Tasty satay bee hoon & $3.50 bowls of mee siam offered out by lunch

Out of my numerous meals tastings at Sethlui.com, this explicit one had me waking up at 7am — my earliest! The mission was easy: enterprise into the neighbourhood of Ghim Moh looking for 老潮州 (Old Teochew), a hawker stall that specialises in satay bee hoon and mee siam.

Exploring a hawker centre I’ve by no means been to is without doubt one of the easy joys of my job. After a 10-minute stroll from Buona Vista MRT, I reached 20 Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre.

Being a matured property, the place was crammed with senior residents and their international helpers. The complete ambiance had an old-school allure to it which I cherished.

What caught my eye right here was the putting green-hued signboard with its giant Chinese characters 老潮州, which interprets to Old Teochew or “lao chao zhou”. A small queue had already shaped in entrance of the stall, and I rushed to hitch in.

As I used to be patiently ready in line to order my meals, the discover pasted on their stall dampened my spirits. It acknowledged that on Thursdays, they don’t promote satay bee hoon (solely mee siam)… and you may already guess what day it was.

“Oh well, I shall not let this get me down and just make the best out of the situation”, I believed to myself.

The pleasant aunty requested me 2 easy questions: “Do you want tau geh?” and “Chilli or no chilli?”, to which I replied a double sure.

The stall has been in operation for the previous 6 years by 64-year-old Mr Quck and his spouse. Before this, that they had a enterprise for 30 years which handled photograph printing.

I used to be pleasantly shocked after I discovered that Mr Quck was really the winner of the 2012 Golden Age Talentime present which used to air on MediaCorp’s Channel 8— who knew that the common-or-garden Mr Quck is a person of many abilities!

“We decided to try something new and opened our very own hawker stall”, replied his spouse with a smile.

What I attempted at Old Teochew 

I ordered the one and solely dish that was out there, the Mee Siam (S$3.50). It got here with a boiled egg minimize into 2, tau pok, tau geh, ku chye, a dollop of sambal chilli and bee hoon doused in a thick reddish gravy.

Initially, I assumed that I used to be served a pile of fried shallots on the facet. But upon nearer statement, I realised that it was really fried tiny dried shrimps. Unlike the fats mini shrimps that I’m used to, these paper-thin golden morsels had been sakura ebi, and a refreshing change to my dish.

Like what I’d do with yusheng, I blended all the pieces up, combining all of the completely different elements into one vibrant and delightful mess.

I’ve not had mee siam with dried shrimps in my life. But shifting ahead, I’d need them each single time!

It was as if the fried tiny shrimps had been strategically positioned, hitting you with mini flavour bombs of smoky umami-ness with every chunk.

The nice strands of bee hoon had been glistening with the reddish glow of the gravy, enhanced by the luminosity of the morning solar. They slithered down my throat with ease and possessed the right chunk— a sign that they had been cooked to perfection. The tau geh and tau pok made every mouthful extra fascinating with their various textures.

The do-it-yourself sambal had so many dimensions of style to it. It was barely candy, salty, smokey and gently spicy. Its refined spiciness didn’t steal the limelight of the primary dish, it complemented it like a workforce participant as a substitute. 

To be trustworthy, I’ve solely had my grandma’s mee siam rising up. Now that she has dementia and not cooks it, I’m glad that I had requested her for the recipe when her thoughts was nonetheless crystal clear then. Oh, how I miss her specialty dish.

I’ve tried to prepare dinner this dish and the gravy has tamarind and gula melaka in it, amongst different elements. To style Old Teochew’s rendition and are available to the conclusion that it’s virtually equivalent to my grandma’s is one thing subsequent degree. 

The sauce had the best steadiness of candy and bitter and the bee hoon was the right vessel to soak up all of its flavour.

Final Thoughts

If their Mee Siam impressed me a lot, I’m now curious and enthusiastic about their Satay Bee Hoon (S$4.50 for small, S$6.50 for big). 

For a pair who was coping with photograph printing simply 6 years in the past, you wouldn’t look forward to finding such mind-blowing mee siam right here (I even emptied my bowl). I queued up once more at 9.45am after ending my meal to da bao for my mother and father, and the road was 3 instances longer than earlier than! I simply didn’t need them to overlook out on this goodness.

I wouldn’t thoughts travelling all the way in which to Ghim Moh simply to have a style of Old Teochew once more, hopefully with satay bee hoon the subsequent time.

Expected harm: S$3.50 – S$6.50 per pax

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