Cheap and Good!

Just a short stroll away from Maxwell food centre is Amoy Street food centre, another food haven and one which I feel has much more hawker goodies than Maxwell. Step into the food centre during lunch time and you'll be greeted by long queues formed at several different stalls, each of them having their own "fans".

Among these are Sgkueh which sells a variety of damn good kueh and which I will cover in a seperate post, and Tai Seng Noodle House which sells a assortment of noodles including wanton mee and pork rib noodles. These two stalls stand side by side and despite being there on a Saturday morning, queues were already formed at both stalls.

Being the wanton mee fan ourselves, we quickly jumped into the queue when we saw the long queue and the many pink plates scattered around the surrounding tables (so S'porean right Haha!) I've heard, or rather, read much about this Tai Seng Noodle House praising it for it's generous helping of noodles and ingredients and boy I wouldn't have believed it if I haven't tried it myself!



The stall is tended by a lady who does all the cooking and serving herself.


Look at the assortment of sauces!

Since most of the customers were ordering the pork ribs noodle, we added that as an extra ingredient.

What I read is true to every word. The lady grabs a handful of noodles, cooks it in hot water, uses the tongs and grabs a whole bunch of char siew and fried wanton without any care to the amount, and throws a large amount of vegetables in. And besides that, she gave us a huge bowl of soup with at least 5 wantons.

So including the added pork ribs the set looked like that. How much do you reckon it will cost?



Let me tell you. $3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So cheap right! Such a good deal I'd say! Given a choice between Kok Kee's and this, I'll be hard pressed to choose which to have.

The sauce is pretty good and one of the good sauces I've had, not the usual bland black sauce. The noodles, however, I find too sticky and they clump together making it hard to separate and eat.

The char siew isn't the roasted kind and is pretty average but the braised pork ribs is really quite good, which explains why everyone is ordering it. It's well braised and tasty and I even got a big piece of tau kwa, which was at the right saltiness by the way.



I didn't try the fried wanton though but the boiled ones were pretty good and the soup base was slightly sweet. I suspect that there's sugar in it.



Hey considering it a $3 dish, I would say it's pretty good! The next time round though, I'll just get the pork ribs noodles.

Hot stuff

After reviewing Kok Kee's wanton mee at Lavender Food Square, which was totally awesome, we finally found the time to make our way down to one of our favourite wanton mee stalls which we frequent.



This stall called 51 Wanton egg noodles sells quite a variety of noodles and enjoys a bustling business which can be seen from the long queue. I'm not really sure about the opening time but the noodles usually sell out by around 1 - 2pm. So be there early!



Yum yum! This is the $4 plate. Oh, I forgotten to mention that the wanton noodles come in prices of $2.50, $3.50 or $4 and some other noodles served are mushroom and shredded chicken noodles, shrimp dumpling noodles and special noodles which consist of mushrooms, shrimps, shredded chicken and a few other ingredients. When you order the $4 portion, you also get a huge bowl of soup with more wantons.



The selling point of Kok Kee's noodles is it's special sauce, sweet and good. The selling point of this stall's noodles, however, is it's chilli sauce. The chilli sauce is somehow fried differently and differs from other normal wanton mee chilli sauce and it really compliments the base sauce very well. Not really sure how to describe the taste but the chilli is very fragrant and turns the base sauce into a thick, red, spicy, concoction that is simply kick ass!



The char siew is also roasted but lean! No fatty pieces for me uh uh. Coat it with the sauce for best results ;)



The wanton is pretty average but much improved from previously. It's not too bad either. Oh, have I suggested coating it with the sauce?

Please go try the noodles. Definately one of our favourite wanton noodles of all time!

Address:

#01-51

51 Wanton Egg Noodles

The stall is located at the upper food center (there's one on top and another at the bottom) beside Heartland Mall. In case I've left any readers puzzled where Heartland Mall is, it's just opposite Kovan MRT station and is along Tampines Road near Hougang.

(I'll try to get the address soon)


And yeah, some promotion for a Halloween party while we were there :)

Kok Kee Wanton Mee

Wanton mee has always been one of our favourite food and Qin is totally crazy over it. Needless to say, we do have our own favourite stalls which we patronise from time to time and a huge list of wanton mee stalls which we haven't tried because we were always procrastinating!

Besides, I don't really know how to drive to most of the places anyway *grin*.

I still remember sometime back when Qin's dad bought a packet of wanton mee home. Due to the mee being kept in the packet for a long time, it was already "fattened" and softened after soaking up all the sauces. However, it still tasted superbly good! What struck me was how good the sauce was, after being soaked into the noodles and making it so flavourful, something I have never tasted before.

Sadly, we never really had the chance to try it upfront as Qin's dad don't know the actual name of the place and all attempts at describing the place simply left me more confused than ever.

So it was quite a coincidence that thebaker posted a post on Kok Kee Wanton Mee located at Lavender Food Square and Qin recognised it as the one her dad went to!

Bingo!

As mentioned in thebaker's blog, the queue was long because of people ordering multiple packets. The noodles are also quite pricey at $3 with only a small handful of noodles. But, it's definately worth it.


This is the $5 plate after adding extra noodles and cha siew. The clear sauce is a gem in disguise.

Noodles are firstly cooked in hot water and then soaked in cool water and then back to the hot water it goes before finally landing on your plate. I guess the different temperatures make the noodles more springy and not mushy when cooked for too long.

In this case, however, the sauce is the speciality. The usual sauces are mixed into the noodles and then drained out again and a "special" stock; which we spotted having soy beans and ikan bilis, was added. Upon tasting, I could declare that it was the best wanton mee I've ever eaten. The sauce was seriously good with a slight sweetness and a hint of Hsing Tao wine in it.

Total distinction.

The noodles were bouncy and smooth and the wanton was smooth to the bite. The chilli was also good but lets just put it this way; you don't even need chilli for this wanton mee.

Wanton mee lover or not, just try it once and you'll be a fan. I'll definately be going there again and friends of mine, don't worry cause I'll surely bring you there!

Address:
Kok Kee Wanton Mee
Lavender Food Square, #01-06
380 Jalan Besar
Opening hours Noon - 2am, closed every three weeks on Wednesdays and Thursdays