Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee (Old Airport Road)

Since 1963, fans of Ng Hock Wah signature 'dry' rendition queue for up to 45 minutes - though with the introduction of digital buzzing, the lines are now invisible.
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Their legacy stretches back to hawker legend Ng Tong, who together with brother Ng Seng, created the Singaporean style version of this dish.
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Each batch of long cylindrical yellow egg noodles and thin bee hoon / rice vermicelli noodles have fully absorbed the pork and prawn stock, and tossed with chicken egg, result in a soft chew with lovely smoky grainy eggy sweet salty savoury flavour.
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The garnishes of bouncy squid and crunchy deshelled prawns lend body, and smoky sweet savoury flavour. Balanced with good wok hei / breath of the wok.
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A squeeze of lime juice and cut red chili in soy sauce lend zesty tangy sour salty spicy flavour, cutting through with a zing.
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Hokkien Mee
Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
@ Old Airport Road Food Centre, 51 Old Airport Road #01-32
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2023/08/best-of-singapore-hawkers-hokkien-mee.html

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.

It has been multiple trips here and always turned away due to long waiting time.

So this time I decided to make my trip early in the morning as they just open at 10am. Thankfully it is only a short wait.

Also just right in time to celebrate their recognition in Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand entrance this year.

The overall taste was good, just find it a bit too dry for me. The portion for big size wasn’t as big as I would expected but it comes with pieces of shrimp that mostly peeled.

Unlike the usual way, they provided the cut chilli with lime instead of sambal.

What’s different with this plate of fried Hokkien mee over others is that it does not have pork belly slices, no fried pork lard and sambal chilli. Instead, the other ingredients besides the yellow noodle and bee hoon are prawns and sotong, all cooked and simmered in a rich umami broth. On the side, they will give a calamansi and cut red chillies in soya sauce. Don’t waste your calories in their other outlets, as the original stall at Old Airport Road still fries the best version.
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🍴 Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
📍 51 Old Airport Road, Old Airport Road Food Centre, Unit 01-32, Singapore 390051

It's immediately punchy, one of the strongest broths I've had. The seafood were cooked perfectly too

I mush prefer a sambal w this tho, which they don't serve unfortunately

The texture is really unique, it's as dry as it gets and sticky as well, but not for bad execution. The dry sticky texture is more a mouthful, because I didn't actually need water at all to finish the plate. Unique but not for everyone, I'm indifferent about this.

Also the wok hei isn't as strong as I had hoped, for a dry version

Team dry will love this. Yellow noodle mixed with big portion bee hoon cooked in umami quality stock. Decor with squid and prawn. As bee hoon is used, you can expect the high absorption rate which in turns produce flavourful noodles. It's good but doesn't stands out much to me.