Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Of the plethora of noodle dishes available in Singapore’s hawker centres, ban mian is one of my favourites. With its thick, filling noodles and mild yet satisfying soup, ban mian is the perfect dish to savour on a cold rainy day. As such, I decided to pay a visit to Qiu Rong Ban Mian to enjoy some good old-fashioned noodles.
Qiu Rong Ban Mian is located at the back of Old Airport Road Hawker Centre. Its ban mian dishes are made with handmade noodles, and the stall also has various seafood, bee hoon, mee suah and soup dishes.
After selecting our dishes, my dining companion and I settled down to try Qiu Rong Ban Mian’s offerings.
What I tried at Qiu Rong Ban Mian
We started off with Qiu Rong Ban Mian’s You Mian (S$4), which was served with handmade noodles, soup, minced meat, an egg, vegetables, ikan bilis and fried shallots.
For only S$4, I was quite impressed with the serving size of the You Mian.
My favourite element of the You Mian was undoubtedly the noodles. They were chewy yet soft and springy, and I easily slurped up every last strand.
The soup was also a delight as it was mild yet flavourful and comforting. Like the noodles, I could easily finish every drop of the soup, and I appreciated that it wasn’t overly salty either.
The bits of minced meat within the You Mian were soft and tender, soaking up the flavours of the soup nicely. They weren’t exceptionally amazing, but they added to the comforting factor of the dish.
I really enjoyed Qiu Rong Ban Mian’s take on You Mian, but I’ll admit that the egg aspect of the dish was pretty disappointing as I could barely taste it due to it being mixed in with the other elements. The yolk was also practically non-existent, which differed from the display picture on the storefront.
Overall, the You Mian was well worth the S$4 price, and although I wouldn’t come down specially for this bowl, I would likely try it again if I were in the area.
Next, we tried a dish that I had never heard of before: Chicken Mee Suah in Red Wine (S$5). When the dish was served to us, I was taken aback by the incredibly vibrant red colour donned by both the soup and the chicken pieces. The concept of putting red wine in a noodle dish was new to me, so I was instantly fascinated.
I first tried the intriguing blood-red soup, which had a unique flavour that I had never tasted before. It had a slight vinegar-like taste and a tiny hint of bitterness, very much reminiscent of wine. I’ll admit that I’m not much of a wine drinker, so I wasn’t too into the taste of this soup, but my dining companion, who had tried red wine mee suah before, really enjoyed this.
Like regular mee suah, the Chicken Mee Suah in Red Wine came with smooth, thin and slippery noodles that were slightly sticky yet incredibly satisfying to slurp down. The noodles had been dyed red by the soup, and had absorbed the vinegar-like taste.
The chicken was easily the most impressive element of both dishes I tried at Qiu Rong Ban Mian. I was surprised by the big portions of chopped chicken chunks served in the Chicken Mee Suah in Red Wine. The chicken meat was tender and easy to pull away from the bones, and the generosity of the number of chicken chunks was incredible.
Although I wasn’t a very big fan of the red wine aspect of the dish, I would consider getting this again just because of the chicken.
Final thoughts
Qiu Rong Ban Mian’s dishes weren’t mind-blowing by any means, but they served their purpose in providing a quick and comforting soupy meal. I wouldn’t travel down especially to patronise them again, but they’ve certainly left an impression on me, and with their reasonable prices, I may revisit them if I were to be in the Old Airport Road area.
Expected damage: S$4 – S$6 per pax
