Ah Hor Mee Pok Tah: Chilli and Giao Champion

With my Teochew Ah Di, Wahcow

Mee Pok Tah $3

Here's another one of those stalls that you better be quick to taste because the original hawker is already past 72 and even though he still looks like a "Lao Yankee", and behaves like one, he himself admits that at most he has 10 years of Mee Pok Tak left in him. Actually, he still looks quite good for a 72 year old. When I asked him why he wears a long sleeved shirt while he cooks his Mee Pok, he simply replied, "Cos I want to look good!"

Talking about the subject of aging, I know for most of our readers, hitting the eighth decade might still be quite a long time away. For us who are hitting middle age, it is like "Oh my, I am more than half way there, and the 2nd half is going to go quicker than the first half". I once heard a preacher (An Anglican Bishop in his 70's) say that every morning when he wakes up he goes, "Ay! I am still around!". It is almost as if after you cross the life expectancy age (78 for men, 82.8 for women), every day is a bonus. Are there anyone here that fall into this category?



Anyway, if you do have the fortune of passing the life expectancy age, then it really does give you the passport to do whatever you want, right? I mean, who cares if your Doctor tells you to stop smoking? "Ay, Doc, been smoking for 50 years and my bus still arrive at the interchange. You asking me to stop now?" Well, if you are in that category, then when it comes to food, I guess you can also just indulge in a bit of Mee Pok Tar which has a chilli made with good old Pork Lard.



Mr Liang proudly tells me that his chilli is made from Pork Lard, Buah Keluak, Hae Bee and Dried Chilli. For a person who always orders Mee Pok Tar mai Hiam (no chilli), I can tell you that this is one stall that I would ask for extra chilli. You see the main problem I have with Chilli is that most stalls just want to make their chilli hot hot. However, the chilli here is not overly spicy but the flavour is oh so addictive that you can just sit there and just pick on it with your chopsticks.

The other "champion" item is the Fish Dumplings (Her Giao) which Mr Liang still proudly makes himself. The slightly gooey texture of the meat filling is very good and it is one of the most memorable Her Giao that I have had.

Too bad the Mee Pok itself was not as QQ as I would like it to be. Otherwise it would have scored a higher rating. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Very good bowl of Mee Pok Tar and you get quite a big bowl for $3! Do yourself a favour and order a bowl of Giao Soup and try the chilli especially if you are the type who don't usually take chilli. It might just make you change your mind.


Mr Liang, 72 and still wants to look good!

Ah Hor Teochew Kway Teow Mee
12 Verdun Road
Bet Sam Leong and Syed Alwi Roads
7am to 4pm
Wed closed
81274249
Mr Liang
Recommended by ice. Read her review here

Lau Pa Sat Fishball Minced Meat Noodle: Go Go Bak Chor Mee

With smart, liverpool, bashfulhunter, iwatch_ueat, damien and PowerAunty


I am amazed to see just how popular Bak Chor Mee is amongst Singaporeans! Our current "Favourite Hawker Dish" poll shows a very close fight between Bak Chor Mee and Chicken Rice for 2nd and 3rd positions. At this stage, Hokkien Mee seems to be the firm favourite unless a whole clan of Chicken Rice lovers who have not yet voted suddenly decide log on and vote.

Anyway, my favourite hawker dishes where Hokkien Mee, Satay and Char Siew. Bak Chor Mee would have ranked around seventh or eight place. I guess it is because I generally don't add chilli to any of my dishes, and with a lot of Bak Chor Mee stalls, it is the chilli that makes the difference. So I guess that's why I would choose other dishes over Bak Chor Mee on most days.

But three of my makankakis that day insisted that this stall's Bak Chor Mee should be included into this blog so here it is. According to Damien, this Bak Chor Mee is second only to the Tai Hwa Bak Chor Mee. Smart and Bashful Hunter both said that it was really good and the chilli was especially shiok. I tried a bowl of the non-chilli version and agree that it was a good bowl of Bak Chor Mee as far as Bak Chor Mee goes. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Another place to get your Bak Chor Mee fix when you are around the Toa Payoh area.

Lau Pa Sat Fishball Minced Meat Noodle
Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7 #01-02
8am to 2pm
Closed Monday
97387141

Mei Xin Minced Meat Noodles: How do ST reporters find these places?

Bak Chor Mee $2.50

I found this review by Teo Pau Lin not long ago about this Bak Chor Mee "in the boondocks" and what struck me most was how in the world do these Straits Times reporters find this sort of places. I mean, the Food Centre is smack in the middle of nowhere in Loyang Industrial area and Loyang itself is smack in the outskirts of Singapore. So how did Ms Teo even find this place? Even if her friend had given her the tip, what in the world would possess her to make a trip to the middle of nowhere to eat and review a bowl of Bak Chor Mee? And when she was writing it, did she really think that Singaproeans would be crazy enough to make a trip to the middle of nowhere to eat this Bak Chor Mee?

So I decided to find out direct from the horse's mouth and called up Ms Teo's secretary to arrange an appointment for an interview..... no lah, Ms Teo doesn't really have a secretary. The answer was sublime... tell you about it later.



This is one hearty bowl of Bak Chor Mee. I guess "being in the boondocks" they have to cater for men with big appetites. So each bowl not only has a generous mound of noodles, it is also chock full of minced meat, sliced pork and sliced fish cake.

The noodles are also the eggy thin Mee Pok type which is my favourite. I like the way it has a firm bite but still gives you that nice "serrated" feel when you slurp it. You need to take this mee pok with the chilli sauce because the non-chilli version only has vinegar and soy sauce. The soup was tasty but not as robust as some of the others in this blog. 4.25/5



The Keow is made with a fish paste filling which is quite tasty but one is never enough. You can get an extra bowl of 6 Keows for $1. It's too bad I got there after the lunch crowd. I think they would have tasted even better fresh.



The other little surprise that I found was their Lor Mee which was actually quite good! The sauce is not overly thickened and it has a sweet, flowery fragrance to it. Again the portions are rather generous for $2.50. The ngor hiang was ok but the lor bak was quite tasty. 4/5

Ah yes, back to our little mystery of how our intrepid ST reporter traveled to the boondocks to eat a bowl of Bak Chor Mee. Her "friend" was non other than the man to whom she is married to now. He works in the area and told her about the noodles. Ha! So Ms Teo went to review food and at the same time had a tryst with her boyfriend!! (Last statement is only my imagination yah?)

Conclusion

Good hearty bowl of Bak Chor Mee. But how many would be game enough to travel all the way there to try it, I wonder?

Mei Xin Minced Meat Prawn Noodle
NTL Eating House
64 Loyang Way
6am to 4.30pm Mon - Friday
6am to 11.30pm Sat

Seng Kee Minced Pork Noodles: You just can't stop this Teochew Ah Hia!

With Amagada, ieatMama and the kids

Bak Chor Mee $4

It's been a year since I blogged about Seng Kee. I was looking at my old pictures and felt that I should do justice to their food by doing a better job with the photos. Since my last post, I have changed my camera equipment and had a bit more practice. So I hope you can see that the pictures are now a little nicer now.

Unlike most other Bak Char Mee places, this particular one actually owns the whole restaurant. All the rest of the Bak Chor Mee places I know operate from small stalls as part of a coffeeshop or food centre. This means that our Teochew Ah Hia has got a little more elbow room to experiment with different dishes. So aside from just giving us the standard Bak Chor Mee, Mr Lee has even started to try his hand at Cze Char dishes as well! Oh, he only has one dish at the moment, but it was really good! I'll tell you more about it later.



I like this stall not only because the food is great, but they are very friendly as well. And every chance I get to speak to Mr Lee, (a typical Teochew Ah Hia), I always managed to learn something new. This time round he was explaining to me that he slices up the mushrooms, leaves it overnight to extract the juices before combining it with his secret blend of herbs and spices in order to create the unique sauce that goes into his Bak Chor Mee. Of course he was mum about what spices he uses. At least now I know why his BCM tastes a little different from the rest. I like the "mee pok" he uses here as it is the thin and flat type. It has a very good bite and has that excellent eggy flavour. 4.5/5

Those who like braised pork ribs should really give his pork ribs a go. He has tweaked his recipe a little since the last time we spoke. His ribs are always stewed until you can eat the whole thing without leaving any soft bones behind. 4.25/5


Fish Maw Soup $10

Of all the soups that accompany the BCMs that I have blogged about over the last year, this one stands one head above the rest. I have already elaborated about the quality of the stock in my last post, but I just have to let you know that the real gem at this place is their fish maw soup. For $10 a big bowl, it is well worth the money. It is chock a block full of Fish Maw, minced pork, sliced pork, black fungas and liver. And the soup is so full of pork protein precipitates that even if you feel that you need an extreme umami boost (like having spent a week eating hospital food), I can guarantee that a bowl of this soup will still be "Too Much" for you! Very very shiok and satisfying bowl of soup! 4.75/5



Alright, I promised to tell you about that one Cze Char Dish that Mr Lee has started to do. It is this Kailan with sliced Fish. He attacks the wok like how he does with the BCM, with lots of noise and gusto. Incidentally, Mr Lee used operate to from a coffeeshop in Eunos where he built his reputation as the "Clop Clop" BCM man. Even now, when he is in action, he makes lots of noise by whacking his metal ladle on the porcelain bowls.

He really gets that wok smokin' when he frys the Kailan. A bit of this, a dash of that, and lots of action and smoke. The end result is a Kailan which quite a distinctive taste. When I enquired why the Kailan tasted so good, he proudly produced this bottle of "moonshine". Well, he didn't really distill the wine himself but he adds his blend of herbs and spices and lets it all soak for a week before using just a few drops of it to spike the dish. I had a whiff of it and take it from me, a few drops is all that is needed!

The Kailan were tender and the sauce was really good. My only complaint is that he uses Batang fish which I thought was a little tough. It would have been great with Toman or Ikan Kurau. 4.25/5



Finally, to the dessert. Yes, dessert. Never thought you 'd be ordering dessert at a BCM place right? But as I said, this restaurant is Mr Lee's playground to experiment with all his favourite food. So here is their pumpkin paste which is made from pure pumpkin and nothing else. No lard, no sugar, simply pumpkin. I suggested that the pumpkin paste would be even more shiok if he would roast the pumpkin instead of steaming it. The roasting process would caramelize the sugars and give it a nice smooth and smoky flavour. As it is, it is quite good but lacks that extra ooomph. 4/5

Conclusion

This is really quite a unique place for BCM. The BCM itself is quite good, but it is the combination of the different dishes, the service and the personality of this Teochew Ah Hia and of course the Fish Maw soup that makes this place my regular BCM haunt.

Link to first Seng Kee Post

Seng Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodles
316 Changi Road
6345 7561
Opened 8am to 4.30pm daily

Chao Zhou Fish Ball: Retro Next Gen Fishballs with Killer Chilli and Lard!

There are updates at the end of the blog
With AlecEe, smart, iwatch_ueat and bashful hunter


Does Retro, Next Gen Fishball sound like an oxymoron to you? Let me explain just what I mean. This newly opened Fishball stall is actually a branch of the famous stall in Toa Payoh Lor 7 which has been in existence since 1968. The "prodigal" son of the owner finally returned to run the family business after spending 15 years trying to do his own thing. And he is determined to stick to the traditional way his father has been selling his famous dish but with a Next Gen spin on marketing.

So what is so traditional about this Fishball noodles? Well, for one thing, they actually rented 2 stall so that one stall is used only to make the fishball, crispy pork lard and the chilli. The condiments for the noodles are a combination of their killer chilli sauce, lard, tomato ketchup and vinegar, the same recipe the father had been serving up for close to 40 years.



Eddie explained that the time of the day that you eat the fishball is very important to the characteristic of the fishball. In the mornings the fishballs tend to be tastier but the texture not as bouncy. In the evenings, the fishballs tend to be less tasty but the texture becomes very bouncy. They make their fishball entirely from Yellowtail with no addition of fillers. Because of this they tend to look rather big when they are being cooked but shrink in size when they are left in the soup for a while.



The fishballs here were bouncy and very tasty. They were very good by my standards. However our two uncles were divided in their opinions. Smart loved it while AlecEe said they were not bouncy enough. Ahh, taste is indeed subjective or is it anything to do with whether one has dentures or not?

The ravable item here must be the sauce that goes with the noodles. For a person who does not regularly take chilli sauce, I actually quite appreciate this one. The fiery chilli will make you cough when the noodles arrive piping hot but does not linger on your tongue such that you need a drink! This is indeed fascinating, you get the kick but not the heat..... like taking Wasabi. The combination of the tomato, chilli and lard oil mixed into the Mee Pok is just one of those things that really satisfies a hunger craving. Shiok! 4.5/5

Conclusion

The combination of the chilli, tomato and lard in the mee pok has been etched permanently into my temporal lobes. This is my current favourite place for fishball noodles.

Update 1
Our readers report that the stall has been closed

Chao Zhou Fishball Noodles
Old Airport Road Food Centre #01-143/144 (Right in the corner furthest from the city)
9.30am to 8pm
Closed on Friday

Teo Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle: Melt in your Mouth Braised Pork Soft Bones

I simply love braised pork soft bone, don't you? I just could not resist ordering a bowl of this Braised Pork Noodle. The Pork Soft Bone has been cooked till you can finish the whole bowl of noodle without leaving anything in the bowl or on the table next to the bowl.

Talking about throwing bones and other stuff on the table around your bowl, I am just wondering if you all still do it without a second thought? It's funny, I must admit that in a hawker centre I do it without hesitation, but it is not something that you do in a fancy restaurant especially if there is a nice pristine white table cloth. But then, when we are in a Chinese Restaurant, we still do it, table cloth or not. Do you think that throwing the unedible stuff onto the table for the elderly Ah Soh or the Bangladeshi worker to clean up is right etiquette or should we become more civic minded and "developed" and politely leave everything in our bowl?

At least I don't have to face this dilemma when eating this dish since nothing much is left when you are finished with the pork. The braising sauce is very good. It is robust, sweet and you get a hint of the cinnamon and star anise without it being over powering. The noodles are also special egg noodles which are nice and QQ. 4.25/5

Conclusion

If you like pork soft bones or just need the extra collagen for your osteoarthritis, this is the place to go for relatively cheap soft bone fix.

Teo Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle
Blk 137, Tampines St 11
Tampines Round Market and Food Centre
#01-05
5am to 2pm
Closed on Mondays

AMK House Teochew Noodles: Round the Clock BCM

Ever been working hard till 3am in the morning and feeling hungry for a nice bowl of noodles? Well, in keeping with the mission statement of this blog "to provide 24 hour access to information that will help you satisfy that hunger or make you more hungry", I am proud to present for your consideration, this 24 hour Bak Chor Mee stall which is situated in the same coffeeshop as the famous Punggol Nasi Lemak.

Now this BCM is not bad, in fact it is quite good, though it does have a few shortcomings. I liked the Mee Kia which they use. It can either be called a flat mee kia or a narrow mee pok. Whatever it is, the texture is unique. It combines the bite of a mee kia with the slurpiness of a mee pok. The ingredients are fresh and the sauce for the noodles has got enough ooomph.



I was particularly impressed with the standard of the soup which was boiled long enough such that it was full of protein strands swirling around in it. The meat ball and fish ball is quite standard, nothing exceptional. BCM critiques may look upon this BCM like Simon Cowell and complain that it is not up to their standards, but for me it was good enough and at least it is a bowl of noodles I can get when the others are closed. 4/5

Conclusion

Round the clock BCM which is quite good. Mai Hiam Buay Pai (If you don't over critique it, it is actually not bad)

AMK House Teochew Noodles
965 Upper Serangoon Road
Open 24 Hours