Sometimes what you need is just a simple bowl of fish ball mee pok after all the rich festive food. If you’d like something old school, try Ze Ji Fishball Noodles at the rustic Choon Guan Coffee Shop at Block 21 Old Airport Road. Popular with local residents, the owners start work in the dead of the night to make their fish balls by hand.

A generous serving of noodles sets you back $3/4. Choose a noodle of your choice, soup or dry. Then you’ll get a clear, savoury soup of fish ball, fish cake, fish dumpling (her keow) and sliced pork.

The highlight here is the fresh, bouncy, soft handmade fish balls that give a nice bite. Somehow handmade fish balls taste better, don’t y’all agree?

Since the fish balls are handmade, I’m assuming the fish dumplings and fish cake are too. The fish cake was sliced thickly that helps me to appreciate the springy, bouncy and slightly uneven texture. Enjoyed the fish dumplings too which are made from fish skin and contained a good amount of minced pork filling.

I went with my usual choice of dry mee pok with chilli. I noticed that beansprouts are added to the noodle which isn’t very common. Noodles were springy as they were cooked al dente (a must), while the chilli mixture was tasty in its own right.