Kway teow dry ($4)!
Tiong Bahru hawker dry kway teow yong tau foo style: wide flat rice noodles with fish-paste pieces, braised mushroom, fishballs and lettuce, with a soup side. $4.
Lunch at Tiong Bahru: dry kway teow, $4. 😋
What was on the tray:
- Wide flat kway teow: the broad pale rice noodles, the YTF-style base
- Fish-paste pieces: pale stuffed and sliced fish items folded through
- Braised mushroom: the dark sliced shiitake on top, the umami layer
- Fishballs: a couple of the bouncy white spheres
- Lettuce: the raw green tuck
- Soup side: the clear YTF broth in a separate bowl
This is the kway teow take on dry yong tau foo: instead of the usual bee hoon or mee, the picked YTF items come tossed with wide flat rice noodles in a light sauce, with the soup served on the side so the kway teow stays slippery rather than soggy. The broad noodle is the softer, more slithery carrier, it carries less sauce than mee pok but has a satisfying silkiness that suits the clean YTF flavours.
The braised mushroom is the upgrade that makes this more than a plain noodle bowl: dark shiitake simmered in soy until soft and savoury, heaped over the top to give the otherwise mild dish its depth. The fish-paste items bring the bounce, the lettuce the crunch.
Why dry over soup: the dry toss lets you taste the sauce and the mushroom directly, while the soup on the side keeps the broth clear for sipping. It is the same logic as dry YTF, just with kway teow as the noodle.
At $4 for a dry kway teow YTF bowl with soup in Tiong Bahru, this is proper budget-hawker territory.
Overall: 4.2 / 5. 😋👍🏼 The braised mushroom over the silky kway teow was the standout. Would re-order.
