Wanton Noodle @ Tiong Bahru

More than eight years ago, I have mentioned about Singapore losing our food culture, especially the hawker food culture. When I was a little boy, we would gather at my maternal grandmother's place each Sunday where grandma, my mum and her sisters would whipped out a storm especially for dinner at grandma's huge kitchen to feed the entire clan. Mum would continue to cook for us  the same recipe from grandma's time and add on to the list with her own. Nobody does that these days do they? So, it will die a natural death over time or in a generation or two.

Our street or hawker food is the same. I had the fortune of experiencing our hawker culture almost from ground zero and saw, tasted and lived through how they have evolved. As a result, every time I eat something my memory runs wild to the good old days and I try to recall when and where was the first time I ate that particular food. Street food have evolved and they will find their footing on every street around the world and in Singapore we moved them since long ago and housed them into hawker centres and others in coffee shops. 

Then they were managed and some functions were even outsourced creating layers as have been the outcry recently. When too much is outsourced, you lose control and overtime you know not how to do it anymore. Let's keep it to the straight and simple. Let hawkers sell whatever they want, open or close whenever they want and sell at whatever price they want. The market decides. As we get clever we become stupid. Use the KISS principle. Kiss It Simple, Stupid! 

This episode shows that we lack empathy or have lost the meaning of it. Firstly, leaders must have empathy and must know the ground. Humble beginnings are good but are nothing if you do not have humble middling or humble ending. There is no guarantee that people with humble beginning will remain humble to the end.  That is my point. So there will be leaders even with humble beginning that will lose touch and are no longer humble. Same for the hawkers. 

Do not complain if hawkers raise their price. It is not an easy life. Yes, some are making lots of money but not everyone is. Cooking in a small stall in  a heated area can get your body parts cooked. Do not begrudge them. If the entire hawker trade is destroyed, our economy will fail as you just can't be eating $15 ramen or or those upmarket food everyday even if you can afford it for these are our comfort food. I have every opportunity to eat anything and anywhere but you can't have fine-dining all the time. Bring me back to my old home which is where your comfort food is, your go to food simply because you grew up with it. Please get it right before it is too late then all the King's horses and all the King's men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Back to the real action of food. On that particular day I was in town and decided to visit Tiong Bahru for breakfast. I wanted Wanton Noodle. 

My memory went separate ways. When I first visited Tiong Bahru to eat at the old and original hawker Centre and when I first had Wanton Mee.

Firstly there is nothing to compare to the old single level market and hawker centre. Market on one side and hawker centre on the other side. In fact, there are food hawkers at the market side too just like Whampoa. Of course I remembered the famous "Tiong Bahru Lien Fa Shui Jing Bao" or crystal dumplings as you can see through the skin which is a sexy translucent, it has to be oily so the skin won't stick and its fillings are the original favourite which is vegetable well actually ''man kwang'' or turnip but when I was a young boy I love the "tau sar". I would never have known this food if not for my aunty who lived there. She was also the one who introduced me to Indian Rojak (I think it was from the Farrer Park one). She still live there. There were times when I was at Tiong Bahru in the past and I would buy some ''char kiak'' aka wooden clogs as mum loves them. "Tiong Bahru Lien Fa Shui Jing Bao" have relocated sometime ago to Alexandra Village. 

I could recall the ''lor mee'' and the " dry mee pok'' at the market side always with a long queue in the old days. There was also a very popular char siew/siew yoke stall. There were so many other nice food there I am no longer sure it they are all still around. It would have been great if they were all kept together but Singapore has a habit of changing everything for the better. I am not sure if it is the lack of land resources or a mighty habit of conversion. They will convert you regardless. If you gave them the North Sentinel Island, they will convert it into an airport. The inhabitants would be trained to be car park attendants and chase you with spears,  bows and arrows if you dare park along the beach.

Meanwhile, my very first time with that wanton noodle was innocent but flirtatious. I was a young boy and we would meet every weekend on either a Saturday or Sunday and sometimes Saturday till Sunday overnight stay at my maternal grandmother's place at Jalan Kemaman. I learnt of a wanton noodle just next to the neighbourhood provision shop in a little hut. The photo below is the exact place where the coffee shop now was the provision shop. 

I wrote a little about the place  few years ago (see below link).

https://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2013/10/memory-lane.html 

That was the first time I tried wanton noodle. It was authentic and completely Cantonese and it was really good though I did not totally enjoyed it the first time but it grew on you. I do not know what happened or where they are now, may be long gone like most  of our places and memory.  

So I came to this Tiong Bahru wanton noodle stall to relive the good old day. The days are still around, me and things are getting old but most are not really good. When I came there was already quite a queue. First thing I saw was that their ''premium cha shao sold out''. It was only morning. Unfortunately I missed it.

This guy certainly takes great pride in his work. He would be cooking noodles one moment and then he would let the woman take over and he would be busy with his meat preparation on a continuous basis.

He would hook up all the meat and unabashedly parade them by dipping them into a pot of seasoning, bathing them by using a ladle to pour caramelised syrup in full public display. No wonder everyone got tempted.

You get a glimpse of meat display only when you got closer.

A friend used to describe how he likes this wanton noodle but he did not like the lingzhi. I was thinking of the magic mushroom/fungus and was like since when wanton mee has lingzhi? He was actually referring to a gravy that they use to drench the noodle but his China got no powder. This wanton mee is authentic and very good. 

Growing up with this means my love story with the Cantonese and wanton noodles continue and will never end. We will grow fonder as with many other Singaporeans like me but wanton noodles have become wanton and evolved into various types including high end ones. It was not until I first visited Hong Kong that I realised that their soup version was as wondrous but soup for soup theirs is superior. Our culture evolves.

Ah! I remember the favourite fishball stall.

The fish balls and fish cakes are just as good but I am somewhat disappointed with the otah fish cake which is now hard and taste more like a factory produced thai fish cake.

Tiong Bahru was said to be one of the coolest place on the planet. How do you love this old back stair cases. The photo is the essence of it all. How much new and how much old.

Please do not remove all our memories. Not all that glitters is gold.