Lai Hin Fish Ball Kway Teow Mee *potential favourite*

Lai Hin Fish Ball Kway Teow Mee
#02-11
Bukit Merah Central Food Centre
Blk 163 Bukit Merah Road
S(150163)
- Fish ball noodles

I was super looking forward to review this stall! Why? Because I tried it before I thought of reviewing the whole food centre, and I really really really really liked it!

I reviewed 2 other fish ball noodles stalls prior to re-trying this again, and I have mentioned before the stalls that I like, so I'm not gonna re-mention those again.

But this stall is definitely a potential favourite!! I was really glad to have found this stall!

I think the stall owner either has superbly dry skin or may have some skin conditions; her skin was a little flaking.  But I have no issues with that.  In fact, the successor of my favourite satay bee hoon stall has some skin problems too if i recall correctly.

Oh, the first time I visited this stall was about 11.30am.  I think they just opened, I was 2nd in queue, but I was not the 2nd to be served.  Why?  Because apparently, there were like 6 people who were queuing even before this stall opened!!  That really made me curious about it.  And boy, I wasn't disappointed!!!

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Yes, from the picture, because of the minced meat, you might mistaken it as bak chor mee.  But no.  It is fishball noodles.  And it tastes like the type that I love.

If my food is served with soup, I do have a habit of tasting the soup first before eating the dish.

So, the soup for this is great!  It was super tasty!  A little oily for my liking, but I'm not complaining!  There were bits of fried onion in the soup too!  Nice!!

Traditionally, fishball noodles were served with the sauce below the noodles, and you have to flip/mix the noodles yourself.  I don't remember who or when it started where the cook will help you flip/mix the noodles with the sauce, but regardless, I still do it myself.  Not only to create a more even mix, but also to separate the noodles.

And for this stall, the vinegar smell rose up when I was flipping the noodles.  And was it fragrant!!  Ok, I do detest stalls that have excessive vinegar, but this was ok!

The mee kia was excellent too!!  Dry and cooked well!!  So much so that it even reminded me of the Joo Seng Fish ball noodles that I grew up eating!

The chilli wasn't that spicy, and was good.  So goes for the minced meat.  That I thought I could even enjoy a bowl of minced meat on its own!

The fish ravioli even tasted similar to the one at joo seng!!!  I always thought the one at joo seng was hand made though, so for all I know, both might be getting from the same supplier haha!

Finally, the only disappointing part about this meal was that I felt that the fishball was a little bland.  Not tasty enough.

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Overall, this stall is definitely a potential favourite.  I would highly recommend this to people who love fish ball noodles!!

And if my favourite stalls start retiring one by one, this might well become my favourite fish ball noodles stall!!

Lim Kee *not bad* EDITED

Lim Kee
Bukit Merah Food Centre
Blk 163 Bukit Merah Road S(150163)
#02-49
- fried carrot cake (white)
- fried carrot cake (black)
- chwee kuey
- soon kuey
- Char kway teow

- I think this stall closes after lunch time.

Long time ago, I had a conversation regarding fried carrot cake with my father.  I don't exactly remember how and what, but I remember back then (and it was a long..long...time ago), I preferred the black version while my dad preferred the white.  And I do vaguely remember why the conversation begun was because we had a plate of chai tou kway that looked like the black version yet tasted a little salty.

And it was then I concluded that IMO, black chai tao kway should be sweet, and white chai tao kway should be salty.

Fast forward years to now, I'm a convert.  Given a choice, I'd choose the white one any day.  Having said that, I guess I can partly blame the Bukit Timah Chai Tao Kway for popularising the white version .  Plus its really quite hard to find a good black version.

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So, Lim Kee Chai Tao Kway.  Touted as 10 best Chai Tao Kway, as displayed by some certificate at the stall.

The moment I saw it I was impressed.  It totally differed from the contemporary chai tao kway!  Contemporary chai tao kway somehow is cooked like omelette style, where its chopped kway fried with stirred eggs into big chunks.

But this isn't!!!  And I thought this is how chai tao kway should traditionally look like!!! Win!

Take a closer look!  Win!

I like the taste.  It just feels traditional.

For the first time too, I could really taste how the carrot cake felt like.  But then again I rarely attempt to take note of the taste LOL.  And *disclaimer* I meant I could really taste how the white chunks of carrot cake tasted like.  Not how the whole plate tasted like.  Argh I'm not making sense, am I?

The cake tasted nice, it felt a little tough and wasn't soggy.  Full of flavour that is!

The overall combination was just good.  I have no idea what the green vegetables used was, but I felt that it blended well!  Probably that was why I thought it felt traditional!

As I said, this wasn't the contemporary type, where it was omelette style and where the egg was fried till crispy.

My first bite, I first tasted the chilli, which wasn't too spicy.  Then the fried egg.  Then the texture of the egg.  Then the chye poh that was used.  And finally, the flavour of the cake.

With a tinge of after taste making you crave for more.

Personally, I've never really liked to eat the cake chunks without the eggs.  But for this, I was actually looking forward to consuming the cake chunks alone.  Just so I can get to experience the taste again!

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Overall, I'd say this would be a potential favourite for the white version.

Not only because of the fact that it was more traditional, but also the overall taste.

I'll definitely try the black version soon!



*edited.  I have downgraded this stall to an overall *not bad*.

Click here for the reason why I downgraded it.