Traditional Famous Prawn Mee: Value-For-Money S$4 Traditional Prawn Noodles With Long Queues At Hougang

As the saying goes, “the early bird catches the worm”.

In this case, the worm is Traditional Famous Prawn Mee at Food Loft @ 21 (Hougang Street 51), which operates from 8am – 2pm or till they’ve sold out.

If you’re not familiar with the Hougang area and are planning to head down to the stall, it can get confusing when you search on Google for the address. The stall is located at a coffee shop (Food Loft 21), right beside the Hougang Green Shopping Mall, and not within the mall.

During my trip down to Traditional Famous Prawn Mee stall, I noticed that there was a long queue forming at the stall, even before it hit lunch time.

Luckily, I was able to beat the queue by arriving at 11.30am, and managed to get my hands on their prawn noodles. To find out how the noodles captured the hearts (and stomachs) of these Hougang residents, I gave their Prawn Noodle Soup (S$4) and Prawn Noodles Dry (S$4) a try.

Nowadays, even hawker food can get quite expensive, so I was delighted when I realised that their regular bowl of prawn noodles soup only costs S$4. If you want extra noodles, you can opt for their S$4.50 bowl instead.

The bowl comes with a generous serving of yellow noodles, three prawns, sliced pork, fishcakes and beansprouts.

For me, soup is one of the most important components of a good bowl of prawn noodles. I prefer my broth rich and slightly spicy with that umami flavour.

I found the soup to be on the lighter side, but still decently flavourful — though I wished that it was slightly richer in taste.

Of course, some might prefer a lighter soup base, so I suppose that this soup would appeal to the general palate.

If you want the soup to have a lil’ spicy kick, feel free to add some chilli padi. After mixing the soup with the chilli, there was more heat and flavour to each sip.

I prefer yellow noodles for my prawn noodles, and I liked that the spicy broth added more flavour as I slurped the noodles.

For those who are lazy like me, you’ll be glad to know that the prawns come de-shelled. You can look forward to three decently-sized prawns to go with your bowl of noodles.

The prawns used were fresh with a natural sweetness, and did not have a fishy seafood scent.

The best way to enjoy all the different delicious ingredients at once? Have a spoonful of the prawns, noodles and soup together.

Overall, for S$4, I found it to be a pretty value-for-money bowl of prawn noodles. Though, I would have enjoyed it even more if their soup was richer.

Even though I don’t usually go for dry prawn noodles, I had to give this next variation a try.

I ordered the regular-sized Prawn Noodle Dry which was S$4, but similarly, you can go for the S$4.50 bowl for extra noodles.

The dry version comes with your usual prawn noodle soup ingredients but with a dash of sambal. There is also an accompanying bowl of soup.

If your spice tolerance is on the lower side like me, you can choose to mix just a tiny amount of the sambal with your noodles.

After giving the noodles a good toss with the sambal, they soaked up the chilli and became even sweeter and spicier. It reminded me of the popular Korean fire noodles, but in Singapore-style. I surprisingly found myself enjoying the bowl of dry prawn noodles, thanks to the sambal.

In contrast to the strong flavours of the spicy noodles, the light prawn broth was a refreshing relief to my taste buds.

After being coated with the sambal, the prawns, fishcakes and sliced pork absorbed the spice and each mouthful was full of spicy and sweet notes.

Overall, I enjoyed the bowl of dry prawn noodles more than I expected. This doesn’t mean I will stop going for the soup variation, but I wouldn’t mind having the dry option once in a while.

Even though I wouldn’t say that these were the best prawn noodles I’ve had (mostly due to my preference for a heavier broth), I enjoyed the soup and dry versions. If I was ever in the area and craved some affordable and belly-warming food, I would definitely patronise the store again.

If you live in Hougang and haven’t tried Traditional Famous Prawn Noodles yet, head down (early) and get yourself some S$4 value-for-money comfort food!

Expected Damage: S$4 – S$4.50 per pax