RedRing Wanton Mee, Holland Drive

There's a bit of an unusual story behind this stall (46 Holland Drive). 

Apparently, it's run by a couple who has done some R&D with their son, who's incidentally someone bound for a Ph.D. in Stanford University in Chemistry after graduating from the local university. The components of the wanton noodles, a result of their year of research, are a product of part machine automation and part measured scientific calibration.

There's a noodle boiling machine that cooks their egg noodles in batches at precise temperatures under a fixed duration in water that's constantly and automatically changed so that none of that residual starch or alkali accumulates and clings onto the noodles. Char siew is done using a Weber smoker without artificial coloring and the sauce is an alchemy of their own design. The rest of the details can be Googled.

What's the verdict of this unusual wanton mee stall? I think I rather liked it. The noodles, which was my favourite part were chewy and eggy flavored; and there was just enough of their sauce to coat them all. The lightly smokey tasting char siew was fairly tasty even though the style is not of my preferred type and the pieces are much too chopped up enjoy much of any texture. The chilli sauce itself was a little tame and I couldn't really tell what was special about it. But I wouldn't mind eating this again.

A Noodle Story, Amoy Street Food Centre

Credit where it's due, it takes some balls to introduce a thermal immersion circulator for your charshu in an institutionalized food centre amidst a small sea of traditional hawkers.

A Noodle Story (Amoy Street Food Centre #01-39, 7 Maxwell Road) styles itself as a take on Singapore ramen, doing what could be considered a updated take on wanton mee. A wanton mee that comes with 36 hour sou vide charshu from Spanish pork belly, a molten yolked ajitama and topped off with a little heap of chopped negi. Which were really all about it that resembled regular Japanese ramen. And then a tasty crispy fritter of potato strips clad prawn plus a few sizeable meaty wantons thrown in as well. I thought the toppings were pretty well done there.

The noodles seemed local/of Hong Kong styled, thin and wiry with some chew. But the flavors were nothing familiar that I could relate to. Mixed with their home made flavorful sambal, it felt like there was much too much going on for my taste buds. I'm not sure I liked that.

Re-visiting Woh Hup

I remain encouraged by how the flavors of the dishes at Woh Hup elicts nostalgia. Right down to how those pretty generous portions of condimental deep fried lard that worked with mouthfuls of their crunchy nai bai, extends the flavor spectrum of their milky fish soup or even adds a certain little extra to their bean sprouts that coincidentally complements the said lard with their spikes of chilli padi heat. Speaking of which, I'm still impressed by those stir fried bean sprouts with fish viscera.

Today, we got ourselves some competently done sweet and sour pork and a pleasant surprise from their sang meen. Remember how I dislike starchy sauces? The accompanying gravy wasn't as starchy as I had feared and it was so good that I was spooning mouthfuls in succession, wondering what did they do right. The crispy noodles and fresh pieces of meat suddenly took backstage. I was made to consider that their mui fan could be good as well.

sweet and sour pork

tasty milky fish soup

yum yum

stir fried nai bai

sang meen

Brunch with eggs....

......and fried chicken wings, fried tau kwa, ngor hiong, stir fried cabbage and luncheon meat on bee hoon. Spirited home for comfort and leisurely eating.

Mee rebus from Rahim Muslim Food

Says on their social media that their stall (721 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8) is widely known for their Mee Rebus Power. With upper-cased MRP and no less. From what I gathered this stall used to operate around Yio Chu Kang Road and have moved to this district not too long back. I have mixed feelings about the mee rebus personally.

Here's some thoughts on the individual items that made the mee rebus. I haven't been eating much of these starchy kuah-ed noodles in the past decade or so. It's probably because I've never remembered them as being very good. In fact, I can barely remember the last time. For a start, their sweet and spiced gravy was really just okay, but then again I'm no expert on mee rebus gravy. The satay sauce that they ladled over the noodles, one of the synergistic "power" components to the dish would have been forgettable by itself if I had gotten them with orders of satay. That would have been at best middle tier satay sauce and no better. It was a little too thin (I meant it totally lacked viscosity there) and could have done with more crushed peanuts. I don't even like yellow noodles in the first place.

When put together, the plate was actually pretty decent. The satay sauce added more depth to the otherwise regular gravy. Bits of green chilli provided aroma and bite. Not to mention also a little bit of heat spikes. Even the lime slipped in some tang into occasional mouthfuls. Having chopped boiled chicken, surprisingly tender by the way, upped the game because - chicken in mee rebus.

I don't mind eating this if I'm in the vicinity, but I don't think it's so good that I'll travel here specially just for that mee rebus power. 

North South Cuisine (南北名厨), Beach Road

Here's another shop (321 Beach Road, tel : +65 6299 3197) which I've possibly passed by on numerous occasions without noticing until today. Affordable frills free food here. One of the cool thing about them was that they're open daily till past midnight so it works for supper as well. The food was mostly North Eastern Chinese with a smattering of localized flavours that caters to the local crowd which swarms them during lunchtime in the weekdays. One can even detect Thai influences in some dishes.

From the cold dish list, these was thinly sliced pork belly with soy sauce and minced raw garlic. The sharp pungent garlic gives you dragon's breath.

Following were some thinly sliced beef in soy sauce. I'm not sure where it's cut from but the textures were rather interesting and undulating.

We were debating over tan tan mian or zha jiang mian. The zha jiang mian won and it was a pretty rustic and straightforward rendition. I meant that in a positive way.

We ordered a basket of juice laden xiao long bao which bursted in the mouth when you bit into them. These were pretty decent. The bursting of the hot porky juices in the dumplings was satisfying.

And pan fried guo tie stuffed with minced pork and vegetables which had a savoury crispy base. A little greasy here.