No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle

Aside from the usual suspects of minced meat and pork lard adorning the noodles, I enjoyed the pronounced umami flavour from the tee poh slices (dried sole fish). The sauce mix was on the sweeter side, and the chilli was legit potent to make me order a glass of teh o peng. The only thing I felt could be better was that the mee pok was slightly overcooked. I tried a sample of their kway tiao, which I thought was the better noodle option with its soft, smooth texture!

While their "tonkotsu-inspired" soup may not be the opaque, creamy type you'd expect in your bowl of ramen, there's no denying its richness and umami-packed goodness from boiling chicken feet and pork bones for more than 8 hours. Every spoonful of the soup also comes with a lot of 料, which includes fish maw slices, liver slices and Fuzhou fishballs and meatballs. I enjoyed their homemade fish dumplings/her giao the most cos of the gelatinous wrapper. Not the cheapest BCM option at $8, but I think the amount of ingredients that came with the noodles speaks for itself! That said, they also offer the basic variant that everyone is more familiar with at $4.50/5.50.

Having heard how great this store is from my friends & having a hubs who is a huge fan of BCM, we knew we had to make this trip down to try out No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle.

We visited the store on a Sat late morning (11am) & was greeted with a short queue, which is perfect having heard how long queues can get at lunch hour.

I ordered the simplest option of Minced Meat Noodle Dry & the owner asked if I could take spice & chilli padi to which I replied, sure & she said she'd make their special for me! I felt like I was in for a treat & boy, was it real special!

Their concoction of sauces is amped up with bits of chilli padi in it, giving you that spicy kick without the usual sambal sweetness, packing a whole lot of punch to every spoonful! Definitely something unique & a must try if you like your noodles fry & with chilli!

Heard a lot about this BCM stall comparing it with the likes of Hillstreet, etc and warnings of the long queues during lunch time. So I came early to be first in queue even before they are opened for business.

As this was not long after breakfast, I tried to order the smallest portion for $4 but was told this standard order will not come with any soup. Huh? That’s a first for me, BCM dry with no soup. I promptly changed my order to the $7 Signature Minced Meat Noodles.

Seeing how they cook my order, I got an idea why there is a long line during lunch time. Each bowl of noodles needs to weighed meticulously instead of approximation. And just like some popular BCM stalls, the ingredients like minced meat and pork are cooked in a pot separately instead of being blanched together with the noodles. This takes time.

Back to my BCM dry mee Kia with chilli and vinegar. Firstly the soup. Being the first bowl of the day, it was not bland or tasteless at all. It had umami and also a tangy taste I cannot fathom. Not your normal BCM soup. The portion of noodle and amount of soup given was very small. I am not a big eater and I think I can easily go for two bowls so those who are really hungry need to consider whether to add noodles for 50 cents more. Speaking of noodles, my mee kia was slightly over cooked as it was not springy or al dente. The heat packed by the chilli sauce was a tad under par and there was not enough sourness. My advise is to ask for extra chilli and add vinegar by yourself when served.

In the bowl of soup, there were four pieces of sliced pork, 4 pieces of liver, 4 pieces of fish maw and two fish dumplings plus minced meat. The liver was nice, not over cooked, the pork was normal but fish maw was very bland and mushy and the fish dumpling tasted like from the day before. And being the first customer, maybe it was from the day before.

The one saving grace was the two small pieces of sole fish (tee por). They were crunchy and had a smoky after taste bordering on bitter. Very nice.

Over all not a bad bowl of minced meat noodles but definitely not my first choice if I have to queue 30 minute or longer. And in my opinion, a little expensive at $7.

Finally here to try this since their queue is always long during lunch hours!

The mee kia was slightly overcooked for my liking but the flavours and pork lard made up for it. The soup was really robust and came with lean meat, pork liver, homemade fish dumplings, fish maw and even fried ti poh.

Will be back again when the craving strikes…

Signature Minced Meat Noodle - the bowl was topped with a generous amount of minced meat, fried ti poh and pork lard.

Read more: https://www.misstamchiak.com/no-25-minced-meat-noodles/