Chicken knife-shaved noodles ($8.50) @ Formosa Delights, 313@Somerset!
Formosa Delights Handmade Noodles at Food Republic 313@Somerset: chicken knife-shaved noodles, $8.50. Taiwanese dao xiao mian in a brown broth with braised chicken and pickled greens.
A bowl of chicken knife-shaved noodles from Formosa Delights Handmade Noodles 清香館 刀削麺, $8.50. 🍜😋
What we had ($8.50):
- Chicken knife-shaved noodles, $8.50
Formosa Delights is the Taiwanese handmade-noodle stall you find inside food courts around the island, and this bowl came from the Food Republic at 313@Somerset, right on top of Somerset MRT. Their thing is dao xiao mian (刀削麺), knife-shaved noodles: instead of being rolled and cut, the dough is held against a blade and shaved straight into the boiling water, so every piece comes out a different length and thickness.
That is exactly what you get here. The noodles are thick and ribbon-like with wavy, uneven edges, thin where the blade caught them and chunky through the middle, which gives you two textures in the same mouthful. They hold up well in soup and do not go mushy while you work through the bowl.
The broth was a light brown, clean and savoury with a gentle sweetness rather than anything heavy or oily. Sitting in it was a piece of braised chicken, reddish from its braise and soft enough to come off the bone easily, plus a whole shiitake mushroom and a stalk of bok choy.
The topping that makes it is the pickled mustard greens, a tangle of them piled in the middle, sour and salty and crunchy. Stir them through and they cut the richness, turning the broth sharper as you go. A pile of spring onion goes over everything, and a small dish of pickled cucumber came on the side.
For $8.50 in the middle of Orchard, a hot bowl of freshly shaved noodles is decent value. The noodle texture is the draw.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Chewy uneven knife-shaved noodles, tender braised chicken, and those tangy pickled greens. Would re-order.
