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Was going around Beauty World Centre when we had actually noticed a rather unfamiliar sight within the food centre — the addition of Lao Gai Mee 老街面 does seem to be quite a recent thing; that being said, the brand isn’t one that is particularly new to the F&B scene here. Lao Gai Mee used to have to operate out of a stall unit in a coffeeshop at Blk 128 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh; while the said location has ceased operations, it is interesting to note that there are now two locations that Lao Gai Mee now operates from — one being the stall located at the food centre at the top of Beauty World Centre, while the other one can be found in a coffeeshop at Blk 136 Potong Pasir Avenue 3. Its Beauty World Plaza outlet can be found situated along the same stretch of stalls where Penang Home Made Beef Ball is located; this would also be opposite the location of Osa Kaki Fuyong there as well — Lao Gai Mee should be a fairly easy spot to find considering how the stall boasts quite a large signage that does look fairly modern and simple compared to the stalls surrounding it. The menu is kept simple and fuss-free at Lao Gai Mee as well; their offerings comprising of only four dishes that is basically the Fish Ball Bak Chor Mee, Char Siu Mee, Sarawak Laksa and the Kolo Mee.
Found ourselves settling for the Kolo Mee when we made our visit to Lao Gai Mee on a weekday dinner; while the bowls of noodles are prepared ala minute, it does seem that Lao Gai Mee does serve up their orders rather swiftly. Lao Gai Mee does not describe on the elements that come with each bowl of noodles here; that being said, it can be observed from our bowl that the Kolo Mee does come with minced pork, Char Siu, pork lard and spring onions — the default choice of noodles that come along with the Kolo Mee would be the Kolo Mee (duh!), and patrons do get the choice to either go for the spicy or non-spicy variant according to their preferences. Our order was for the spicy variant. Giving the noodles a little bit of a toss, the noodles comes coated with all of that chili and lard oil that comes at the bottom of the bowl; the noodles are indeed the highlight of the Kolo Mee here — the noodles already comes with a springy aesthetic being all wavy and curly like how Kolo Mee should be. As we gave the noodles a bite, we really liked how the Kolo Mee was chewy and QQ — a texture that Kolo Mee should come with, though rarely found to this extent in the ones we had tried locally at least. Whilst there is some fragrance from the sauce base here, the addition of chili does help to give a piquant, fiery kick that tickles the tastebuds and should be fairly manageable for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of spices.
Given how we had tossed the noodles around, the minced pork does cling on some of the strands of noodles; the minced pork here provides a meaty bite and flavour with a little bit of tang likely with the use of vinegar during the preparation process, all that while the Char Siu is of the sort that is coloured from red dye and is mostly meaty being of quite a lean cut — whilst not our favourite type of Char Siu, this seemed to be as authentic to how it should have been for a stall looking to provide is patrons a true Kuching-style Kolo Mee experience. The pork lard does come crisp without feeling in any way stale. The items on the menu at Lao Gai Mee does come rather affordable; the prices range between $4.50 to $6.50 — the lowest priced of the lot being the Kolo Mee while the priciest is the Sarawak Laksa. Having tried a number of Kolo Mee around the island over the year, Lao Gai Mee does stand out a little especially considering the quality and consistency of the Kolo Mee that we had tried; definitely one of those spots we would keep in mind when the cravings for Kolo Mee strikes!
