Best eats: A satisfying bowl of bak chor mee – at an ice cream cafe in Tanglin Halt
You lot might have heard of a now-defunct stall at Tanglin Halt Food Centre chosen Aw's Signature Minced Pork Noodles, which made a name for itself with delicious, ingredient-laden bak chor mee.
But near as quickly as it rose in popularity, it closed downwards, much to the disappointment of customers in the know. One of them was my Makan Kaki, Chef Shen Tan of private dining experience, Ownself Brand Chef.
Imagine my delight when she revealed it had re-opened, albeit in a surprisingly different set-up, merely a rock's throw from its sometime location. She recommended that I head down to The Milky Way Homemade Ice-Cream And Coffee buffet for my bak chor mee gear up, but with the added bonus of dessert.
The man behind the noodles (and now, ice cream) is Terence Aw, a self-taught cook and former police officeholder who left a decade-long career in law enforcement to pursue his passion for cooking. "It'south e'er been my hobby, so when I left the force, I just wanted to do something I love," he said earnestly.
And equally with many young, hungry hawkerpreneurs, he told me his initial foray into the nutrient business didn't go according to program. "At first, I tried selling mookata (Thai-style two-in-one barbeque grill and hot pot), merely wasn't very successful. I realised that what customers really want is familiar comfort food that tin be unremarkably found," Terence shared.
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His personal favourite ticked those boxes, so he decided to make the switch to selling bak chor mee. Nonetheless, he didn't actually have a recipe or the know-how. With his meagre feel in cooking and F&B, Google and Youtube became his culinary tutors.
Later a lot of practice and pointers from swain hawkers at Tanglin Halt Food Eye, Terence's bak chor mee, with its unique gustation and plentiful ingredients, actually took off and gained a loyal fan following.
He credits Chef Shen for helping to get the word out. "She kind of gave my concern a jump kickoff." In fact, she's all the same doing so, now that he's added custom gourmet ice creams to the menu at his new location. But more on that afterwards.
Kickoff, I was hungry for a gustation of the noodles I had been hearing so much about. My gild for the best-selling dry kway teow (flat rice noodles) cost Southward$five.80 and came served in a bowl piled with meaty, golden-brown ingredients. Beside information technology was a separate bowl of soup pond with greens and more compact ingredients.
Terence had created a noodle dish that was entirely his ain and no wonder it used to exist called his signature minced pork noodles – information technology didn't wait like the typical hawker centre variety and was unlike whatever other I've tasted.
Slicked in the rich, savoury-sweet sauce, the kway teow was slurpily delicious, having absorbed all the umami dressing. Terence admitted: "My sauce is not what you observe in bak chor mee. I've added other things I like, and so it'southward not what y'all would unremarkably get at a normal hawker stall."
Traditionally, bak chor mee is tossed in a sauce that includes black vinegar and low-cal soy sauce, but Terence'due south homemade version contained a deep, pervasive fish sauce and night, syrupy kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce sweetened and thickened with palm sugar).
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"To make it a bit more special, there are also a few other undercover seasonings," Terence continued. "But since moving to this cafe, I've removed the black vinegar."
His unusual calibrations have resulted in a more, equally he says, "Malaysia-style" noodle dish. In fact, addicted of trying bak chor mee wherever he goes, he tweaks his recipe frequently, based on his frequent tasting experiences.
Succulent minced pork and sliced push button mushrooms braised in Terence's undercover sauce magnified its depth and gave it a porcine, earthy dimension. This played off appetitisingly against the gentle kiss of molasses from the kecap manis and the pungent salt of the fish sauce. Crunchy lard bits and chopped spring onions studded the saucy kway teow, while a single gold-brown meatball, similar a meaty ruby-red on acme, completed the dish.
I discovered that it was made from the same bak chor mixture floating enticingly in the bowl of soup. Terence'south was made from a combination of fish paste and minced pork, rolled into a brawl and air-fried for a crisp crust with a meltingly tender interior; or broken off in raw, rustic chunks to boil in pork broth.
Treating the same ingredients in 2 dissimilar means for two different textures was such a clever mode to bridge both dry and soup bowls.
Following this bak chor trail led me to the side by side bowl of steaming soup, cloudy with the bloom of porky detritus and absolutely crowded with goodies.
Fighting for surface real estate were the to a higher place-mentioned handmade bak chor chunks, fat ribbons of fluffy beaten egg, bunches of vivid dark-green spinach, mock abalone slices, juicy prawn, boisterous pork assurance and fish dumplings. A crowning flourish of minced garlic oil further imbued the bowl with fragrance and flavour.
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For hot heads like myself, Terence's home-made chilli sauce was a must. Again, different from the usual chilli paste with deep-ruby-red hae bee (stale shrimp) served at traditional bak chor mee stalls, his version was a freshy, zingy lilliputian number.
Made from fresh red chillies, garlic, ginger and vinegar, the bright orangish chilli sauce was chunky, tangy and perfect for disrupting the robust, compact flavours with a little excitement and an exceptionally spicy kicking. It was delicious both every bit a dip for the array of ingredients, or mixed into the umami, soy-soaked kway teow.
Eaten all together, Terence'southward signature bak chor mee was a rather luxurious playground of slippery noodles, meat and seafood. "That's why I added spinach. It's very healthy, but I also personally similar information technology," he explained.
He wasn't incorrect. Adding the spinach was the equivalent of mum sneaking in greens amid all the treats. A little bitter, a little salty, it added some brightness and nutritional value to the porky pool party.
In fact, everything in the basin made for a pleasing contrast of textures. An interesting wedlock of homey comfort and familiar bell-ringer flavours, the dish tasted like something mum would recreate in her home kitchen if you asked her to brand your favourite bak chor mee.
I noticed that Terence only offered 3 noodle varieties at The Milky Way: Bee hoon, xanthous mee and kway teow. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed, as I prefer the bak chor mee staples of mee kia (sparse egg noodles) and mee pok (broader, flat egg noodles).
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Terence was quick to explain: "Mee pok and mee kia have to be blanched in humid water and then plunged in cold running h2o using special kitchen equipment. Due to the setup in my cafe, I tin't actually sell it the way I used to in the hawker middle."
Mystery of the missing noodles solved, I asked Terence if he had considered expanding the concern so customers could once again savour the full range of noodles.
As it turned out, his time with the Milky Way may be express when the lease expires in 2024. Initially, it was a place Terence often took his children (aged four and vi) for water ice cream when he was all the same operating his own noodle stall nearby. He so took over running the buffet, in partnership with the previous owner who actually had plans to shut it down.
Information technology might have been part-sentimentality, part-business concern decision, but Terence also saw it every bit an opportunity to try something new and hopefully accept a little breather.
He confided: "Being a hawker was very tiring and I adult some back problems that were affecting my sleep, then I decided to make the switch over again. I thought information technology was such waste matter to let the cafe fold, and so we agreed to take over."
Since the movement from hawker centre to cafe, Terence'southward wife Jesline has also been helping him with twenty-four hour period-to-twenty-four hour period business. After learning how to work the machines from the previous possessor, Terence has been employing the same strategy to making ice foam as he did to creating his bak chor mee.
"I've continued to tweak the recipes and improve on them, adding things I like," he shared. It would seem he likes things that customers also like – his mao shan wang durian ice cream was a sell-out online during Singapore's "circuit breaker".
Made from top quality durian he gets (seeds removed) from a supplier, the heady, luscious ice foam packed a powerfully pungent dial because "information technology's threescore per cent durian" – meaning more than one-half of the ice cream contained the pure, fruity flesh.
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Terence was besides proud of his frequent collaborations with Chef Shen for her private dining sessions, which have given him the risk to incorporate more than Asian flavours, like salted egg yolk and gula melaka, into his custom ice creams.
A few others caught my centre in the display and information technology didn't take much persuasion before I was sampling three more than sublime flavours: His next acknowledged nutty pistachio; crunchy, dairy-free kopi chips (coffee with cacao nibs); and vegan coconut "gao" (Hokkien for "very thick"), which lived upwardly to its intense proper name.
But I got the feeling that noodles remained his first beloved, as he said wistfully, "Who knows? If things settle, I could find another place to gear up a noodle stall again, or maybe I could even go back to the hawker centre. Yous could say I chose to permit it become at its acme and people were shocked. They kept asking me 'what are you doing?'"
I would say Terence is doing his all-time for his immature family. With Jesline past his side, two piddling ones and another on the way, he is focused on staying true to his passion for F&B, taking some risks, making calculated moves and continuing to serve food that'due south tasty and comforting.
Perhaps therein lies the appeal – his abiding tweaking of recipes, willingness to reinvent and confidence to use merely ingredients he personally loves to eat.
Go to The Milky way for ice cream with big bangs of flavour; simply definitely stay for the bak chor mee, which really is a labour of love and a reflection of Terence's home-made, learn-as-y'all-go strategy to life.
The Milky Style Homemade Ice-cream And Coffee is located at Blk 48 Tanglin Halt Rd, #01-333, Singapore 142048. It'south open Tuesdays to Fridays from 10am to 9pm, and on weekends from 10am to 10pm. Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Catch Makan Kakis with Denise Tan every Thursday from 11am on GOLD 905.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/best-local-food-singapore-bak-chor-mee-ice-cream-tanglin-halt-258816
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