Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee / Rochor Mee @ Golden Mile Food Centre (Army Market) 海南福建炒虾麵 ☏ 6294 6798

The Hainanese Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee stall at Golden Mile hawker centre has been around for the longest time.

I first came here when we had to come here on weekends during NS to get supplies. Yeah, during those early days we had to come here to buy things like rubber bands which we needed to tie leaves to our helmets for camouflage. Things like that.

The name Hainanese Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee may sound oxymoronic to some people but there is a very good reason behind it.

In the early days of fried Hokkien prawn mee around the 1950s, the folks who pioneered the dish at old Rochor Road area had a Hainanese cook. This Hainanese cook drove a taxi during the day, and fried fried Hokkien prawn mee at Rochor Road by night.

By the way, some oldies still call this dish "Rochor mee" because of the popular stall there.

梁安光 The owner of this Hainanese fried Hokkien prawn mee stall today is the son of the Hainanese cook who fried Hokkien prawn mee at Rochor Road in the 1950s.

What I am saying is, here in Golden Mile hawker centre today, we can get the pioneer form or almost Ver 1.0 of Singapore fried Hokkien prawn mee.

Isn't that cool?

A piece of Singapore history we can eat 😁

Anyway, Tony, you talked so much already, but is this fried Hokkien mee tasty or not?

讲了这么多, 还没讲到重点 🙄

拖泥带水 😂 Tony bring water 🙄

Alone, I got the smallest $5 serving.

Mould of yellow noodles and thin bee hoon (rice vermicelli) with egg, bean sprouts and chive, topped with prawn, pork belly slices and squid. Came with a dollop of sambal, cut chili, and half a calamansi (lime). No lard croutons (I shall request next time).

From my table near the stall, I could hear the regular clanging from the wok. Boss 梁安光 folded and tossed the noodles and bee hoon in pork and prawn stock till the liquid was reduced and all essence of flavours infused into the carbs.

The mouthful of soft noodles, bee hoon and bean sprouts was not saucey but loaded with a porcine sweetness, garlic and umami savouriness. While the noodles were still steamy hot, it had a nice crustacean umami aroma. Little if any wok hei but I don't recall Singapore fried Hokkien mee being a wok hei dish.

The definitive trinity of classic fried Hokkien mee were all there - pork belly, squid, prawn. Not big, nor the best quality but all present.

And fortunately, no extras like fish cake slices, bits of chicken 🙄 or faux crab stick 😱

The calamansi worked as expected to cut through the lard of the dish. I don't really need this, I love lard 😄

Staying true to classic FHKM, they provided cut chili and also a dollop of sambal as that is what customers expect today.

Not a mind blowing rendition but delicious, and an authentic throwback to a pioneer form of Singapore fried Hokkien prawn mee, one of the few dishes we can claim and no one would dispute 😄

I have friends who swear by Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee and it is definitely in the top band of best Singapore FHKM today.