The Search for a Genuinely Great Plate of Hokkien Mee

Twenty years ago, my very first blog post was about Hokkien mee. So this month, as ieatishootipost turns 20, it is only fitting that I feature another plate of it.

Fried Hokkien mee is certainly trending at the moment. New stalls seem to pop up every month, and it is heartening to see new hawkers taking to the wok. But with so many stalls and so many opinions floating around, how do you actually filter out the really good ones from the ones that just make the news because they are new?

The tried and true method is to ask someone you trust, someone who actually goes around eating at every new stall that appears on social media. I happen to know a guy who is siao (crazy) Hokkien mee, let’s just call him The Golden Bear. So when I asked him to recommend some of his favourite Hokkien mee stalls, he pointed me to Ho Ji (何記) at Mayflower Food Centre.

Wet or Dry, Thick or Thin?

There are really two camps when it comes to Hokkien mee. One uses thick bee hoon, braised with plenty of stock until it turns out wet and saucy. The other uses thin bee hoon, fried until dry, letting the noodles soak up the stock instead of swimming in it. The legendary names frying the dry style include Nam Sing at Old Airport Road, and Hainan Hokkien Mee at Golden Mile Food Centre. Its not coincidence that their style of Hokkien Mee is similar since both can trace their origins to the OG Hokkien Mee stall! (History of Hokkien Mee)

Ho Ji’s...