Hokkien mee ($10.30 large) @ Hoe Kee Hokkien Mee, Tampines 1!
Hokkien mee, $10.30 for the large, at Hoe Kee Hokkien Mee in Tampines 1: wet-style noodles with prawns, squid, pork belly, crispy lard and sambal.
Hokkien mee, the large at $10.30, from Hoe Kee Hokkien Mee in Tampines 1. ๐ฆ๐
What we had ($10.30):
- Hokkien mee, large, $10.30
Hoe Kee is in Tampines 1, 10 Tampines Central 1, right by Tampines MRT. Ten dollars is at the top end for a plate of hokkien mee, but the large is genuinely large and the seafood is where the money goes.
This is the wet style rather than the dry, so the noodles sit in a pool of stock rather than being fried until the pan goes dry. A mix of thick yellow hokkien noodles and thin bee hoon had soaked up a prawn-and-pork stock until they had gone soft and slippery, the whole plate glossy with it. Wet hokkien mee lives or dies on that stock, and this one was deeply savoury with real prawn sweetness behind it.
The toppings were generous for a mall stall. Whole prawns shelled except for the tails, rings and strips of squid cooked just short of rubbery, slices of pork belly, bean sprouts and scrambled egg through the noodles.
Scattered over the top were cubes of crispy pork lard, still crunchy against all that soft noodle, which is the texture the dish needs.
On the side, a wedge of calamansi lime and a dollop of dark sambal chilli. Squeeze the lime over everything first; the acid cuts the richness and wakes the whole plate up. Then stir the sambal in gradually rather than all at once.
Overall: 4 / 5. ๐๐๐ผ Savoury stock, generous prawns and squid, and crispy lard on top. Pricey for hokkien mee, but the large earns it.
