the 2 of them relied on each other a fair bit to survive those tough times. Sadly, my grandfather, died while playing cricket. A cricket ball somehow got through his defences, and smashed into him. He apparently died of a ruptured spleen, something so preventable and treatable in modern day medical science. Such is life, with a toss of a ball, the lives of so many were changed and brought into turmoil. All this just months before the Japanese invaded in 1942. I never really knew about my relatives in China. Till today, when people ask me, which part of Swatow did my relatives hail from? I just shrug my shoulders and say, I have no idea.
My materrnal grandfather came from Hainan island. He was betrothed to my maternal grandmother when they were very young, and he brought her and my maternal great-grandmother over to Singapore also in the 1930's, when he could finally afford it. My maternal granddad or 公公, took up many jobs, from odd jobs to bartending, before joining the old Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. He saved and scrimped to set up his own printing company. At least, he was his own boss when he finally retired. Till the day he passed away, he retained close ties with relatives in Hainan Island and was an active member of the local Hainanse clan. However, these ties slowly become diluted with each passing generation. I myself have never been to Hainan Island. It remains a place I might go one day. There is apparently, a ancestral tablet kept at the familial shrine in Hainan Island, where members of the family, in particular the male descendants, have their names inscribed on it. I doubt I will be able to see my mum's name there, much less mine. Ancient Chinese traditions and beliefs, can be very misorgynistic.
Thank you Tony Boey for penning this article. Maybe one day, a project for me to do is to map out my family tree. Maybe. 🙂 "