Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Lately, I’ve been coming across hawkers who operate only in the wee hours of the morning – in order to sample their wares, I have to drag myself out of the warm comfort of my bed at 5am. I am once again sacrificing sleep for a taste of Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle, said to be one of the best handmade fishball stalls still remaining in Singapore.
Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle is located at 20 Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre, and the owner, Mr Wee Pong Sai, starts work as early as 2am to make all his fishballs and fishcakes from scratch.
Mr Wee isn’t the only one who runs a fishball noodle stall, either – his younger brother, David, runs Ru Ji Kitchen at Holland Drive. His nephew operates Thye Hong Fishball Noodle at Bukit Batok.
I arrived at the market slightly past 7am, and there was already a queue at least 5 people deep. It’s a one-man show, and the solo uncle handles everything from the food prep to payment. Understandably, the queue moves a little slower, but the general vibe was rather relaxed.
Despite his age, the stall owner moved with practised efficiency, even though he did get distracted at one point and mistakenly gave one customer soup noodles instead of dry ones.
What I tried at Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle
Thye Hong Handmade Fishball Noodle only sells Fishball Noodle (S$4/S$5/S$6) – you can choose whether you want soup or dry, and which noodle you’d like. I opted for the S$4 portion with mee pok, and a S$1 top-up of fishballs. All in all, I waited about 15 minutes in line for my food.
The presentation wasn’t the neatest, to say the least. I had stray strands of kway teow in my bowl from a previous order, and the noodles weren’t mixed like other stalls would tend to do.
I started to mix the noodles, which were surprisingly clumpy. That was usually not a good sign, in my experience. Once the chilli and lard were thoroughly distributed in the noodles, I took a bite. The chilli was incredibly savoury and full of lard deliciousness, but the texture of the noodles was terrible. They were quite sticky, mushy and overcooked. Truly a pity, because the chilli sauce was superb.
I suspect my noodles were overcooked as the stall owner was talking to a cleaner who had come to deliver clean bowls to his stall, and the noodles were left in longer than they should have been. I would have chalked it up to a fluke, but several Google reviews of Thye Hong also mention receiving overcooked noodles.
Putting aside the noodles, I turned to the star of the day – the handmade fishballs. They weren’t the prettiest ones around; each one was irregularly shaped, and the sizing was a little uneven. They were surprisingly soft and tender while retaining a springy bite, and the natural sweetness of the fish shone through well.
Chao Yang Fishball Noodle: 20-year-old stall with homemade fish dumplings from S$3.50
The fishcake was similarly cut up into irregular chunks and slices. Each one was also soft yet springy, but had a very sweet aftertaste that threw me off a little. They were much sweeter than the fishballs, almost unpleasantly so.
The clear soup didn’t seem like much either, but it was full of natural fish sweetness, no doubt from cooking all the fishballs and fishcakes. A bowl of kway teow with this comforting, delicious broth would have been bliss.
Final thoughts
Handmade fishcakes and fishballs are a true rarity in this day and age. It’s laborious and most hawkers simply outsource theirs, but nothing beats making them from scratch. Stalls like Mr Wee’s are a vanishing gem, and we should treasure them while they’re still around.
Expected damage: S$4 – S$6 per pax
