Char siew Sarawak kolo mee ($6) @ Albert Centre!
Char siew Sarawak kolo mee, $6, at Albert Centre Market & Food Centre: springy curly noodles with char siew, minced pork and a side bowl of fishball soup.
Char siew Sarawak kolo mee, $6, from the kolo mee stall at Albert Centre Market & Food Centre. ๐๐
What we had ($6):
- Char siew Sarawak kolo mee, $6 (fishball soup included)
Albert Centre is the old market and food centre on Queen Street, a short walk from Bugis, and it has quietly picked up a Sarawak kolo mee stall among all the bak chor mee and fishball noodles. The bowls come stamped ๅนฒๆ้ข็, so you know which one you are at.
Kolo mee is the Kuching dish: thin curly egg noodles blanched, drained dry and tossed in shallot oil and lard rather than dressed in sauce. That is the difference from our local wanton mee, no dark sauce, no ketchup, just a pale seasoned sheen on the noodles and a lot of aroma. These had the right springy, wiry bounce and came out well separated instead of clumped.
The char siew was the reason to pay the extra. Two kinds went on the plate: lean slices with red-edged caramelised char, and fattier chunks of belly with dark burnt sugar edges that were the best bites on the plate. Over the noodles went a generous heap of minced pork, cooked plain and pale so it soaks up the shallot oil, plus a fried spring roll on the side and a pile of shredded lettuce to cut through the fat.
The bowl of fishball soup that comes with it is not an afterthought. Four bouncy fishballs in a clear peppery broth with spring onion, and a spoonful of it poured into the noodles loosens everything up nicely if the toss gets too dry.
Six dollars for this much meat is fair going, especially in the Bugis area.
Overall: 4 / 5. ๐๐๐ผ Springy noodles, two kinds of char siew and a decent fishball soup thrown in. Would come back.
