Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Nothing speaks of familiarity like fishball noodles do— its simplicity, tastiness, and the all-star component of juicy fishballs hits the spot every single time. I’ve heard of Ng Kee Teochew Fishball Kuay Teow Mee for a long while, but I only made my journey down recently.
The old-school stall is at Taman Jurong Food Centre, a hawker centre that serves the industrial estate with lovely eats.
You might be thinking, what’s so great about their fishball noodles? Well, my experience here was something that I experienced for the first time and it was quite an eye-opener.
First things first, after finding my way to the West of Singapore, I arrived at my destination. You have to take the lift up and Ng Kee Teochew Fishball Kuay Teow Mee will appear on your left.
I’m not going to lie, at 9am in the morning, I was shocked to be greeted by the large crowd. A turn of my head and I realised that they were waiting in line for the fishball noodles that I had my eyes on as well!
So you might ask again, what queue am I referring to? It’s an invisible queue! All these people seated down are in line for their orders to be done, except, there’s no actual physical queue.
When I went to the front of the stall, the uncle at the front-of-house immediately gave me a heads up. “1 hour”, he said. That meant that it’ll be an hour of waiting time. Without writing down any details of my order, he went back to prepping other orders. How can he remember everything?
What I tried at Ng Kee Teochew Fishball Kuay Teow Mee
At the storefront, I announced my usual order of Fishball Noodles (S$5), medium sized. They only have 1 thing available at the store, as the header states: “Fishball kway teow mee“. Depending on whichever size you want, the Small, Medium and Large sizes will cost S$4/S$5/S$6 respectively.
Seated at the far corner that was quite hidden, I waited patiently. About 40 minutes later, the same uncle came over to pass me a saucer and a pair of chopsticks as a gesture of the commencement of my meal. I was pretty impressed… I thought I was expected to come back to the stall in an hour’s time, but the owner served me himself! For an elderly, he is really extremely agile.
Okay, there’s no time to waste, let’s get into the food review. I waited for about 45 minutes for my bowl, so it wasn’t exactly an hour’s wait. I think the owner preempts a longer expected time so that consumers won’t make a fuss about their noodles! Smart move.
I was quite delighted looking at the number of ingredients placed in my bowl. From first glance, I could see that there was a spectrum of components included. From shrimp to pork slices to pork liver… You even get a bowl of soup as well!
Going in for my first bite, I was delighted to discover that the fishballs were as juicy as I expected them to be. I started with a mouthful of noodles paired with its star component, and wow, it tasted like perfection! The noodles were not at all alkaline probably because they were tossed in lard oil and fish sauce, which eliminated any extreme metallic taste.
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My mee pok noodles of choice were also cooked al dente, rendering a yummy consistency to it. These were almost addictive, and I found myself going back for more.
In all honesty, we have to agree that Singaporeans belong to extreme ends. They are either super kiasu or super impatient. I believe the consumers of Ng Kee Teochew Fishball Kuay Teow Mee belong to the former, and now I know why. Good things will come to those who wait, and indeed, we are rewarded with an excellent bowl of fishball noodles.
Although the shrimps were small, it was overlooked by the variety of ingredients provided. Not to mention, they were very fresh as well.
A component I particularly enjoyed was the fish dumpling (her kiao). It is fish dumpling skin stuffed with minced pork and it was so delicious. Dip it in chilli for a kick of spice, but otherwise, it’s good on its own. The taste is sweet from the pork marinade and juices, so it bursts into your mouth once you bite into it. Unfortunately, there was only 1 of this.
Final thoughts
Maybe it’s their organisational skills, but the way they arrange their customers and how they operate is truly commendable. It’s much more systematic as compared to every other stall where consumers have to wait in line, standing for a long time. And that is probably why they have such a loyal fanbase. 2 hours later, even after I was done with my meal, there was still quite a number of people in “line”.
Now I know why the locals rave upon this. I totally get the hype over Ng Kee Teochew Fishball Kuay Teow Mee’s old-school fishball noodles.
Expected damage: S$4 – S$6 per pax
