Housemade noodles with a twist
Merely referred to as Mian, which suggests noodles in Chinese language, this not too long ago opened espresso store stall in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 presents a twist on wonton noodles utilizing housemade noodles in spinach and tomato flavours.
The Cantonese-style seasoning is stored easy with the usage of oyster sauce and soya sauce. No ketchup is used, however the char siew dumpling tomato noodle ($5.50) has a wealthy, tangy tomato style.
The spinach style is much less apparent within the char siew wonton spinach noodle ($4.50), however the noodles are extremely springy.
Parts are beneficiant too. Each plates include 5 slices of housemade char siew.
The plump juicy dumplings and wonton are handwrapped each morning. The dumpling filling is product of shiitake mushroom, water chestnuts, jicama and woodear mushroom.
Nowadays, it’s tough to search out stalls which use water chestnuts in dumpling filling as peeling and chopping them is laborious.
Essentially the most excellent flavour is that of flatfish in each the dumpling and wonton filling, in addition to within the broth, which additionally has the wealthy aroma of dried prawn.
Flatfish is a premium ingredient, however I’d have most popular it if it was used extra sparingly on this occasion, as its distinct aroma and flavour nearly obliterate the pure sweetness of the minced pork filling.
As an alternative of the everyday caixin, the stall serves premium-grade Hong Kong child kailan with its noodles. When there isn’t any child kailan, the stall makes use of Hong Kong choysum as an alternative. The kailan is recent and crunchy, however could possibly be blanched just a little longer so it’s extra tender and doesn’t style uncooked.
The top cook dinner Wong Wai Keung, 65, who’s from Hong Kong, spends as much as 20 hours every week making as much as 30 per cent of the stall’s egg noodles. The remainder come from a noodle manufacturing unit he owns in Malaysia. The employees there are skilled to make the noodles in response to his recipes and specs.
The spinach and tomato noodles are made with out synthetic flavouring or preservatives. All of the noodles are made with a minimal quantity of alkaline agent, so they’re a really pale shade and would not have that slight bitterness or soapy style that alkaline noodles can have if not properly rinsed.
The braised mushroom noodle ($4.50) comes with 61/2 premium-grade shiitake mushroom – the kind beneficiant residence cooks purchase. They’re thick, juicy and flavoursome.
The stall is owned by Mr Wong’s 32-year-old daughter Kelly, who can be a head cook dinner, however she is on medical go away after being scalded by scorching oil. For now, the stall operates from 7am to 2.30pm, however might prolong its working hours when she resumes work.
Should-try aspect dishes are fried rooster cutlet ($6), which is properly marinated and crispy; fried dumplings ($5.50 for six items); and the old-school braised mushroom and rooster ft ($6), that are ready from scratch on the stall.
The place: Stall 10, 01-2688, Block 505 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8
MRT: Ang Mo Kio
Open: Sundays to Fridays, 7am to 2.30pm, closed on Saturdays
Supply: foodpanda and Deliveroo (to areas within the stall’s neighborhood)
Hawker expertise at residence
Ngoh hiang and the accompanying deep-fried snacks are scrumptious, however can fill you with post-meal guilt.
Now, you may take pleasure in them at residence with out deep-frying. Gim’s Heritage has a variety of frozen ngoh hiang and fried snack merchandise that may be reheated with an air-fryer. The retail model is a part of meals producer Hock Lian Huat Foodstuff Trade, which provides ngoh hiang and meals merchandise to hawkers, eating places and lodges.
My favorite is the golden crispy prawn pancake ($11.90 for six items, 450g). Each bit is about 12cm by 8cm. Packet directions point out air-frying at 200 deg C for 10 to 12 minutes. However I discover that 17 minutes will get the beancurd pores and skin crispier. Wrapped in beancurd pores and skin, the filling product of prawn and fish paste is bouncy, with sweetness from items of prawn, carrot and Chinese language celery. The beancurd pores and skin utilized by the corporate tastes good, no imply feat as commercially produced beancurd pores and skin typically tends to be too salty.
My second favorite merchandise is the crispy golden fish roe ($9.30 for 3 items, 270g). Formed like a cylinder, every bit is orange, however no synthetic colouring is used. The color comes from the usage of tobiko (flying fish roe), which explains why the snack is pretty expensive.The filling of fish paste, Chinese language celery and carrot can be delightfully bouncy.
One other enjoyable product to air-fry is the bean sprout cake ($7.70 for six items, 420g). I’d advocate air-frying them at 180 deg C for 12 minutes. Verify on the desserts, which don’t must be defrosted, intermittently whereas air-frying. The draw back is that the items are caught collectively, soseparate them halfway. There are two crispy prawns on prime of every cake. The batter is product of bean sprouts, wheat flour and water. However I can hardly inform there are bean sprouts as they’re too well-blended into the batter.
The Fuzhou recent oyster cake ($12 for six items, 55g per piece) will likely be nice for small events. Each bit is about 6cm in diameter and has a beneficiant topping of crispy peanuts and whitebait. The filling has Chinese language celery, however every cake comes with just one small oyster. The filling incorporates rooster and prawn meat and the batter is made out of scratch utilizing soya beans, wheat flour and starch.
Though the desserts are crispy and savoury, I discover that the filling has extra dough than meat. After all, this frozen cake can’t be in contrast with these bought by well-known stalls, however they’re a handy possibility if you end up pressed for time. Observe the air-frying suggestions talked about for the bean sprout cake.
The fried bee hoon ($3.30 for 500g) is fragrant with loads of garlic. However don’t observe the packet directions to air-fry it with out first defrosting, which is able to end in barely burnt beehoon that isn’t evenly reheated. Except you want consuming the crispy burnt components, it’s higher to defrost, steam or microwave to reheat. Or use a frying pan.
Gim’s Heritage additionally has a Premium Ngoh Hiang Combo ($9.30 per pack), which comes with two rolls of conventional five-spice pork roll, two rolls of prawn roll – which additionally incorporates diced pork – and two rolls of fish ngoh hiang.
To finish the hawker expertise at residence, you may order Gim’s Heritage spice sauce ($2 for 200g), a tangy candy chilli dip that’s mildly spicy, and the candy sauce ($2 for 4 50g sachets). Produced from sugar, colouring and cornstarch, it’s fairly tasteless, however provides a contact of nostalgia if you wish to take photographs of your ngoh hiang meal.
The place: Shopee, Lazada and Qoo10. Supply costs range in response to the platform