Tun Xiang 豚香南洋馆 (Bedok)

Fried Hokkien Mee is a hawker food classic that seems to be slowly going the way of dinosaurs. Sure, there are a lot of hokkien mee hawkers, but finding a really delicious plate is rather rare. So I was rather surprised when a fast casual restaurant like @tunxianghokkiendelights stepped up and made Hokkien mee their signature dish, and I finally tried their version one evening.⠀
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At $8.90++ a plate, it isn’t that much more expensive than the standard hawker version. The portion of noodles and fried lard on the plate are quite charitable, but the amount of chopped squid, pork slices and the three shrimp in the dish could be described as…slightly strict. It’s pretty laden with egg however, so you get a lot of fluffy scrambled egg bits here and there.⠀
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Unfortunately, the Hokkien mee was annoyingly bland. The gravy was devoid of most of the umami I was expecting from a prawn broth, and only showed glimpses of salinity here and there. This plate desperately required the intervention of a heaping helping of chili, and luckily enough Tun Xiang managed to bail themselves out on their self made sambal chili. The spicy, salty chili paste added everything that was sorely lacking from the base plate of Hokkien Mee.⠀
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When you make a dish your pride & your signature, you best make sure it’s one of the best around town. Otherwise you’re gonna end up with egg on your face.

$8.90 + $3
It’s a good plate of wanton noodles

Got the small portion, with chewy wanton noodles, onsen egg, char siew and pork lard. Noodles were chewy and had nice texture, and was tasty when soaked with the black sauce and added chili. The onsen egg also made the gravy more thick and tasty. The char siew was tender and flavourful, and wasn’t too fatty. Wished the crust was crispier. Overall, not really worth the price as it was over $10 after the GST and service charge.

Char siew was definitely on point. Personally I do not enjoy char siew with too much fats hence the pork collar was a better option for me. Meat was revert and not too dry. The roasted pork was alright, crispy but that’s about it. Noodles on the other hand wasn’t done well, it was over cooked which didn’t give it a spring bite. Overall I would return for the char siew.

Topped with an egg for a creamy finish, this combination of pork belly and roasted pork noodles was rather decent. $9.90 to try a bit of their famous meats is considered rather affordable for a quasi-restaurant vibe. The pork belly char siew had a good char and sweetness to it. The roasted pork didn’t stand out much to be. Perhaps the cut was too thick to my liking, but the meat and roast finish wasn’t that flavourful as well.
Overall, nothing much to rave about. Your humble neighbourhood roasted delights shop may just as well suffice.
P.S. The egg may go better with rice as well.
Rate:🌟🌟🌟

5 balls of pork w/ yellowfish tail cooked in seaweed soup.

(S$5.80+)