Over 80-year-old household legacy serving Malaysian fried pork noodles at Wisma Atria Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork

Recently, I’ve been seeing options on Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork on social media and it regarded extremely scrumptious. I’m not often one to gravitate towards battered dishes however this regarded too mouth-watering for me to cross on. Positioned within the central Wisma Atria, Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork is situated in Food Republic itself, serving up scrumptious bowls of noodles and fried pork from Sabah, Malaysia.

Founded in 1940, the unique Ah Yen originated from Sandakan — a small city in Sabah. Originally beginning off as a small hawker stall in a moist market, the shop expanded to different elements of Malaysia, and now they’ve reached worldwide borders by increasing to Singapore.

Upon reaching, Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork just isn’t hidden from the attention. The persistent queue was identifiable from afar, and their storefront has a show menu on the TV. On the glass partitions, it states “Since 1940s”, at each angle. Clearly, they’re happy with their household’s lineage, and their retailer acts to honour the household legacy.

The proprietor is the son of Ah Yen, David Lee, who was beforehand a chef on the now defunct restaurant, Pollen, a well-known restaurant at Marina Bay Sands. He now runs the shop along with his enterprise accomplice, Chef Ace Tan. Both people have been lengthy operating enterprise companions since their ambition of Restaurant Ards— a fine-dining restaurant of lofty scales. However, to maintain a challenge of that scale comes with heaps of issue, and the restaurant closed shortly after. Now, the duo has ushered of their spectacular skillsets and are on the forefront of Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork.

Behind the glass panels exhibits the preparation of a number of cooks working at totally different stations— one works on the front-of-house chopping up fried meat as per order, and one other is on the again whipping up noodles from the steaming scorching broth. They are very busy however they work systematically to serve up visually pleasing bowls of noodles.

What I attempted at Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork

The final check of whether or not a battered pork is nice or not is when it retains its crispiness in scorching broths, so I made a decision to order one thing totally different. Hence, I opted for the a la carte Sandakanan Fried Pork Kuey Teow (S$6.50) and the Sandakanan Fried Pork Rice with Fried Egg (S$7.50). The former has dry and soup choices.

For S$7.50, the Sandakanan Fried Pork Rice with Fried Egg was introduced merely with a fried egg blanketed over rice, and a big portion of fried pork stomach served subsequent to it. These have been thinly sliced to perfection. They don’t scrimp on the parts of their pork, as a result of they know that it’s the star of the present.

Zooming into the sliced meat, the pork stomach was coated moderately thinly with its batter. I came upon that that is truly typical of a Hakka dish— Hakka fried pork with purple fermented beancurd. No surprise it tasted so addictive! The fermented batter had a really distinct and pungent style and odor to it, similar to har cheong gai. I personally have by no means tasted pork that’s seasoned like this, so its strong flavour profile got here as a shock to me.

However, its companion tasted of familiarity. Try choosing their hen rice for its fragrant flavours of sesame, shallots and lard. Topped off by a fried egg, lower into it for a buttery and creamy mouthfeel. Yum!

Try including their home made chilli into your dish. Its spicy and tangy flavour profile alleviates the umami-ness of the pork.

I used to be excited to delve into my subsequent dish, as its soupy base would function the last word check for fried meats. The Sandakanan Fried Pork Kuey Teow (S$6.50) truly retained a really sturdy impression in my reminiscence. At first look, I might see a really beneficiant portion of pork submerged in a wealthy broth despite the fact that I opted for the small model.

It is just regular for fried meals to grow to be soggy while you place it in soup. So a phrase of recommendation can be to feast on this bowl instantly. As I did, I realised that the pork didn’t lose its crunchy goodness, and remnants of the coating have been nonetheless in tact. It tasted as succulent as in my earlier dish when it was served dry.

The kway teow paired miraculously with the pork. Kway teow is a rice noodle, so that you’re assured that there gained’t an overwhelming explosion of intense flavours. In truth, the noodle alternative is a pleasant different as in comparison with the traditional pairing of dry yellow noodles that fried meats are sometimes paired with.

Although I felt that the broth was barely salty, it could possibly be due to my private desire for lighter flavoured broths. Try including in a small spoonful of their chilli for a spicy kick within the broth!

Final ideas

Overall, I felt that media hype and lengthy queues round Ah Yen Traditional Fried Pork was warranted! I rapidly cleaned each bowls after ordering them simply due to the addictive flavours that they cooked up.

They additionally serve up very value-for-money dishes for his or her set meals, providing a number of aspect dishes alongside the mains. I’ll undoubtedly be again to strive these, in addition to to check out their dry noodles possibility! I don’t suppose I’ll ever get sufficient.

Expected harm: S$6.50 – S$12.50 per pax

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