Mian Wang 1971 面王一九七一

Many have raved about this hidden gem located in Bukit Batok and it seems that there is no reason for me to give it a miss. I first came to know of Lao Cai's Curry which is located just adjacent to Mian Wang's stall, serving delicious curry rice braised pork, salted calamari rings etc, similar to the ingredients of Mian Wang. These two stalls are affiliated and running under the same family.

Stall of Mian Wang

Hokkien Mee was out of my expectation, not the usual plate of noodle that comes with a heady prawn stock taste. On the contrary, it consists of its own unique style. Expect a good plate of wet and slightly thick gravy/stock that served with little hints of "Wok Hei". The portion is reasonable with ingredients like prawns and squid. Substantial of eggs were used to give the noodles sweet flavours. Other ingredients are pretty standard, that includes squid, pork and prawns. Mian Wang is generous with the crispy fried pork lard and served it by the side of every plate of Hokkien Mee.

Hokkien Mee - $3.50 (Small)

Unlike the traditional Hokkien Mee stall, Mian Wang gives the traditional dish a twist in its menu. What a weird combination of having my favourites dishes within a plate! The thought of pairing the moist and wet noodles with deep-fried crispy Calamari just did not come across my mind. To my surprise, they have tucked the piping hot fried Salted Egg Calamari by the side of the plate separated by the leafy lettuce green and away from the luscious noodles, thus the taste does not interfere with one another. Salted Egg Calamari was filled in savoury salted egg sauce over its thinly fried coated batter, not only that the Calamari ring was thick and worth it.

Salted Egg Calamari Hokkien Mee - $6.50 (Small)

Initially, I was quite hesitant to order this but in the end, I still went ahead and ordered it. At the first taste of the fiery red meat, I was like Oh my god! If you love those sweet savoury sauce over your Char Siew Meat, you will totally love this with the tender and soft braised pork. It has reminded me of a homely taste.

Flamed Red Braised Pork Hokkien Mee - $5.50 (Small)

If you are in a mood for Hokkien Mee with a twist, you may want to pay a visit to Mian Wang 1971 and try out their different types of Hokkien Mee. 

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Mian Wang
Location:  Blk 537 Bukit Batok Street 52, Sin Eating House, Singapore 650537
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Kim Keat Hokkien Mee 金吉炒福建面

My long overdue "To Eat List" has been revived and YES I managed to visit this Claypot Hokkien Mee in Toa Payoh that went abit viral on the social media last year due to its inspiring stories behind.

Kim Keat Hokkien Mee

After ordering your desired portion (you can order with or without claypot), you can have your buffet of lime and chilli at the table right in front of the stall. The chilli is not overly spicy but it goes well with the noodles.

Chilli

Luckily, the wait was not that long and our pot of food came within 10 minutes of ordering. The hit of aroma and sizzling sound from the claypot draw our full attention as soon as it was on the table. That was the first time I ever had Hokkien Mee from an earthen claypot.

We had the $10 portion which I think was good for 2-3 pax. Besides being served in a claypot, they gave a different feel from the mainstream hokkien mee as you can see significance differences in the ingredients.

Claypot Hokkien Mee - $10

A good few pieces of tasty "Sio Bak" (Roasted Pork Belly) had been given and apparently, you get to see "La La" in it, which is not common other than the usual prawns, squid, pork belly, pork lards and eggs.

Ingredients Lay out for individual portion

Crispy dark brown pork belly was delicious! It might be a little salty but it taste good alone with its crackling skin.

Pork Belly

As a whole in terms of Hokkien Mee, it does have its consistency but still lacking of a good strong stock punch that will actually lift the dish up. Noodles was wet enough, wasn't the dry version that I have read. Personally, I was kind of disappointed about taste but still its a good to know about such dish with tasty pork belly exists.

Rating: 3 / 5

Kim Keat Hokkien Mee
Location: Blk 92 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh #01-264, Singapore 310092

Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

If you have heard about the famous Bukit Batok Hokkien Prawn in the round market where 2 coffeeshops are, Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle is probably one of them. Being around for a long time and for they had been featured in media over the years, there is no doubt about the queue.

Soon Kee

With such paging system implementation to ease patrons from standing in the queue, it did really help us.

Paging System

Once, the pager alarmed we went straight to the stall and collect our plate of prawn me. With much anticipation, presentation had passed the bench mark. With a good consistency of thick white bee hoon and yellow noodles and ample of seafood topped the dish, it should be good. However, there was an absence of the rich Umami that marks the importance of a plate of good Fried Hokkien Mee.

Unfortunately, the small portion does not come with the Opal Leaf while the medium and big does.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee - $5 (Medium)

So what's the verdict after trying both fried prawn Mee Stalls from Blk 155? Personally I will prefer
Fried Baby Squid Prawn Mee Stall. Why? Apparently  I felt that the stock of Soon Kee lacked the oomph and one ingredient, pork belly was missing from the plate. Could it be the reason why? What's your say?

Ingredients at a closer look

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Soon Kee Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee
Location: Blk 155, Bukit Batok St 11 Singapore 650155

Hokkien Mee

If you spend sometime walking around Bukit Timah Food Centre nearing meal hours, you would probably get to see a handful popular stalls with sprawling queues. Specialized in solely Hokkien Noodle, Xie Kee Hokkien Mee stall is just one out of many stalls that is drawing the hordes.

The uncle who was preparing the food had its noodle cooked separating from the broth. The fire and timing was well control as seen during the queue. When the noodles was cooked to the right texture deemed by the cook, the broth was then added to sum up the dish.

I'm not a person that is in favour of the "Ki" smell that comes from typical type of yellow noodle used by the hawkers. I must admit that the plate of noodles was great and just that my stomach had turned down the dish due to smell of the yellow noodles. Nevertheless, there were still many Die-Hards who dont mind joining the queues for the plate of noodles.

The plate of noodle was cooked to a moist perfection with consistent prawn broth taste with prawns, shreds of pork belly and sotong included.

Overall, i find that if the noodles was self processed by removing the smell, it could be better but beats me, this smell may be unique and could also be one of the reasons why the queue from the patrons.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Xie Kee Hokkien Mee
Location: Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, 116 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 588172