Chicken cutlet noodles ($5.50)!
Chinatown hawker — chicken cutlet noodles with fried beancurd skin, runny egg, mee pok, chilli paste. $5.50.
Lunch today: chicken cutlet noodles at a Chinatown hawker, $5.50. 😋
What was on the plate ($5.50):
- Mee pok flat noodles dressed dark.
- A sliced fried chicken cutlet piled in the centre.
- A soft-poached egg, yolk runny.
- A large fried beancurd skin square (foo chuk) on top.
- A dollop of chilli paste.
This is a fun mash-up on the classic bak chor mee template: the same dry mee pok base tossed in chilli and dark sauce, the same crispy foo chuk and runny egg, but the minced pork is swapped out for a sliced fried chicken cutlet. It’s a Western-leaning protein dropped onto a Chinese noodle base, and it works, the crunchy, savoury cutlet plays a similar role to the usual sliced fishcake or meat, just heartier.
The textures are the appeal: the chicken cutlet crisp and golden, the foo chuk adding its airy crunch, and the runny egg broken through to coat and enrich the noodles, while the chilli paste brings the tangy-spicy kick that makes mee pok sing. Mix it all up before eating so every strand picks up the sauce and yolk.
At $5.50 it’s standard hawker pricing for a generous, satisfying plate, a nice change-up if you’ve had your fill of the usual minced-pork version.
Overall: 4.1 / 5. The chicken cutlet was crispy, the foo chuk added crunch, the runny egg enriched the noodles, and the chilli did the kick. A tasty hawker mash-up. 😋👍🏼
