Ebi katsu season is back in Saboten again

Those panko crusted deep fried chunky shrimp cakes are back on limited time at Saboten. Get them before they're gone. 

Beng Kee Wanton Noodle, Whampoa Drive Makan Place

With another dash of oblivious-ity, I had never taken note of this particular wanton noodle stall (#01-22, Whampoa Drive Makan Place Block 91, 91 Whampoa Drive) even though it was strategically located between a couple of my favourite stalls down at Whampoa Food Centre. Speaking of which, I've just discovered that it has been renamed to Whampoa Drive Makan Place. Seriously?

This was a spinach noodle option with deep fried dumplings. What I liked about it was that the dumplings were fried upon order, allowing it to remain freshly crisp. On top of that, there wasn't any excessive oil that was soaked onto the skin which was stuffed generously with lean minced pork and some shrimp.  Not so big on flavour there but it was satisfyingly meaty and crispy. The noodles were well timed in the boiler, tossed in their light sauce with chilli, didn't clump and had a decent bite. Nothing mind blowing to be found here but a decent plate good for everyday (even though the portions were a little small). Which is actually not as easy a thing to find as it sounds these days.

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.