Stumbled upon the long and growing queue at Hup Kee Fishball stall at the Hong Kong Street Zhen Ji coffee shop at Blk 158 Ang Mo Kio (5 minutes walk from Mayflower MRT station). This was our third food trail stop and fishball wasn't on the agenda. But, we went for it anyway as our curiosity was killing us - we can't wait to find out what Hup Kee was all about, why it commands a constant queue.
I volunteered to queue while the rest waited. We were supposed to just have fishball soup and save our stomach space for other food in our plan. As I got to the front of the queue, I unilaterally decided to get the fishball soup plus a set of dry noodles. Might as well lah.., since queued already 😬
I took the opportunity to chat with uncle while he cooked my order. Boss' family hailed from Kluang (Johor) and had been in the fishball business for decades. They moved to Kuantan while boss came to Singapore 6 years ago. I didn't ask the busy boss for his name - that would seem too inquisitive and the queue behind was getting impatient 😬 Better not abuse or test other customers' patience 😬
Swee lah (nice!). Everything here for $9.50 (fishball soup $5, dry noodle set $4.50). Boss apologised that his fishcakes were sold out (I must come back for it).
First things first, the handmade fishballs. They were roughly the same size and shape though every one was different.
Some were lighter, softer, some firmer but all were springy and taste savoury sweet with natural fish flavour. None were perfectly round (they should not be) but they were all really nice. My ideal fishball is a little firmer.
The tau pok with soft minced pork filling was surprisingly good in texture and sweet savoury flavour.
The clear soup they were swimming in had distinct tong cai and dried seaweed savouriness with slight pepperiness.
The mee pok (the noodle option I chose) came with dark sauce, lard, hae bee hiam (dried shrimp & dried chili) type sambal and aromatic fried shallot oil.
After tossing, the noodles which were done slightly soft tender were coated with soy sauce, lard, and sambal which tasted savoury lardy spicy. It wasn't as lardy as I like, as soy sauce, sambal and fried shallot oil provide the main flavours.
Hmm... The best thing at Hup Kee are their fishballs, in my humble opinion.
Hup Kee sold out for the day before we finished our meal. If you are coming, come by 11am to avoid a wasted trip.
👆 In case you are interested, this is Hup Kee's shop La Gourmet Noodle House in Kuantan (Pahang state in Malaysia).
I once went there at 12 noon and they were well into packing up. Needless to say, I made a return trip early in the morning and was rewarded with a very satisfying meal of tasty noodles and nice fishballs. The owners are pretty friendly.
ReplyDeleteThe Ah Five kampung chicken rice next stall serves pretty delish chicken rice. I was told their Special Fried Chicken Rice has wok hei, it's on my radar to make a return trip for it. Nice to see a younger gen running the show there. The petite lady owner wields a mean chopper :-)