But ultimately what matters most is whose meepok tastes better, regardless of how long they've been around.
Here is 132 Meepok's fishball noodles. This is the kind of meepok I have been looking for - thin, almost translucent, and definitely less starchy than say, Hill Street Tai Hwa's bak chor mee's meepok. A S$3 portion comes with calculated toppings - a deveined prawn, one fish dumpling, two fishballs, a few slices of fish cake, some minced pork and a small handful of crunchy bean-sprouts. And oh yes, pieces of crispy pork lard!
However, the sambal chili is a bit one-dimensional - it's mainly just spicy chili-heat. It could do so much better with more ikan bilis or dried shrimp, something umami. Apparently they use shallots, buah keluak and whatnot, but it still seems to be missing something.
This is the 132 stall when it was still at 53 Upper East Coast Road - it infamously drew BMWs that would be parked illegally around the narrow road.
They have since moved to .... my neighbourhood! They are now nestled within a coffeeshop at Block 59 Marine Terrace. Look out for them at MP 59 Food House (near the wet market). You'll only catch them for breakfast and lunch (they operate from 7am to 4pm). And make sure you have flexible lunch hours, as you may need to wait more than hour after taking a queue number. Well, we tried waiting once, and it was less than an hour, despite the stallowner's estimate.
Now for the offshoot that's Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim, the self-dubbed "Art of Mee Pok"...they look like a big, busy franchise with lots of uniformed staff bustling around.
Well, the noodles were almost similar, maybe just a bit starchier and slightly more soggy here. And the toppings seem to be exactly the same (the chili padi I added for some colour). However, the fishballs don't seem as fresh, the soup not as tasty, and the whole bowl was pretty oily. It coats your mouth with oil from the very first bite. Even a big, gruff guy who had finished his meal commented to himself as he passed our table, "Too oily!"
I don't know if we were just unlucky that day, or if this is the usual fare.
So ultimately, for me, 132 Meepok still gets my vote. Even though the chili is more balanced at Jalan Tua Kong's, the oiliness of the whole thing is a deal-breaker.
After tasting two meepoks in one sitting on a very hot day, we needed to calm our tummies down with an ice-cold dessert! The cendol from a sub-unit at the Jalan Tua Kong mee pok shophouse was not too bad. Well, it had a whole lot more ingredients than the cheng tng! There's a yong tau foo sub-unit that's quite popular too.
132 MEE POK
Block 59 Marine Terrace
#01-105 MP 59 Food House
Open 7am - 4pm
Closed Mondays and 3rd Sundays of the month
JALAN TUA KONG LAU LIM MEE POK
308 Bedok Road, Bedok Shopping Centre
Open 7.30am – 5pm
Closed Alt Mondays
I love this - War of the Meepoks? Hehehe...
ReplyDeleteafter hearing of this place for many years, i finally visited it. as it was my first time i ordered the cheapest bowl of dry mee pok (3.50$). mee was nicely cooked, sauce was nice and punchy due to the chili. the prawn was fresh. however ,the fish ball was bland and tasteless. the raw mee must be very very expensive as it was just a few mouth full !!! the 3.50$ portion is only good enough for tea time.
ReplyDeleteafter hearing of this place for many years, i finally visited it. as it was my first time i ordered the cheapest bowl of dry mee pok (3.50$). mee was nicely cooked, sauce was nice and punchy due to the chili. the prawn was fresh. however ,the fish ball was bland and tasteless. the raw mee must be very very expensive as it was just a few mouth full !!! the 3.50$ portion is only good enough for tea time.
ReplyDeleteliketoeat, which shop you were referring to above? Lau Lim or 132?
Delete2 unpleasant experiences eating at this stall, when the stall 1st opened in late 2010, me and my borther attempted to eat there. Arriving at the stall, there was no one at the queue, but before I can open my mouth to order the auntie spoke to me in Hokkien 'Ai Jiak Tan 45 hun cheng hor, ai jiak jiak mai jiak suak' which translates to 'if you want to order, the wait is 45minutes, want eat, don't want done'. Utterly pissed of, me and my brother walked away.
ReplyDelete2nd time it happened, was May 1st 2014, it was 7am in the morning, seeing 1 person in the queue, I thought 'what the heck, let's try'. There was a person in the queue in front of me and after he ordered he walked off to buy his coffee, as I stood in line, the auntie busied herself with her stuff, then suddenly someone behind me shouted 'Auntie, my one 2 bowls hor, you know my order right?', she ackowledged the order and looked at me, as I opened my mouth to order she said 'You want to eat you wait, we not ready'.
Wow! People can order before me, and probably her regular customer shouted his order behind me, yet I can't order and I have to wait? I've heard good thing about the noodles but is it worth this attitude?
Hi, which shop you were referring to above? Lau Lim or 132? If it was the former, I believe I can second your experience even though I do like their noodle. Good friend of mine took me to Lau Lim for the first time in October when I visited Singapore (I currently live in US but grew up in Singapore during my teenager years, Mee Pok has always my favorite comfort food). It has become my favorite Mee Pok since.
DeleteI totally can imagine the terrible attitude of that auntie because I experienced the same when I was there. Although her words to me was not as harsh, her attitude was. I just ignored her "stuck-upness", ordered my foods and drinks, sat down and enjoyed my mee pok when it came. Other than the lousy attitude of that stuck-up auntie, I did love my overall experience at Lau Lime - the non-vinegar-taste mee pok (which I prefer), the old-school-kopitiam-taste coffee, and least but not last, the overall ambient that reminded me of old-Singapore neighborhood when I was growing it up there.
Just hope the owner Lau Lim will do something about his staffs nonchalant but crappy attitude to make it a better customer experience.