Many a time, i am guilty of not being adventurous in trying out new stalls in hawker centres and would rather prefer to order from stalls i am more familiar with.
One classic example is the food centre at Bedok Central.
The usual order consisted of the saccharine chicken chop from Kallang Western BBQ and a sinful banana fritter from a stall pretty near the restrooms. Given my age, those two orders (plus a glass of sugarcane from any drink stall) would be sufficient to fill up the stomach.
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Last week was different; the mouth was craving for a plate hokkien mee and i managed to deviate from the norm (not easy since i am a big fan of the chicken chop) by patronising the above stall; Yong Heng Fried Hokkien Mee.
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I have had my fair share of food stalls with displays of many accolades and awards that still fail to impress me. Hence, i was only expecting a decent plate of Hokkien Mee to satisfy that damn crave and nothing exceptional.
Have you noticed the main picture on the signboard? It explicitly mentioned baby squid hokkien mee and showed three nicely placed squids on bed of hokkien mee; a far cry from what i was given!
With even lower expectation, i was pleasantly shocked by the unrivaled intensity of flavour that literally exploded in my mouth as i took a disgruntled spoonful! Surely those baby squids must have dissolved in the midst of vigorous frying and subsequent long simmering in the wok!
After trying quite a number of supposedly famous hokkien me, i can confidently confirm that i like my hokkien mee to have a semi-dry consistency; dry enough to taste the heavy flavour yet wet enough to enjoy the rich broth.
For those who die die must have tiny stripes of pork belly (Xavier, i am looking at you) or crispy pork lard (like myself), you would be pleased to know they were the standard ingredients at Yong Heng.
I am hesitant to bestow the title of the best hokkien me in Singapore to Yong Heng but i have to admit it was definitely the most remarkable in my whole life.
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Location
Block 207, New Upper Changi Road,
#01-42, 207 Food Centre
(next to Bedok Bus Interchange and near to Bedok MRT Station)
Price
S$3.50 a plate