Before you think I'm mad to be sprouting all these, I had possibly one of the best (not THE best, but ONE OF the best in a loooooong time) HKM at Bedok Corner hawker centre.
And it got me wondering: What exactly makes a dish of HKM great? Well, some say the dish has got to have a right mix of bee hoon (vermicelli) and yellow noodles, some say the sambal chilli must be shiok shiok while others say that the stock is the one that makes all the difference. If you ask my mother, she would say that the best HKM is fried generously with lard and wrapped in an opeh leaf (banana leaf).
Being part of the more health conscious younger generation (but as much as I think lard is one of the best inventions after sliced bread), I am more cautious eating a dish of HKM that is chockful of lard, no matter how sinfully tasty it is (but once in awhile is OK lah) because HKM is one dish I eat quite frequently outside. Which is why I think the best HKM is one that combines all of the abovementioned qualities sans the lard - good mix of bee hoon and yellow mee, sambal chilli that is pungent and spicy and the stock that is used to simmer the noodles in must be thick and rich.
Bedok Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee, bless the owner's soul, has all of those qualities that I think makes a great HKM.
It has a very good wok-hei flavour (meaning that the owner's control of the fire and wok is so good it imparts a mellowness to the noodles), the noodles are fried in a stock that is very rich, so you get whiffs of seafood and pork flavour in your noodles, the HKM is sufficiently moist without being overly "wet" or dry and the chilli...OH THE CHILLI! It is salty, pungent with the aroma of what I think is hae bee (dried shrimp) and is sufficiently spicy such that it gives a kick but doesn't numb your tongue. The squid and prawns are also quite fresh, though I think they could have been more generous with how they serve the squid - it was sliced very thinly so I couldn't exactly bite the silvers of squid properly. Where's the fun in that! One thing to note though, this dish of HKM does not come with your usual serving of belly pork, so it's just squid, prawns and egg. But I am really not complaining because the whole dish, taken together with a few drops of freshly squezed lime juice, is simply delightful (even with the stingy squid strips and lack of belly pork). 4.3/5
The stall is quite generous with its portion of noodles - this medium sized ($4) packet was too much for me and my friend to finish!
The only two bad things I can think about this stall is the queue, which is to be expected (I had to stand in line for about 15mins) and the attitude of the stallowners. I think they're a husband and wife team. The husband cooks while the wife takes orders, but the wife is quite a food nazi (full definition can be found here).
Exerpt from ieatishootipost:
"The concept of the Food Nazi was popularized by Seinfeld and it is a term I use for food sellers who have such a great following that they can afford to be cantankerous but people are still willing to suffer abuse in order to eat their stuff."
Well, the wife isn't exactly the nicest and politest stallowner around our little island. When I tried asking her for more chilli, she gave me a small glare and scooped only a teeny bit more onto my HKM. And when I asked her for her stall's opening hours, she grunted in response without looking at me. Now if that's not being a food nazi, I don't know what is! But since their HKM is so damn good, I shall grin and bear it anyway.
It doesn't look as appetizing here, but trust me on how heavenly it tastes!
Possibly one of the best tasting HKM I have tried in a long time. Certainly worth the queue and the grumpy auntie.
Address:
Bedok Corner Hokkien Prawn Mee - Bedok Corner Food Centre, Upper East Coast Rd, Stall 29 (see this post for directions on how to get there)
Open from 4pm to 9pm, closed on Monday
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