After trying the famous fried Hokkien mee by Bao Er in Balestier Plaza, buddy suggested swinging over to Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee around the corner in Whampoa market.
Cooking was done in two stages. First the mound of yellow noodles, thick bee hoon, eggs and beansprouts were stir fried in a wok in an effort to sear in some wok hei.
So comforting to see the next generation in action, earnestly learning the ropes. Thank you 🙏
Seafood stock and lard were then added, stir fried, before the noodles were covered and briefly stewed in the seafood stock and lard.
The fried and stewed noodles were portioned with toppings of blanched squid and prawn.
The cooking and queuing systems were well oiled, so we got our food within 20 minutes.
Our SGD15 serving. Got prawn and squid but missing the fatty pork belly, the essential trinity of fried Hokkien prawn mee (in my opinion lah).
It's the texture I like for fried Hokkein mee - moist but not soggy or saucy wet. The noodles and thick bee hoon were soft tender. The aroma of seafood stock was slight. Wok hei was also rather shy despite pre-frying. The main flavour was sweet, followed by savoury, then seafood umami. The profile of old school fried Hokkien prawn mee though seafood umami and wok hei weren't robust.
Raw cut chili and hot sambal to spice up the noodles. Nice but I wouldn't stir this into the noodles as that would change the taste profile by too much.
It's an old school type of fried Hokkien prawn mee sans the pleasure of pork belly.
🎗 Pro-tip, I learnt the hard way: There were no lardons or lard croutons in the plate - need to ask for it next time.
I totally agree with that descending order of the flavour profile. What’s important was sorely lacking.
ReplyDeleteYst I ate, no wok hei.
ReplyDeleteAlvin Tay Agree, very mediocre in flavour and texture. There are plenty of better options. :)
ReplyDeleteThe aunty said you have to ask for the lard, cos not everyone wants it :)
ReplyDeleteIf u want wok hei, Chuan Kee fried kway teow a few doors down is full of it ... but he hasnt been opened for a few days now and I am a little worried ... cheers
ReplyDeleteBut frankly for this stall, even though they open late, I Dun like because I taste no prawn broth flavour, yet it's very sweet, leading me to guess that is prob just a lot of MSG boosting perhaps pork stock? Nothing against MSG, but it's meant to boost the main flavour, not become the main flavour.
ReplyDeleteNot fantastic to be honest. But decent enough to go back for seconds.
ReplyDeleteAaron Ong many hawkers resort to using rock sugar/sugar for their broth already . I have seen them procuring rock sugar at many hawker stalls including a very popular YTF stalls in AMK.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Balestier area for nearly 20 years. Ate once. Never again.
ReplyDeletetotally agreed with you !
DeleteOverrated and they are cut many corners. No pork meat at all somemore
ReplyDeleteBoycott