Lor mee ($4)!
Monday hawker — lor mee $4. Hokkien starchy gravy noodles with fish cake, pork belly, hard-boiled egg, garlic-vinegar.
Monday hawker lunch — lor mee at $4. The Hokkien starchy gravy noodles at honest hawker pricing.
We ordered:
- Lor mee — $4
Lor mee (卤面) is the Hokkien noodle dish built on a thick starchy gravy. Yellow noodles in a slow-simmered braising sauce (the “lor” — a dark gravy made with star anise, five-spice, soy sauce, and thickened with starch), topped with sliced pork belly, fish cake, fried wontons, blanched bean sprouts, and a hard-boiled egg.
The gravy is the headline. The proper lor mee gravy has a viscous, almost gel-like consistency from the starch thickening, with a deep dark brown colour from the braising sauce reduction. The flavour profile is the savoury-spiced direction — star anise and five-spice provide the aromatic depth, soy sauce provides the salt, and the long simmer with pork bones provides the umami base.
This stall’s gravy was the proper consistency — thick enough to coat the noodles but not so gluey that it formed a solid block. The dark colour came through the noodles, with the slight glossy sheen of properly reduced gravy.
The yellow noodles were the standard alkaline variety. Cooked to firmness, with the proper QQ chew. The gravy coats each strand, creating the thick-noodle-in-thick-sauce eating experience that defines lor mee.
Toppings included:
- Sliced pork belly (slow-cooked, soft, with the proper fat-and-lean balance)
- Fish cake slices
- Fried wontons (crispy, providing the textural contrast against the soft noodles and gravy)
- A hard-boiled egg, halved
- Blanched bean sprouts
- Chopped coriander
Garlic-vinegar sauce on the side is the proper lor mee condiment. Minced garlic, rice vinegar, and chilli paste mixed together — you spoon some into the bowl to taste, providing the sharp-acidic-spicy lift that cuts through the thick savoury gravy.
The garlic-vinegar is essential to the proper lor mee eating experience. Without it, the dish is one-dimensional savoury; with it, each spoonful brings the sharp garlic-vinegar lift against the deep starchy gravy.
At $4 a bowl this is standard hawker pricing. The lor mee stalls have been steady through phase 2.
Overall: 4.1 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid lor mee — would re-order.
