Arrived at Havelock Food Centre before 8am and the longest queue today was at Covent Garden Prawn Noodle. So I lined up first and think later 🤭
Havelock Road Food Centre is relatively small but it has a few popular food stalls such as the fried kway teow, kway chap, fishball noodle, laksa, turtle soup, etc. Besides residents who live in the flats nearby, Havelock Food Centre is also popular with people working in the city. It's a good place to catch a coffee or a meal at the city fringe. Car parking is ample. I like this quaint little makan place (maybe because when I was growing up, hawker centres were mainly small, no frills, neighbourhood joints like this).
The queue at Covent Garden Prawn Noodle was just 6 or 7 deep, everyone was patient and the stall holders were cheerful. Most stall holders here are seniors while this prawn noodle stall is run by young stall holders. (This stall founded in the 1980s was originally located at the Covent Garden flats at Havelock Road which were demolished. The founders Lees have retired and handed the operation to new owner Ms Yim from Vietnam who seemed earnest and sincere in carrying on their legacy 🙏 )
I got the smallest serving (I always ask for the smallest so that I can try more stalls 😬 ). The noodles came with a bowl of steamy prawn soup which I can smell the crustacean umami rising with the steam.
They have options for add on of pork intestine, tail and skin at additional cost. I shall go for these next time.
Smelled good and everything looked right too. The mound of slender mee kia (my choice today) was topped with peeled prawn (yay I dislike peeling prawns myself), fish cake, lean pork, fried shallot, lard crouton, sauce and a dollop of sambal.
I usually zero in on the fried shallot and was pleased that Covent Garden Prawn Noodle fry their own shallots. Bravo 👏
If the default sauce is not enough for you, there's a whole arsenal to boost flavours to your heart's delight. I didn't use any, so my description is for the default version. The stall holders are eager to please 😁
There's a generous amount of savoury, spicy, tangy, lardy sauce that coated every strand of noodle with mild but balanced flavours. The noodles were done slightly softer than I like though. The fish cake, lean pork, prawn, lard crouton, fried shallot added their textures and flavours to the bowl too.
Besides the freshly fried aromatic shallots, I appreciate the freshly fried crunchy crisp flavour filled lard croutons too.
I enjoyed this mild umami savoury flavoured old school prawn soup. (It's not the in trend hyper umami, full body type.)
A nice old school, simple prawn noodle 👍
Video by Carl Neo Happy Cat captures the hard work behind the scene to produce a seemingly simple, humble bowl of prawn noodles.
Tay Benny said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"The original owner was an old couple. When the old man passed, the stall closed for a while then subsequently, the wife probably sold the stall and recipe to Ms Yim. She was helming the stall for a few months while Ms Yim understudy her. Eventually the stall was solely run by Ms Yim."
Daniel Wong Sylvia Bau said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Ate from the previous owner till old man passed on . He was quiet but passionate in his cooking of noodles, takes notice of regular customer like us and our special request."