Since 1963, fans of Ng Hock Wah signature 'dry' rendition queue for up to 45 minutes - though with the introduction of digital buzzing, the lines are now invisible.
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Their legacy stretches back to hawker legend Ng Tong, who together with brother Ng Seng, created the Singaporean style version of this dish.
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Each batch of long cylindrical yellow egg noodles and thin bee hoon / rice vermicelli noodles have fully absorbed the pork and prawn stock, and tossed with chicken egg, result in a soft chew with lovely smoky grainy eggy sweet salty savoury flavour.
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The garnishes of bouncy squid and crunchy deshelled prawns lend body, and smoky sweet savoury flavour. Balanced with good wok hei / breath of the wok.
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A squeeze of lime juice and cut red chili in soy sauce lend zesty tangy sour salty spicy flavour, cutting through with a zing.
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Hokkien Mee
Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
@ Old Airport Road Food Centre, 51 Old Airport Road #01-32
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2023/08/best-of-singapore-hawkers-hokkien-mee.html
Arrived at this Michelin Bib Gourmand Friend Hokkien Mee stall at Old Airport Road Hawker Centre at 10.49am. Was already #8 in the queue and #3 was the next to be served. As I am not a big fan of the drier version of Fried Hokkien Mee, I only ordered the small portion at $5.00.
Got my noodles at 10.49am so only a 10 minute wait. You may ask why even 10 minutes wait for only 5 customers in front. Apparently they have to prepare a lot of take away orders. Packets after packets. In between they will cover the dine in orders.
First thing that stuck me beside the dryness of the noodles is that they use the thinner version of bee hoon. But this worked to their advantage as it was more capable of soaking up the umami rich flavours of the prawn stock. The other thing that I found unique was that they provide sliced chilli instead of chilli sauce. This I did not appreciate as much as it just imparted a raw spiciness to the noodles and I missed the savoury spicy chilli sauce that I am so used to.
What I did appreciate was the smokiness and little charred bits of noodles which you will not get from the wet versions. For $5, you get three halves of prawns (tail on) and a few rather large slices of squid. But no lard or sliced pork which was a disappointment because if I am going to risk the calories and the cholesterol, there better be lard and pork in sinful amounts.
Overall not bad but not my top favourite for reasons above.
It has been multiple trips here and always turned away due to long waiting time.
So this time I decided to make my trip early in the morning as they just open at 10am. Thankfully it is only a short wait.
Also just right in time to celebrate their recognition in Michelin Guideโs Bib Gourmand entrance this year.
The overall taste was good, just find it a bit too dry for me. The portion for big size wasnโt as big as I would expected but it comes with pieces of shrimp that mostly peeled.
Unlike the usual way, they provided the cut chilli with lime instead of sambal.
Whatโs different with this plate of fried Hokkien mee over others is that it does not have pork belly slices, no fried pork lard and sambal chilli. Instead, the other ingredients besides the yellow noodle and bee hoon are prawns and sotong, all cooked and simmered in a rich umami broth. On the side, they will give a calamansi and cut red chillies in soya sauce. Donโt waste your calories in their other outlets, as the original stall at Old Airport Road still fries the best version.
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๐ด Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
๐ 51 Old Airport Road, Old Airport Road Food Centre, Unit 01-32, Singapore 390051
It's immediately punchy, one of the strongest broths I've had. The seafood were cooked perfectly too
I mush prefer a sambal w this tho, which they don't serve unfortunately
The texture is really unique, it's as dry as it gets and sticky as well, but not for bad execution. The dry sticky texture is more a mouthful, because I didn't actually need water at all to finish the plate. Unique but not for everyone, I'm indifferent about this.
Also the wok hei isn't as strong as I had hoped, for a dry version
Team dry will love this. Yellow noodle mixed with big portion bee hoon cooked in umami quality stock. Decor with squid and prawn. As bee hoon is used, you can expect the high absorption rate which in turns produce flavourful noodles. It's good but doesn't stands out much to me.
I have a love and hate relationship with @namsinghokkienfried because of their consistency --- they are consistently good, there is consistently an hour long queue and they are consistently closed whenever I am there.
I typical like my hokkien mee wet but I will make an exception for their hokkien mee which is fragrant and full of wokhei. The prawns and squid remain tender and you can still taste the prawn and meat stock the noodles were stir-fried.
I must say that portions are on the smaller side so don't feel bad about ordering a large plate and finishing it all on your own!
We decided to try this Hokkien Mee over our usual Yi Ji Hokkien Mee today, as we heard quite a lot of good things about Nan Sing. As we wanted to share the dish between both of us, we thought to get the large Hokkien Mee, which costs $8 for the plate. However, we were really surprised to see that the L plate wasn't that large after all.
Nam Sing also serves the dry variety of Hokkien Mee, so fans of the wet version may not want to order from this stall. Nonetheless, despite the serving size, the noodles were really fragrant and you can taste the prawn broth that the noodles were cooked in. In addition, the stall peels all the prawns beforehand to make dining a more pleasant experience for those of us who hate to peel prawns (and we think you are paying a premium for this). It would be even more awesome if the stall could serve sambal belachan chilli like Yi Ji Hokkien Mee but that might be asking for too much.
Lastly, do not be deceived if you don't see anyone queuing in front of Nam Sing. The stall uses a buzzer system so it is very likely there is a long queue of customers in front of you, so do be prepared to wait.
How to avoid the crazy hour-long queues? Come at off-peak hours, say 2pm ++ and you get to enjoy your mee time in less than 10mins!
Best Hokkien Mee ever had.
It took 40 minutes but no need to stand in line.
Explore other dishes to eat with while waiting.
The highlight of this ๐๐ผ๐ธ๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฒ ($5) was a well-executed texture that was skewed towards the drier side, with a gentle puddle of gravy hiding beneath some mildly moist noodles which had locked in a good amount of stock.
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Flavour-wise though, it wasn't the strongest; it was fragrant but slightly lacking the richness found in other renditions, whilst also being light on wok hei. Hypothetically, a good sambal may be able to provide a different dimension and give the milder flavours some punch, but nonetheless the sliced chili was a nice touch. It bestowed a straightforward heat without intruding on the seafood flavours, or adding a sliminess sambal sometimes introduces.
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I personally thought it was a pretty decent plate, particularly due to the texture. And since good dry style Hokkien Mee is rarer, that alone gives it points. But if you're still looking for dry style Hokkien Mee, I'd strongly recommend the one at Golden Mile.
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[๐ฟ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฉ๐] ๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐ ๐ฑ๐ญ ๐ข๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฑ, # ๐ฌ๐ญ-๐ฏ๐ฎ, ๐ฆ๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฑ
โฑ๏ธ (Tues-Sun) 10am-5pm ; ๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐
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Pretty much an institution, โNam Sing Hokkien Fried Meeโ has their own style of Fried Hokkien Mee that is only a little bit wet but packs on plenty of "wok hei". They also clip the strands of fine beehoon and yellow mee quite short. Iโm making a wild guess that by doing so, it helps the noodles to โflyโ higher when tossed around in the wok, thus becoming drier and lighter more swiftiy.
Interestingly, you will not find any sambal chilli served alongside their Fried Hokkien Mee. They only give sliced red chili in a light soya sauce and fresh lime as condiments. At first, I use to feel like something was missing but after a couple of visits, I grew to appreciate the purer flavours of the dish which came through cleaner minus the distraction of a sambal.
My favorite stall. But I know this isn't for everyone, especially those who like their hokkien mee to be wetter with all the seductive seafood stock. This is a dry version, where the beehoon is fried till fragrant. There's still plenty of seafood taste here, and at times more wok fragrance than others. But be prepared to wait (at your table) for usually about 45 mins during lunch hours when I visited.
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There's also a theory, that hokkien mee tastes better when you dabao. Especially leaving it overnight in the fridge then heating it up again the next day. What do you think?
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51 Old Airport Road
Unit 01-32
Old Airport Road Food Centre
Singapore 390051 ๐
Opening hours:
10am to 5pm
Closed Mondays
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Quite a famous Hokkien mee in Singapore
Done very traditionally with cut chillis and soy sauce (not sambal). The stock used to make the prawn mee is very very good, very pleasant tasting, with right about of savoriness, umami and sweetness from the pork inside the broth. The squid and prawn was very fresh which was a pleasant surprise as most places cut cost by giving inferior quality seafood with their Hokkien mee
Maybe it's a style thing but this Hokkien mee does not have a lot of wok hei, and the yellow noodles were not dry fried for long so there is still an alkaline taste which isn't necessarily bad.
Overall a good plate of Hokkien mee. Not my favorite but I can see why it has its share of fans. The stock though, probably one of the best among the Hokkien mee stalls in sg
๐ฅPopular hokkien mee at Old Airport Road. Waited 30mins for this. Small plate cost S$5. Very yummy and worth the wait.
This is the wet type hokkien mee and they are using bee hoon mix with yellow noodles. Easy to eat as they have chopped the noodles.
PRICE: $5 for the small portion (used to be $4 in 2018)
WAIT TIME: 18 min during weekday lunchtime
(Had no idea it'd be that long a wait cos there wasn't a queue.)
WOK HEI: Not really
FRIED PORK LARD: NOPE :(
PRAWNS: 2 + lots of squid
TYPE OF NOODLES: Yellow mee and thin beehoon
TYPE OF CHILLI: Chilli in soy sauce. Not the belachan kind I like.
WILL WE RETURN? Unlikely
This possibly tops my list of favourite hokkien noodle in Singapore. Might not come with the most wok hei, but it ticks off al the features i'm looking for: umami stock, qq noodle and soupy base. Portion is pretty satisfying too! Some people will question why they never put sambal or lard in it, but I always prefer simpler ingredients done right.
$5 portion too little as a meal, u may add on ur meal with other food here. The hokkien mee got sotong, prawn, no waiting.
PRICE: $4
WAIT TIME: 5 min on weekday afternoon
WOK HEI: Not really
FRIED PORK LARD: NOPE :(
PRAWNS: 2 + lots of squid
TYPE OF NOODLES: Yellow mee and thin beehoon
TYPE OF CHILLI: Chilli in soy sauce. Not the belachan kind I like.
WILL WE RETURN? Unlikely
Famous Hokkien prawn mee that has an average wait of 30-45 mins at peak hours. My dad usually buys back for us & it always hit the spot. Had this last week at the food centre but it was the first time that I was so disappointed. It was just ok only. Also, I donโt get why they donโt serve it with sambal. I love sambal with my noodles, donโt you? .
๐ : Old airport road food centre #01-32
