Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our hawker adventures! It's been a while since I shared a post like this but one of the things we do on dates is trying out different stalls in different hawker centers to find which are our favourites!
If you've never patronised a hawker center before, they are typically non-air conditioned buildings that house all kinds of food stalls specialising in one or two signature dishes. They're ubiquitous here in Singapore and Malaysia and are known for delicious and affordable food - the perfect combination! They're definitely where you can find the best food in Singapore and is our go-to place for food!
Source: lifestyleasia
We're very lucky that our neighbourhood has many different hawker centers for us to choose from, and although they have some of the staple stalls that every hawker center has (i.e. economic rice with various dishes, drinks stall) there are some unique ones too.
We took a walk quite a ways down from our neighbourhood and found this hawker center called foodpark that Sean's brother has raved about. Specifically, there is a Hokkien Noodle stall that is supposedly very good here.
The hawker center itself looks quite warm and inviting. It's clean, has a few tables and lots of overhead lighting and ceiling fans which is good since these places can become very warm especially in the afternoons.
If you're unfamiliar, Hokkien Mee is a dish of egg noodles and rice noodles stir-fried with egg, pork belly slices, prawns and squid. The key to the dish is copious quantities of an aromatic broth made from prawns and pork bones, slowly simmered for many hours. Sambal chilli and calamansi limes are served on the side for extra tang and small cubes of fried lard are added to give it a nice crunch.
If you caught my post a few weeks ago, you'd know we really like Hokkien Noodles aka Hokkien Mee, especially from this stall in Geylang, but there is also a very good stall we found in a beachside hawker center at East Coast Park. It's one of the few dishes we'd travel out of our neighbourhood for.
So when we found out there is a Hokkien Mee stall much nearer to us, we were excited to give it a try! This is the Hokkien Mee stall in question, called You Fu with a logo picturing the 2 founders of the stall I imagine.
It's a small stall sandwiched between a wanton noodle shop and a fishball noodle shop and they only have 3 dishes - Hokkien Mee, Seasame Oil Chow Mein and a dish called Magic Pao Fan. Unfortunately only one dish was available at the time but thankfully it was the Hokkien Mee.
Sean ordered the $5 Hokkien Mee and this was what it looked like! I remember thinking at the time that it was weird to have it served in a bowl since normally Hokkien Mee is served on a plate but it was actually better since the sauce wouldn't get everywhere.
It looked and smelled really good, and the sambal chili on the side looked really legit as well, unlike some other Hokkien Mee stalls we've tried where it just looks like a regular red sauce.
The portion was pretty decent for 5 bucks, there was a lot of noodles, at least 3 prawns and quite a few squid rings as well. We only realised that there wasn't the crispy lard and after asking the staff we found that it's available only upon request, but she gave us plenty after that. Tbh I didn't really mind not having the lard since it's really unhealthy but Sean loves it.
Taste-wise, I'd say this Hokkien Mee was really good, especially for a random stall in the middle of nowhere. I don't think this is as famous a stall as compared to the other ones we've visited but they did win quite a few awards and were featured in several news articles as well. Now we know why since the food is so very good!
Both of us agreed there was a strong wok-hei (breath of wok) taste to the Hokkien Mee which enhances the flavours. The broth/gravy was nice and savoury without being too salty, and the noodles were very smooth and tasted so good since they were fried in the broth. The chili was a nice accompaniment as well since we like spice. It wasn't too spicy and elevated the taste of the broth even more.
Even though they don't have a long established history like the other more famous stalls, I'd say this Hokkien Mee is pretty top notch, and You Fu is on par with those stalls. We were pleasantly surprised that we found a hidden gem like this right around our neighbourhood! I found out they have 3 stalls in Singapore, with the other 2 being in Chinatown and Kampong Glam.
We did also try the Japanese stall here since one Hokkien Mee dish wasn't enough for the both of us.
Their signature is the Mentaiko Salmon Don but Sean is not a fan of mentaiko so we ordered the Teriyaki Chicken Don instead.
Unfortunately the teriyaki sauce was way too sweet for my liking. It was too strong and overpowered the chicken which was nice and tender.
It was quite unfortunate that this was our first try from this stall but I'm hoping I get to try the Salmon Mentaiko Don next time. I remember seeing other people eat it and it looked good so I'm willing to give it a shot.
Even though this hawker center is a lot closer to our house than the famous stalls, it's also not the most convenient and was about 20 minutes walk away. I doubt we'll go there regularly but we'd definitely come back for the Hokkien Mee if we ever have a craving though!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
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Check out my previous post in this series!
