Beach Road Prawn Noodle House in East Coast with 100-year history
Once upon a time in the 1970s, Beach Road Prawn Mee did call Beach Road home when second-gen owner Mr Lee Seng Hoon set up shop in a kopitiam along Haji Lane. Today, the brand is in the hands of this hei mee dynasty’s fourth generation—a long way from their Fujianese forefather who hawked his prawn noodles out of earthen pots balanced on a shoulder pole along the five-foot way at Blanco Court.
I’d always heard so much about the supposedly fantastic prawn mee here, and the long queues they’re renowned for, so I was eager to finally get around to tasting it. My dining companion and I started with Prawn with Pig Tail Mee ($6.50/$9.50/$12.50), which I ordered for the unique addition of pig tail. You’d typically find prawn noodles with pork ribs, so this was out of the ordinary. My dining companion found the skin of this kind of tough instead of gelatinous and soft, which he was left feeling disgruntled about. We had no qualms about the prawns; they were fresh, meaty, and not overcooked. It was also appreciated that they came sliced in half for convenient eating. Metal bowls for the shells were also provided.
The Old Stall Hokkien Street Famous Prawn Mee is a legendary 80-year-old hae mee stall
When it comes to our classic hawker dishes, it’s often hard to ascertain their pioneers. If we’re talking about prawn noodles, however, The Old Stall Hokkien Street Famous Prawn Mee puts forth a pretty convincing claim to being the first-ever hae mee stall in Singapore.
There are currently two stalls that share this name. The one located in Chinatown’s Hong Lim Market & Food Centre is run by father Michael Tan, 70, while the other in Bukit Merah’s Alexandra Village Food Centre is helmed by son Stan Tan, 50. The duo are the third and fourth generation of a prawn noodle hawker lineage that are said to have introduced the dish to Hokkien Street crowds 80 years ago. They are the progeny of prawn mee as it originally was.
According to Michael and Stan, their family’s hawker legacy began in 1943. Soon after arriving from Jingmen, China, their ancestors opened the original prawn noodle stall along Hokkien Street, setting in motion the spread of the dish in Singapore. “Those days, it was hard to find job as an immigrant,” said Michael. “You could be a coolie, but my grandfather was very skinny, don’t have much strength to do manual labour. Back home in Jingmen, my grandfather already learned how to make prawn mee. So he decided to open a stall along Hokkien Street to earn money.” The stall was usually only open at night, with makeshift tables and no shelter from the rain. Most customers had to consume their noodles whilst standing. Despite these conditions, the stall became hugely popular, and soon enough there were other stalls in the area trying their hand at this exciting new dish. Thus, the old Hokkien Street became synonymous with prawn noodles.
Amoy Street Boon Kee Prawn Noodles Review: Famous Long Queue Prawn Mee In Queenstown
I don’t mind travelling for good food, but of course, there are certain spots in Singapore that I like to frequent more than others. And if a stall lauded by some as making the best prawn mee that you’ve never heard of moves into one of those spots, it’s no-brainer that I’m going to check it out. Case in point, Amoy Street Boon Kee Prawn Noodles has recently relocated to Mei Lin Market in Queenstown, which is one of my favourite places to get lunch.
Prior to moving to the sleepy Mei Lin estate, the stall was in an even more obscure location within the Keppel industrial port, claimed by fans to be a true hidden gem in Singapore. It seems that word of their skills has spread fast in their new home—there was a long queue leading back to the busy stall that persisted throughout the lunch hour.
The menu at Amoy Street Boon Kee Prawn Noodles is straightforward, offering only prawn mee with a small variety of different liao, including some unusual additions such as abalone and pigs tail. I’m more of a soupy prawn mee person, but I was told that the dry version here is a must-try due to the house-made chilli, so we got a dry, $4 portion of their original Prawn Noodle ($4/$5)
Best prawn noodles in Singapore
Prawn noodles is arguably one of the best noodle soup dishes you can get in Singapore. When done right, each portion is a labour of love. Hawkers have to source for fresh prawns, boil the stock for hours so it is enriched with the umami goodness from the prawn shells, make their sambal from scratch so it best complements their take on hae mee—the list goes on.
With so many prawn mee stalls in Singapore, we’re here to help you sift through the masses to find hae mee that’s top of the class. Here is our guide to the best prawn noodles in Singapore:
- 1. Zion Road Big Prawn Noodle
- 2. Beach Road Prawn Mee Eating House
- 3. Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee
- 4. River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House
- 5. Blanco Court Prawn Mee
- 6. Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles
- 7. Whitley Road Big Prawn Noodle
- 8. 545 Whampoa Prawn Noodles
- 9. Wen Wen Big Prawn Mee
- 10. Da Dong Prawn Noodles
- 11. Ebi Bar
- 12. East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle
- 13. Da Shi Jia
- 14. Ming’s Prawn Noodle
- 15. Loyang Way Big Prawn Noodles
- 16. Albert Street Prawn Noodles
- 17. Min Nan Prawn Noodles
- 18. One Prawn & Co
- 19. 58 Prawn Noodle and Minced Meat Noodle
- 20. Seng Huat / Cheng Fa Prawn and Fishball Noodles
- 21. Don Don Prawn Noodles
Chaoyang Prawn Noodle: Prawn Mee, Teochew Style
Prawn mee is traditionally a Hokkien dish. So, Chaoyang (Teochew) Prawn Mee might seem like a misnomer. But then again, we also have Teochew Meat Puff, which really is Fuchow Oyster Cakes made by Teochew man. In case you think we Teochews are the only ones usurping other dialect group’s dishes, the Hainanese are also doing the same with Hainan Hokkien Mee! I guess some hawkers just feel that they can put their own unqiue touch onto another dialect group’s dish to make it better!
The Teochew Ah Hia (big brother) behind our stall today is 56 year old John Chua who grew up helping his father sell Teochew kway teow soup. After the passing of his dad, he decided to switch to selling prawn mee and over the years have been adding his own unique twist the traditional prawn mee soup.
What makes his prawn mee unique in the prawn mee world is an extra caudron of simmering pig parts which you might expect to find at a kway chap stall. If you order the dry version, you will get to experience the marriage of Teochew and Hokkien flavours in the same bowl. The chilli that goes with the noodles might look fiery but it is actually more savoury and sweet than tongue searing hot, which suits me really well. On top of that, you will find pork tail, skin, soft bones, small intestines and deep fried pork fat! Have a mouthful of noodles and then wash it down with some prawn soup and you will agree with me that it is really a Hokkien-Teochew marriage made in heaven!
58 Prawn Mee: Old School Prawn Mee in Bedok
Here’s a really shiok prawn mee that has managed to evade many a listicle. I think part of the reason is that they are located in a semi-secluded neighbourhood coffeeshop and so its popularity is largely confined to fans within a certain radius.
They serve the old school type of prawn mee where the sweetness of the broth is extracted from pork bones which have been simmered overnight. Their pork lard is excellent and plays such a pivotal role in the overall flavour of the dish, especially if you opt for the dry version. They use medium sized sea prawns that are farmed in Thailand which have a natural sweetness to them. They are good but can’t be compared to the green tiger prawns used by Wah Kee.
The owner, Mr Goh, used to work for 58 Bak Chor Mee in his younger days which explains why his stall is named 58 Prawn Mee and why he also sells minced meat noodles. The pork ribs were sold out by the time I arrived but I was told they are really good too! We tried both the dry and soup versions. Both was good. Their chilli is not overly spicy and complements the pork lard and shallots perfectly to produce a umami bomb!
Blanco Court Prawn Noodles: Singapore’s Prawn Noodle Patriach
When Mr Lee Pi Duan arrived from Nan’an (Fujian Province) in 1928, he had no idea that one day his family will run a Prawn Noodle empire in Singapore. Ok, perhaps not an quite an empire, but the Lee family pretty much controls all the biggest prawn noodle restaurants in Singapore. I am quite sure anyone reading this blog would have eaten at Beach Road Prawn Noodles, Joo Chiat Prawn Mee or Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee or least heard of them before. When I last blogged about them, I mistakenly called these three stalls the “Prawn Mee Trinity”. How wrong I was. There are actually two more stalls which I haven’t blogged about and one of them is actually the original that spawned the other stalls! So today’s story is the prequel to the Prawn Mee Trilogy. I managed to find out the details when I met Mr Lee Seng Hoon, the eldest son of Mr Lee Pi Duan, who currently spends his time overseeing the operations at Blanco Court Prawn Mee.
The Prawn Mee empire had quite a shaky start in 1928. Mr Lee’s prawn noodles was pretty much a failure until he met a friend from Xiamen who taught him the recipe for prawn noodles. It then started to take off and by 1936, they moved to a coffeeshop opposite where Blanco Court once stood before it was transformed into the Raffles Hospital. Mr Lee Seng Hoon took over the stall in 1956 with the passing of his father and remained in the coffeeshop until 1978 when they moved to their present location at Beach Road.
The 1960’s saw the genesis of two familiar characteristics of our present day Prawn Noodles. Up till that time, Prawn Noodles have always been served in soup. However, Mr Lee recalls that there were some Tibetans living nearby at the time who requested dry noodles, similar to what they used to eat back home. So Mr Lee served them a dry version of the prawn noodle. Soon after, other customers also started asking for dry Prawn Noodles and so the dry version was born. After that, some customers from Penang started asking for dry chilli powder to be added to their noodles, and that was how our current day practice of sprinkling chilli powder on dry Prawn Noodles started. We know that this is a local innovation because in Xiamen, where Prawn Noodles originated from, the dish is always served in soup without the chilli powder.
Beach Road Prawn Mee: Order your Prawn Mee with no Tau Gay!
Well, this is the story. Beach Road Prawn Mee was the best Prawn Mee that I knew about before I started on my blogging adventure. But over the last 3 years, as I tasted the other famous prawn mees around, Beach Road Prawn Mee kept being pushed lower and lower down on my top ten list of prawn mees. They are, no doubt, the most famous prawn mee amongst the general public. But ask any of our makan kakis and most will tell you more than a handful of places where you can get a better bowl of prawn noodles.
My last few visits to Beach Road had left me a bit dissappointed. I found that the soup had lost its complexity and tasted like it had lost a few ingredients. Visually it is still very impressive, with huge jumbo prawns adorning the bowl, but it is more style over substance.
On this occasion, I was showing Penang Blogger, CK Lam around and we were at East Coast Road to eat at Geylang Lor 29 Hokkien Mee which I was confident is something that Singapore has that Penang cannot beat. With CK, it is always a competition to see which country’s food reign supreme. So since we were in the area, I decided to tell her about Singapore’s most famous Prawn Noodle with the caveat that there are still better ones around, so we should not use this as the Singaporean representative to fight with Penang’s excellent Hokkien Prawn noodles. Guaranteed to lose since the prawns in Penang are truly exceptional.
Jalan Sultan Prawn Mee: The Second member of the Prawn Mee Trinity
In my blog on the Joo Chiat Prawn Mee, I mentioned that the original Beach Road Prawn Mee had spawn 3 stalls all serving Prawn Mee of similar taste. This one is owned by one of the grandsons.
I have eaten at all three stalls and find that their soup version is better than the dry version. The soup in all three stalls have got that wonderful ooomph when you drink it. As with all prawn mees, the standard of the soup also really depends on luck. If you get your soup just before they refill it with fresh stock, you are bound to be in for that wonderful umami rush!
Unlike the Auntie’s stall at Joo Chiat, this stall gives you the option of ordering Jumbo King Prawns in order to satisfy your prawn craving. The Jumbo Prawn version I ordered cost $8 and the normal one starts from $4. The pork ribs here are big, tender and very shiok.
Joo Chiat Prawn Noodle: Member of the Prawn Mee Trinity
When you feel that you need to eat something really hot, soupy, savoury and yummy, a nice bowl of prawn noodle soup will satisfy that craving like nothing else can! And, just when I thought I had tasted the best prawn noodle soup, I chanced upon this unassuming little shop in Joo Chiat which was highly recommended by rict11 and highlander.
To be fair to the other stalls that I have blogged, I ate this half and hour before closing time and by that time, the soup was more concentrated, having had a whole morning worth of prawns enjoying their spa in the soup. Phwa! The first mouthful and I knew I had chanced upon a stall which I will be coming back again and again! The soup is simply marvellous. I can’t imagine prawn soup to be much better then this. (OK, I am still working my way through eslim’s list of prawn noodle stalls, so until then, this is the BEST).
The other really shiok thing about this prawn noodle is the Bak Kut (Pork Ribs). It is just tender enough to the bite without being too soft that it falls off the bone and the meat is really pang (savoury). The only complaint is that they don’t serve the nice long prime ribs, so there was more bones then meat. Next time I am tempted just to order pork ribs soup. The prawns here are fresh but they only offer the medium sized prawns. You can’t get the Giant King Prawns here, but then again you don’t need to pay the high prices as well.
In pursuit of the ultimate prawn mee!
Beach Road Prawn Mee: Order your Prawn Mee with no Tau Gay!
Jumbo Prawn Noodle $10
Beach Road Prawn Noodle House
370 East Coast Road
S428981 63457196
Prawn Noodles For Cooling-Off Day
Blanco Prawn Noodle House: Final Story of the Prawn Mee Dynasty
The ancient texts tell us: "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity" Psalm 133:1. How true! As I pen this next story, I can't help but contrast the success of the Blanco Court Prawn Mee empire with some of the other hawker stalls which are currently undergoing family squabbles over rights to the family brand name. It seems to me that it happens to Yong Tau Foo hawkers more than anyone else! Just take for instance the family splits of Ngee Fau Ampang Yong Tau Foo, Rong Xing Yong Tau Foo and more recently, Hup Chong Hakka Yong Tau Foo. Is there something about Yong Tau Foo that results in these sorts of problems, I wonder? Probably not, but you can easily see how a family united and working together can help expand a business and a brand name much more effectively than when they split!
I have already written about the other four stalls in the Blanco Court Prawn Mee empire and this is the last stall to be added to the blog. Blanco Prawn Mee is run by 2nd sister, Susan Lee, who tells me that this really is her retirement job now that the kids have all grown up. As such, their location in sleepy Jalan Kayu (during the day) is perfect for her and for those of us who want to eat this classic prawn mee soup in a less hectic environment. The prawn noodles here tastes very close to that of Beach Road Prawn Mee and Blanco Court Prawn Mee. They should be, since they not only share the same recipe, but also the same workflow and processes. In this respect, they are almost like three franchised stalls but with the very important fact that they are run by family members. This is very important as you need someone like Susan who grew up eating her grandfather's and then her father's prawn mee to know what it is supposed to taste like and to be able to sense that something has gone wrong before the customers find out.
If you are familiar with the prawn noodles in the two stalls I already mentioned, then you can appreciate what Blanco Prawn Mee would taste like. It really does taste like the type of prawn noodle soup I grew up eating except that perhaps the oiliness and saltiness has been toned down to suit the more health conscious modern generation. If you love to eat at Beach Road or Blanco Court Prawn Noodles but want to get away from the stressful environment, then this quieter place at Jalan Kayu is your best bet! It's the same successful formula paired with Ngor Hiang except that it is a little more laid back than the other two stalls.
