Hmmmmmm.....
Hmmm....
Do you think this plate of wantan noodles is worth S$4? Well, here's my summary:
The good: Noodles still with bite, and the sauce was all right. Tasty sambal chili.
The bad: Probably my bad luck today but the char siew was in thin, dry slices, nothing like the richly glazed, deeply caramelized fatty strips hung on display. The wantans were dried out dumplings.
The ugly: styrofoam plate! So environmentally salah (wrong)!
So this is the famous Hwa Kee. I vaguely remember trying them once before the big renovation in 2003. Enjoyed them better then. Fortunately, I didn't have to queue much for it this time (past 3pm on a Sunday). Guess that's already off-peak hours or their popularity has waned.
HWA KEE BARBEQUE PORK NOODLES
Stall no. 45
East Coast Lagoon Food Centre/East Coast Park Village
1220 East Coast Parkway
I think its popularity has waned by quite a bit. I don't see lines forming at both the wanton noodle stall and the beef noodle stalls as much anymore. Don't get me wrong, there's still the occasional line at the beef kway teow shop cos the guy's not exactly fast but it's not as long as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteThey switched to using one of those ham slicing machines to slice their char siew ever since the hawker centre's renovation, instead of slicing the char siew manually. I think the char siew has become a bit drier since then and has lost that nice thick crunch when they're manually sliced.
I used to go often before the renovations. Their standards have dropped considerably since and the char siew, is always thin and dry...
ReplyDeleteWow. I didn't realise there's such a big difference just from hand slicing or machine slicing... Guess that's what differentiates the Good from the Great. :)
ReplyDeleteThe pork looks good.
ReplyDeleteThe pork do appear dry. Never tried this stall. Usually I patronize the one at the old OLD AIRPORT ROAD food center or the one near Jln Batu market. The latter was still selling at $2 per plastic plate of wonton noodles when I was there early this year. Hmmmm...I wonder if that stall has increased the price of their wonton noodles.
ReplyDeleteI like green chili with wonton noodles. Not sure if this is a Singaporean thing. I was looking for green chili when I was eating wonton noodles in HK but to no luck! :P
ah, that time i went lagoon my friend ordered this. Its very famous and always have a long q yeah?
ReplyDeletebut i dun think its that good though. at least not for the long q
wantan mee must go with melamine plate is it?
ReplyDeletebtw tigerfish,
green chilli is not a singapore thingy. in malaysia, or in southern malaysia, it goes with green chilli too. I love them! ;-p
I was there last night (Friday night), and the food centre was really crowded. This noodle stall had a neverendinglong queue, as did the boneless duck rice stall. I tried the carrot cake which you did a review on, and it was nice. Thanks for your recmmendations. Really enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteJu