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| NeighbourWok | 177 Bukit Batok West Ave. 8, Singapore 650177 🚅 15 minutes walk from Bukit Batok station ⏰ 11 am - 2:30 pm | 4pm - 8:30 pm |
NeighbourWok fried Hokkien prawn mee has been receiving a lot of media limelight and many raving reviews. This made me very curious, driving me to go try it 😁
The first time I was here at 177 Bukit Batok West, there was a long queue. After 30 minutes in line, I ejected myself from the queue as I ran out of time to my next appointment.
Came back the following week at 10:45am and made sure I was first #1 in line 😁
They have $5, $6, $8 serving sizes. I opted for $6, in case the $5 portion might be too small. Turns out, the $6 portion was generous - slightly larger than I expected - it kept me full the whole day till dinner.
I was pleased that the trinity of fried Hokkien prawn mee - pork belly, squid and prawn were all there 🙏 (Some places skip either squid or pork with various excuses but NeighbourWok honours tradition 👍)
The yellow noodles and thick bee hoon (rice vermicelli) were smothered in a wet thick gooey sauce. I was glad it was not the drippy, soggy type. (However, the serving lacks aroma like we would get from Swee Guan in Geylang.)
In the mouth, the flavours were robustly eggy, savoury, lardy with a strong salty aftertaste which lingered quite long. Dominant tastes were eggy and salty.
There was neither discernible crustacean (prawny) nor seafood umami. Didn't detect any fried garlic taste. (Subjective lah. I like caramelised garlic taste but not everyone.)
The pork belly and prawn had very subtle taste while the token slivers of squid (sotong) had no flavour at all.
My mind immediately thought longingly of the sotong at Blue Star in Hougang.
Yeah, folks who don't like too much taste of pork, prawn or squid in their fried Hokkien mee will appreciate NeighbourWok's rendition more.
There were visible sear marks on some of the noodles, indicating effort to impart wok hei into the dish. There was a very subtle toastiness through the robust eggy, savoury, lardy, salty taste.
I couldn't see the cooking at Neighbourwok but at Zhup Zhup they stir-fry the noodles first to sear in the wok hei.
Well browned, crisp lard. Ask the staff for more, if you need.
The fried Hokkien mee was given a large splash of sambal by default. It tasted sour, spicy, hot, savoury, salty. It was likeable but I don't use sambal much with fried Hokkien mee as it changes the taste profile by too much (in my humble opinion).
Have you tried NeighbourWok? Please share your experience.
Stall name: The NeighbourWok
Address: 177 Bukit Batok West Ave. 8, Singapore 650177 (food stall inside Get Together Coffeeshop 欢聚一堂 coffee shop)
Nearest MRT: 15 minutes walk from Bukit Batok station
Hours: 11 am - 2:30 pm | 4pm - 8:30 pm
Written by Tony Boey on 8 Apr 2025
If you are going to Bukit Batok again, try Yong Heng Fried Squid Prawn Mee at Blk 155. Strong seafood taste and the pork lard is free flow, and I usually asked for extra chilli. Yong Heng is better than Neighbourwok.
ReplyDeleteDavid Chia yes yes this Yong Heng was my fav from 1990s. Wanted to try but too full today
DeleteSwee guan still the best. This one i don't like the chilli, I always need to buy back n use my own, quite troublesome. Dinner time need to queue 1hr for this. There is another one, yong heng is probably better.
ReplyDelete