This eating place has probably got to be one
of the more eventful ones for the Yummie! crew. Having read about the supposedly
delicious prawn mee residing at Whampoa Market, off Balestier Road, we packed our hungry
stomachs and set off for Whampoa.
Our first assault on this stall was a dismal failure. We reached
Whampoa market at almost 12 noon and found the stall, only to meet a tall stack of well
washed bowls, clean pots and no noodles. Faced with this life-threatening situation,
the brave Yummie! team was undaunted (one can die of hunger you know). We ably dealt
with the danger at hand because we were quick witted enough to realize that there was an
abundance of great food at Whampoa market! The first thing that came to mind was the
totally Yummie! rojak. Ahh... the rojak... MMMMMMM... the sweet sauce...
OOOOOHHHHHH... the you-char-kwei... ACK! the fifteen minute queue!
But enough of digressing (the rojak is really good by the way, I kid you
not) and back to the review. Two days later, the Yummie! gang once again laid siege
to Whampoa market, and this time the signs were favourable: there was a good number of
people sitting around the stall, slurping up thick yellow noodles from an almost equally
thick, dark soup.
We eagerly found a seat, tactically located in a spot overlooking the lane
where our car was less than ideally sited and proceeded to order. Our first
decision: since everyone seemed to be eating the soup version, we decided to order soupy
prawn noodles. One beehoon soup, two beehoon mee, one all mee, that sounded simple
enough. Only about two minutes after I had returned to my seat, the ever-decisive
Yummie! gang changed their minds again (yes this is not the first time but that's another
story). The guys finally decided on: beehoon only remains as soup, one beehoon mee
change to dry, the bowl with only mee change to dry. Still simple enough, but try
telling the lady that when she's taking another six orders or so.
Our noodles finally came, and despite her good business, we didn't have to
wait unrealistically long (only about five to ten minutes), although the portions were
rather small. The soup was the highlight of the meal, it tasted of pork spare ribs
and had a strong flavour of prawns. Yummie! The noodles were well cooked, and
came in the usual chili sauce with oil. The sordid details of which part of the pork
("pig" seems rather crude to say doesn't it?) that oil came from shall not be
revealed in this review to maintain a NC-16 rating. Also there were slices of prawns
and these were also very fresh and tasty. The chili sauce was very normal, but I
guess the generous helping of oil was the key factor in making it a successful bowl of
noodles.
At this point, we found it difficult to add this stall to our Yummie!
five-star hall of fame. Although the food was good, it wasn't excellent, fantastic
or scrumptious, to name a few superlatives which didn't apply. More simply in Yeen
Kiat's own words, there was "nothing special about it". However, we felt
that it deserved credit. I have rarely had a bowl of prawn noodles (or any noodles
for that matter) that had so few things wrong about it. Usually there's something to
gripe about whenever I eat, like the soup being too salty or the noodles too soft.
However, this bowl had absolutely nothing to fault about it. The soup, in my
opinion at any rate was better than your average soup and some found the noodles too oily,
but I being a skinny person, can afford the extra calories. I guess the only thing
lacking was the X factor which only true Yummie! greats possess... (Gee, I sound
like a food critic already).
As an aside, we visited this stall again on another two occasions and each
time the food and the opinions were very consistent. The "uncle" who runs
the stall still owes us extra prawns however because we had the last bowl for his day's
business and he had run out of prawns. He had actually hoped that we wouldn't
notice, but rare is the food that escapes the Yummie! crew's scrutiny. No points
deducted for trying to act blur, but I guess he deserves a pat on the back for quick
thinking: "No prawns ah? Next time you come I give you more".
With this IOU in mind, the review ends.
- Yuen Ho
