Sunday, July 03, 2022

165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (165排骨虾面), Bukit Merah Central

165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (165排骨虾面), mala kolo pork rib prawn noodles

The bowl that piqued my curiosity from 165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (#01-3683, 165 Bukit Merah Central) was their mala kolo pork rib prawn noodles. A handful of descriptives in the name I know. What made it stand out was the use of kolo mee which was my first encounter for local prawn noodles and on top of that, it's been mala-cized. Possibly the first of its combination around.

165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (165排骨虾面), mala kolo pork rib prawn noodles

It's neither 麻 nor much 辣. I could even spruce the noodles up with some sliced chillis. Pretty savoury and also a little sweet. The last part bothered me a little. Pork ribs were well marinated and slurp off the bone tender. This was the large bowl and I had four prawns which I wished were shelled. I didn't get the same impact for a local mala-cized bowl of noodles as the bak chor mee from Shiok Shiok Noodles which IMO had a more solid mala infusion. I also would have preferred more bite to these noodles.

165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (165排骨虾面), mala kolo pork rib prawn noodles

While a certain publication would describe the flavour of their soup as "pork-forward", I didn't feel that way. It was a solid prawn broth for sure but it was also a little too sweet without a certain roundness would have made it more impressive. There's a good body to it but I just felt it lacked a certain something I couldn't put my finger to. Also bothered me that there was also quite a bit of oil on the surface.

165 Pork Rib Prawn Noodles (165排骨虾面), Bukit Merah Central

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