You might be thinking to yourself, ‘not another review of another wanton mee stall’! And yes, you’re right—Belly Lucky Noodles 招财面 is indeed a wanton mee stall.
But this hawker noodle stall in Hong Lim Market & Food Centre serves up a different breed of wanton mee: the fusion kind.
Before the ‘Circuit Breaker’ period and the whole COVID-19 situation, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre used to be my regular haunt. This hawker centre houses the likes of Heng Kee Curry Chicken Noodles, Outram Park Fried Kway Teow and other hawker heavy-weights. So, it’s no surprise that I missed Belly Lucky Noodles on my usual trips there.
After chancing upon a few posts on social media, I decided to head down to find out what exactly makes this wanton mee stall so special.
Founded by Mr Luo, who left his full-time office job to toil over stoves, the ingredients you see here at Belly Lucky Noodles are all handmade. (Well, except the noodles.) Mr Luo decided to start a wanton mee stall because he felt that even though there are many such stalls around, most of them can’t get all the components right.
What’s admirable is that Mr Luo, in fact, doesn’t have a culinary background. Despite that, he harnessed grit, passion and technology—he has a machine to control the cooking of noodles and dumplings—in a bid to create the best version of wanton mee.
Ordering here is simple enough, since Belly Lucky Noodles only offers two dishes: Char Siew & Dumpling Noodles (S$5), and Dumpling Soup (S$3).
I ordered the Char Siew & Dumpling Noodles, since it’d give me the opportunity to try the char siew, dumplings, noodles and soup all in one dish.
Presentation-wise, the plate of noodles might not be the prettiest. But the size of the dumplings in the accompanying soup really impressed me.
Diving straight into the noodles, I found that it was soft and springy, but not overly mushy. What I really liked was that it didn’t have that off-putting alkaline taste.
You know how sometimes you get really bloated after slurping down a plate of wonton noodles, especially if it comes with mee kia (skinny yellow noodles)? It comes from lye water or alkaline salt, which is used to regulate the acidity during dough making, and to make the noodles taste chewier.
But here at Belly Lucky Noodles, the noodles were QQ and firm without the uncomfortable alkaline after-taste.
The star of the dish had to be the char siew. Glistening slices of fatty pork awaited me on the plate, vastly different from the usual lean char siew you’d find in other plates of wonton noodles.
Here at Belly Lucky Noodles, Mr Luo uses a premium cut of pork—known as Bu Jian Tian 不见天 (literally “no see sky” in English), this comes from the pig’s armpit. Since it’s a part that isn’t exercised much, there’s a good layer of fats like pork belly, but less overwhelmingly fatty.
You can be assured of freshness, because Mr Luo roasts the char siew daily. Pairing wonton noodles with such fatty char siew reminds me of ramen dishes, where the chashu usually has a layer of fats to complement the creamy mouthfeel of the pork bone broth.
Taking a bite of this fatty char siew, my mouth filled with buttery, greasy goodness. Well-marinated, sweet and savoury, I found that the char siew alone elevated this noodle dish beyond a simple plate of wonton noodles.
Some may still prefer their char siew to be leaner, though, for someone like me who loves a decent layer of fats, this was great. A minor gripe was that it didn’t have as much smoky flavour as I anticipated; a hint of smoke would go a long way in making this the perfect char siew.
Moving on to the soup, wonton noodles purists may scoff at the fact that Belly Lucky Noodles uses dumplings instead of wontons. But Mr Luo prefers dumplings because he can fill each dumpling up to the brim, giving diners a better ratio of filling to skin.
And fill them up he did. Each dumpling was bursting at the seams, stuffed with minced meat, diced prawns, water chestnuts and mushrooms. I really liked how the water chestnut bits gave a refreshing crunch to the dumplings, while the fresh, juicy prawns added that welcome hint of seafood sweetness.
Because the soup is made with miso, the flavour profile is a lot more complex—think earthy, savoury notes—yet was a lot lighter on the palate. You won’t feel your mouth drying out from too much salt, that’s for sure.
Belly Lucky Noodles certainly serves up a rather unusual plate of wonton noodles. A hidden gem indeed, especially if you’re a fan of fatty cuts of meat like me.
Expected Damage: S$5 per pax
Price: $
Our Rating: 4 / 5
Belly Lucky Noodles 招财面
Blk 531A Upper Cross Street, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre, #02-25, Singapore 051531
Belly Lucky Noodles 招财面
Blk 531A Upper Cross Street, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre, #02-25, Singapore 051531