Chicken cutlet mee hoon kueh ($5.50 each)!
Hawker chicken cutlet mee hoon kueh $5.50 each — hand-torn flour pieces in clear ikan bilis broth, topped with a crispy chicken cutlet.
Sunday dinner with BB at a neighbourhood hawker for a chicken cutlet mee hoon kueh twin order. The Hakka hand-torn flour piece soup gets an upgrade with the western-style chicken cutlet topping, which sounds wrong but actually works.
We ordered:
- Chicken cutlet mee hoon kueh — $5.50
- Chicken cutlet mee hoon kueh — $5.50
Mee hoon kueh is the traditional Hakka noodle dish — hand-torn flat pieces of flour-and-water dough, dropped into a simmering ikan bilis broth so they cook through and absorb the stock as they go. Slightly irregular shapes, slightly chewy texture, plain in flavour so the broth and toppings carry the dish.
The broth was the right kind — clear, ikan-bilis-and-pork-bone simmered, with white pepper, garlic and a touch of soy. Toppings: minced pork, blanched leafy greens, a small handful of crispy ikan bilis, fried shallots and chopped spring onion.
The chicken cutlet on top is the wildcard. Battered chicken thigh fillet, deep-fried until crispy, sliced into strips and laid across the bowl. It stays crispy on top while you eat through the bottom of the bowl, then towards the end the bottom of the cutlet softens into the broth and that becomes its own thing.
A chilli-and-fried-shallot dip on the side completes the dish. Crispy on top, soft in the middle, all in a clear broth that warms you up.
$5.50 a bowl is honest hawker pricing for the format.
Overall: 4.2 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Quietly satisfying combo — would absolutely repeat.
