By a large number of if not most accounts that I've encountered, Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Meat Pork Mee (#02-42, Hong Lim Food Centre, 531A Upper Cross Street) is a verifiable institution. The stall has been in been in business since 1945. That's 68 years of cooking the same thing every year for over half a century. On top of that, local media accolades line their stall front.
Boy was it underwhelming. I couldn't reconcile how the very same media who can award similar accolades to Tai Hwa present the same glowing reviews to Ah Kow which was really a different beast altogether.
Here's a large portion of their ba chor mee. The mee pok was so soggy it couldn't hold up to the viscosity of the sauce - the latter which was neither spicy nor has vinegar flavours even though this bowl was an option with both. I heard that they're using traditionally made vinegar imported from China. Couldn't understand how the reputation of that vinegar in the noodles came about when I can't even taste it. Even the other Lau Dai Hua down at ION was a better bowl in my opinion.
Or maybe I just needed to help myself with extra lard and vinegar. But it certainly didn't excuse the dumplings that they included to be disappointingly boring.
To be fair, this wasn't a super lousy bowl per se. It didn't justify the 25-30 minutes I spent in the sweltering queue that I will never get back.
1 comment:
Pity this bcm didn't do for you. All the times I had it, the sauce is very vinegary even more so than Tai Hwa. I guess this bcm will appeal to traditional Teochews who prefer a more subtle version compared to Tai Hwa which comes across as very porky.
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