S$3 Michelin-approved satay bee hoon with 20-year-old recipe at Bedok

You can’t get a lot for S$3 these days, particularly with the rising price of products, however one specific stall at Bedok 85 Fengshan Food Centre has been shelling out hefty plates of satay bee hoon at S$3 for the previous 20 years whereas sustaining its golden normal, and that’s none apart from Shi Wei Da.

In truth, its stellar satay bee hoon landed it a spot within the Bib Gourmand number of the MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2018!

Shi Wei Da is single-handedly helmed by Ng Kim Siong, who has turn out to be a well-known and welcomed sight at Bedok 85 Fengshan Food Centre. 

While most satay gravies will be simply purchased from wholesale satay suppliers these days, Mr Ng insists on making every little thing from scratch. Yes, that features roasting the peanuts, laboriously eradicating the skins, grinding the nuts, after which cooking it over the range with different substances.

The consequence? A luscious satay sauce that’s tremendous gao— one that you just’ll actually need to attempt to see for your self.

Officially, Mr Ng’s stall solely opens for enterprise at 4pm, however after I visited on a weekday afternoon at round 3.45pm, I already seen a continuously snaking queue at Shi Wei Da.

Most had been his common prospects, whom Mr Ng recognised on sight. When they noticed me snapping pictures of the stall, a number of of them even got here as much as me to touch upon how good Mr Ng’s satay bee hoon is!

Hyped up and hungry, I joined the lengthy queue and in about 10 minutes, I began ordering.

What I attempted at Shi Wei Da

There’s just one dish right here, and that’s Mr Ng’s Satay Bee Hoon. It is obtainable in two sizes: S$3 and S$4.

Despite my starvation, Mr Ng insisted on serving me the S$3 plate, stating that his satay bee hoon parts had been enormous and that it might be greater than sufficient.

Indeed, the serving sizes had been fairly beneficiant. What I acquired was a big plate of bee hoon slathered with a thick satay sauce, and peeking beneath the luscious brown sauce had been your normal satay bee hoon substances— kang kong, beansprouts, pork slices, liver and tau pok.

Because the satay sauce was so thick, mixing your entire plate of satay bee hoon proved to be an actual problem. It took about three minutes of intense mixing with a purpose to incorporate every little thing, and belief me— it was a messy affair, so you’ll want to have some tissues on standby! 

Shi Wei Da’s plate of satay bee hoon seemed vastly completely different as soon as I used to be accomplished mixing every little thing collectively. I beloved the way it seemed— messy, sinful and indulgent, with loads of pops of color from the kang kong, in addition to hints of tau pok, pork slices and liver throughout the mountain of bee hoon and sauce. 

It was lacking the standard cuttlefish and cockles, however Mr Ng shared that cockles these days had been small but costly, so he eliminated them with a purpose to maintain costs low. Plus, as the one particular person manning the stall, cuttlefish would’ve made the already labour-intensive work much more strenuous, thus the choice to not embrace it in his satay bee hoon.

Eagerly, I took my first spoonful of Mr Ng’s satay sauce and was instantly blown away.

This was legit. The thick sauce was crammed with roasted and savoury flavours, with simply the correct quantity of sweetness and the slightest trace of saltiness. Its wealthy texture was nutty and gritty, peppered with bits of precise peanut, and extra importantly, with none of that wateriness or oiliness that spoke volumes about how genuine the satay sauce was. At the tip of every mouthful was a contact of spice which helped to carry your entire sauce. 

This was so good that my eating companion and I joked about getting a plate of satay from a close-by stall to accompany our meal!

While a few of its substances had been fairly nondescript, such because the pork slices and beansprouts, I loved the liver because it was agency but chewy, with a savoury gaminess that complemented the roasted flavours from the satay sauce.

Final ideas

For S$3, you’ll significantly be hard-pressed to search out one other hawker that dishes out beneficiant parts of meals like Shi Wei Da. The sturdy satay sauce clung to the skinny strands of bee hoon, which made each chunk hefty and substantial, and when coupled with the substances, it made for an astonishingly filling meal.

I’d say, nevertheless, that satay bee hoon isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Its sturdy and savoury flavours aren’t for everybody, and personally, I’d’ve even loved it a bit of extra if the gravy was a tad much less viscous-like in order that the person parts might gel collectively higher. 

Despite that, I nonetheless loved Mr Ng’s satay bee hoon, which comforted me with its wealthy and hearty flavours, and stay up for coming again for a plate of nostalgic goodness each time I’m within the space.

Expected injury: S$3 – S$4 per pax

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