I have been focusing quite a bit on Kovan Food Centre recently but there's actually another hawker centre in the vicinity and it's within a walking distance of less than a kilometer!
Hougang 105 Hainanese Village Hawker Centre, also known as Lorong Ah Soo Hawker Centre in the past, has an interesting name resulting from its location which used to house the uncommon Hainanese village in a predominantly Teochew region.
It's not my first visit although my last one was quite a number of years ago! In my search for good food, the appearance of a queue is somewhat a reliable gauge and the longest i found at the hawker centre was from the above Yong Seng Teochew Fishball Mee.
My order - mee pok dry fish ball mee (no pork liver) and a serving of their deep fried beancurd skin. The latter was one of six available sides that were featured prominently on the signboard; prayed it would be good.
Fried Beancurd Skin - let's start with this first. The other five sides were popiah, tau kwa, fish cake, ngoh hiang and handmade fish cake. The one i had came with the chilli sauce dip and it tasted suspiciously similar to the ones you get from wuxiang prawn cracker stall.
Delicious and crispy, there seemed to be a thin layer of fish / sotong paste wrapped in the middle of the skin before it was rolled up. Even though nice on its own, you can use the accompanying dip for that extra oomph. I have a question; why was this item not offered in our typical wuxiang prawn cracker stalls?
Mee Pok Dry Fish Ball Mee - to be honest, i thought this was more a minced meat rather than a legit fishball noodle and this stemmed from experiences with teochew fishball noodles before (click here).
I had mine with chilli and vinegar and while it was flavourful with a generous serving of crispy pork lard; my personal preference is still Li Xin. In addition, the fish balls seemed to have a rougher texture. Broth, surprisingly, was tasty and would make a perfect base for fishball / meatball soup.
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Address
105 Hougang Ave 1, #02-47,
Singapore 530105
Map
As above.
Menu
As above.
Pricing
Fried Beancurd Skin - S$2.50
Mee Pok Dry Fish Ball Mee - Minimum S$4.00