Yan jiao ban mian (燕饺板面) ($5.50)!
Everton Park hawker yan jiao ban mian: hand-made flat noodles in soup with yan jiao (meat-paste-wrapped swallow dumplings), greens and egg, with a ngoh hiang side. $5.50.
Lunch at Everton Park: yan jiao ban mian (燕饺板面), $5.50. 😋
What was in the bowl:
- Ban mian (板面): the hand-made flat noodle ribbons in a clear soup
- Yan jiao (燕饺): the “swallow dumplings”, wrapped in a meat-paste skin rather than wheat
- Greens + egg: leafy vegetables and a drowned egg wisping through the broth
- Side of ngoh hiang: the fried five-spice meat roll, on the metal plate
Yan jiao (燕饺), “swallow dumplings”, are the unusual element that makes this bowl: instead of the usual wheat-flour wrapper, the dumpling is wrapped in a thin pork-paste skin, so the whole thing, wrapper and filling, is made of seasoned meat. The result is springier and meatier than a normal wonton, with a bouncy snap and no doughy edge. They are a Fuzhou/Foochow specialty (related to the Sarawak “swallow” yan pi tradition), and a stall that makes them is doing something most ban mian places do not.
Ban mian (板面) is the hand-made flat noodle: flour-and-egg dough rolled and cut (or torn) into flat ribbons, cooked in an ikan bilis-and-pork broth. The hand-made noodle has a chew and slight irregularity that machine noodles lack, and the clear broth lets it lead.
The combination is what the stub flagged as unusual: the meaty bounce of the yan jiao against the chewy hand-made ban mian, in one clean soup. The drowned egg enriches the broth, and the ngoh hiang on the side adds the fried element.
At $5.50 for a yan jiao ban mian with a ngoh hiang side at Everton Park, this is fair value for the specialist dumplings.
Overall: 4.2 / 5. 😋👍🏼 The meat-wrapped yan jiao against the hand-made noodles was the distinctive standout. Hawker specialist bowl, would re-order.
