Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

One of the best Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles I had this year!

We arrived at 6.30pm and the place was packed. Ordered the $15 Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles (for two) and Prawn Paste Chicken Wings.

Noodle was full of umami from the prawn broth. Came with three large Tiger prawns, scallops, sliced pork belly, fish cakes and sotong. The chilli sauce was placed at the side and it packed quite a bit of heat. I wish the chilli sauce was less sweet and the noodles were less chopped up from the frying. Still it was nice and smoky from the wok heat, even if we had to get at it with our spoons.

Strongly recommended for Hokkien mee lovers.

Tried this much vaunted Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles. Great umami taste from the prawn broth used. $5.50 large portion came with three small shrimps tail on and some sliced pork belly. Chilli sauce provided on the side is slightly sweet and not packing a lot of heat. Also, the portion is small, certainly not sufficient for those with big appetites.

Overall a good fried Hokkien prawn noodle but not fantastic.

This stall offers the wetter version of fried Hokkien noodles. And very generous portion. At $6 for a medium portion, it is equivalent to large portions at most stalls. And the copious amounts of egg given! Wow!

Taste wise, the prawn broth was super umami and properly soaked up by the noodles. Besides 3 large prawns and several slices of squid, they also added sliced pork belly. Lard bits and chilli are added based on customers’ choice.

Strongly recommend for those who like soupy version of fried Hokkien noodles!

Arrived at this Michelin Bib Gourmand Friend Hokkien Mee stall at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre at 10.49am. Was already #8 in the queue and #3 was the next to be served. As I am not a big fan of the drier version of Fried Hokkien Mee, I only ordered the small portion at $5.00.

Got my noodles at 10.49am so only a 10 minute wait. You may ask why even 10 minutes wait for only 5 customers in front. Apparently they have to prepare a lot of take away orders. Packets after packets. In between they will cover the dine in orders.

First thing that stuck me beside the dryness of the noodles is that they use the thinner version of bee hoon. But this worked to their advantage as it was more capable of soaking up the umami rich flavours of the prawn stock. The other thing that I found unique was that they provide sliced chilli instead of chilli sauce. This I did not appreciate as much as it just imparted a raw spiciness to the noodles and I missed the savoury spicy chilli sauce that I am so used to.

What I did appreciate was the smokiness and little charred bits of noodles which you will not get from the wet versions. For $5, you get three halves of prawns (tail on) and a few rather large slices of squid. But no lard or sliced pork which was a disappointment because if I am going to risk the calories and the cholesterol, there better be lard and pork in sinful amounts.

Overall not bad but not my top favourite for reasons above.

Read about this new Hokkien Fried Prawn Mee place in Clementi, purportedly the best, so I decided to give it a try.

Located in a Kopitiam along Clementi Ave 1, a place where footfall is a bit light, this stall and it’s neighbours do provide a wide range of interesting options (see video).

Back to the Hokkien Mee, first of all the price is not cheap. Starts at $6 and you don’t get sotong until you buy the medium portion at $9. Both will have three shrimps, tail on, sliced pork and noodles.

Theirs is supposedly the wetter type but alas, by the time I reached home, it became the dryer version. Must endeavour to eat on the spot. Flavour wise, this is certainly one of the better fried Hokkien mee in the West but still off when you compare against those in Bukit Batok. One other thing to note - this stall will levy an extra charge if you ask for more lard bits or even sambal chilli. I find this practice to be particularly ugly, especially when they forgot to add extra lard bits for me, even though they charged me $2 extra! Don’t think there is anything sinister about it, just that the employees are new and muddling through internal communications. As evident from their initial failures to pack my medium portion noodles and sheepishly admitting to being new and lack practice.

Well, practice makes perfect so please practice more!

This place is literally next to another famous fried Hokkien Prawn Mee stall in Bukit Batok. To order, just stand in the queue until the stall assistant asks for your order. After that you can leave the queue and when your plate of noodles I ready, she will call you.

The version here is drier than other but not totally. For $6.50 for a medium serving, you get two pieces of sliced pork, 3 shrimps and some thinly sliced squid. There was no wok heat detected. The chilli sauce is sweet which unfortunately was not to my liking. You do get to add pork lard bits as much as you need and if you ask nicely, you can get another guava lime.

Not the best in Bukit Batok. Just average.

This outlet at West Coast is a far cry from the original Boon Lay Ho Huat in Jurong which I tried in 2021. That was takeaway and it tasted better than this, so that’s saying something.

First of all, although this is the wet and slurpy type, the gravy has very little prawn flavour. Just salty. You get two shrimps and a few pieces of squid added to the noodles but taking these out of the fridge just before adding to the noodles, these did nothing towards enhancing the noodles’s taste. There was no pork belly nor any lard bits. Besides these, there were just a little bit of egg.

The chilli was mild but it was necessary to elevate the taste of the noodles. And I have never seen lime that small, I had to squeeze two just to get the enough tanginess.

I think I’d better go back to the original stall.

First time to try this long time fried Hokkien noodles in Ayer Rajah Food Center.

This is definitely the most wet and slurpy fried Hokkien noodles in Singapore. So much gravy that you can probably fill out half a rice bowl with the gravy.

For $6, you get a decent portion of noodles with 4 Lala and two prawns, along with sotong and pork belly. This stall does not add lard bits but their lime was one of the largest I have seen. Unfortunately I didn’t get any hint of wok heat and the gravy was a bit too salty for me. And there was no taste of prawn stock. Chilli paste was nice with good amount of heat. Recommend that you add more.

Not fantastic taste but then pre-pandemic, this stall opens even during CNY when almost all Chinese stalls in the food center are closed.

This famous formerly Michelin Bib Gourmand stall at Tiong Bahru Food Center has a long queue guaranteed. For $5 you get a plate of fried noodles with egg, 5 shrimps, a few strips of pork belly, fish cakes and squid. The chilli paste helps accentuate the flavour of the noodles but the squid steals the show. Chewy and umami, you will wish there is a piece in every spoonful.

Still I prefer fried Hokkien mee with more gravy and in my humble opinion, a few pieces of lard bits would also help.

Ordered the $6.50 Fried Hokkien Mee with Salted Egg Calamari. The portion for this price is fairly big. Noodles did not have enough wok heat but overcame with good amount of eggs and the bee hoon they used was springy and al dente. Bit stingy with only half a lime given and a sprinkle of pork lard, although the latter was fried just right and crispy. The chilli sauce did not accentuate the flavour of the noodles and neither was there sufficient heat. Perhaps, with less piquant taste from half a lime, a tangy chilli sauce would have worked better. Two “tails on” prawns were there in the mix. These were good and fresh; they were almost crunchy in their freshness. Also in the mix was some sliced pork belly meat and calamari.

Speaking of calamari, the Salted Egg Calamari was more of a distraction than anything else. It did nothing for the noodles except to contrast slurpiness with crunchiness. I am not sure if this is a generational gap thing. Certainly I failed to appreciate it with the noodles.

Perhaps I should come back and try other combinations but the noodles itself is not so strong a motivator for me.

Fantastic fried Hokkien Mee. This is the wet and slurpy type. Ordered their large portion at$6.50. Three prawns, lots of sotong and pork belly. The fried lard is free flow and their chilli sauce goes well with the noodles. Eat it while it’s hot or it thickens quickly and loses some of its wok heat.

Stall in Yuhua Village Market. This version is the wet and slurpy one. Prices start from $3.50 for a small portion and $4.50 for a large portion. The latter gives you 3 prawns and quite a bit of sotong and thinly sliced pork. There is little wok heat taste but with the chilli sauce and two limes, taste is quite good.

Glad I found another acceptable fried prawn noodles near where I stay.