If you like bak chor mee, or minced pork noodles, you most likely would have heard of Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee. Founded in 1945, this stall at Bukit Batok is opened by the fourth son of the original founder.
Starting off with the Dry Minced Meat Noodle ($4), it came with a generous portion of ingredients. The mushrooms were thickly sliced and the dish was topped off with a good amount of minced meat as well as a big piece of dried sole fish, that added a nice crunch.
The noodles were springy, and I opted for chilli in my dish, which packed a good amount of heat. I felt that the dish could use more vinegar, as it was lacking the tangy kick that I’m used to with bak chor mee.
The stall owner mentioned that he reduced the amount of vinegar due to the preferences of the customers in the neighbourhood, but you could ask if you wanted more.
I wasn’t too big a fan of the Minced Meat Noodle (Soup) ($4) as the noodles weren’t as springy as they were in the dry version, probably from sitting too long in the soup.
The bits of preserved vegetable and dried sole fish added a bit of savoury crunch and made the soup more robust.
If you’re looking for something less filling, try the Dumpling Soup ($4), which was the lightest out of the three. The dish comes with a good amount of meat slices and dumplings. With everything in the dish being somewhat one-dimensional in texture, I thought that the dumpling filling could have used a crunch element.
All in all, I think there’s definitely potential for the bak chor mee, but it’s a little disappointing because I didn’t know that the amount of vinegar used was reduced. It would have helped if there was a sign indicating that we could request for more vinegar to be added.
Expected damage: $4 (small bowl) – $6 (big bowl)
