Yat Woon Min     壹碗麵   (Closed)

Last time when I tried the runny egg in wine I forgot to order the Chinese radish in soup so this time I came back for it and ordered the egg as well.

After dining here two years ago I decided to try my luck again with the egg with runny centre with wine.

This small noodle shop is famous for their 撈粗 ..... which is quite tasty and unique. Their 蝴蝶腩 was a bit overcooked. But definitely cannot resist their 溏心蛋! Will sure come back!

Date and time of dining: 19th November 2010, evening

I had expected this place to be bustling with customers, but there were only two other people eating there when I arrived before 7pm.

蝴蝶腩撈粗

Truth be told, it wasn’t what it has been hyped up to be.

It was good, but not that great, and not really worth trying again.

The noodles were nice and chewy, but the soy sauce in which they were immersed wasn’t that tasty. I was looking forward to a stronger flavour. Worse, as it was richly dark brown in colour, it fools one into thinking that it would be very flavorsome and aromatic, resulting in the bland taste to be even more of a let down. And, there could have been more sesame and spring onions to help the overall taste and texture.

I had asked to ‘走油' but the lady claimed they don’t add oil. I guess this means they don’t add additional oil on top of the already slightly oily sauce.

The meat was more impressive. The fibrous parts, or the collagen, or whatever you call it, gave a great texture, and there was no excess globs of fat lurking in between.

The sa cha sauce on the table was not that tasty to me either, but this is just my own personal taste – I know many others love it.

On a better note:

溏心酒糟蛋

Refreshing. The chillness, alcohol, bounce of the egg white, runniness of the yolk, all mesh up into a ball of joy. It tasted even better after eating the noodles.

Been there a few times because I really like the taste of the sauce and the texture of the noodles. The first time I had the house special crispy fried pork belly, but didn't like the meat. It was tough to chew and didn't complement the noodles. Ever since then I always get the taiwanese minced beef on the paparadelle noodles - sooo yummy!

The downside is the sauce is really really oily, so there's always a little pool of oil at the bottom of the bowl.

The paparadelle comes with a bowl of clear pork (I assume) broth. Most times I've had it, was really tasty (non-MSG), but last time I had it, it was quite watery and sort of tasteless.

Anyway I will continue to frequent the restaurant because it is unique and a good value at $30-$35 per meal.

台式魯肉撈粗麵: the point is not pork stewed, but each rough surface texture is not as hard to imagine, but like the taste of eating bean curd sheet, pulled meat sauce and soy sauce, plus sesame scallion, taste very superior, green beans are very tasty!

素齋撈粗麵: as a vegetarian boyfriend and order, as the rough surface, only a little light coupled Suzhai taste a bit, but overall a very fresh taste and feel the sincerity of noodle shop owner.

We are party of three and ordered one 柚子豬軟骨撈麵 two 蝴蝶腩撈麵 and one dish of Cho Sum.

The Cho Sum came first with a tiny portion worth of 10 bucks , it wasn't that bad, the soy sauce actually was even nicer than the soy sauce that was mixed inside the noodles.

The taste of the 蝴蝶腩撈麵 was so boring, it has too much soy sauce seasoning, the noodle have the same soy sayce taste and the marinated 蝴蝶腩 also have the same taste of sauce, so I describe it as boring. The seasame that added inside the noddles taste nothing really distant as the sayce was over powering. The noodles was very hard to chew it make the tasting experience even boring. The resturant owner even suggested us to add to "Sa Cha Sayce" inside the noodles, come on, it was so heavy sayced already and suggest us to even add more sayce. I can't believe it. The 蝴蝶腩 was not very tender but not so bad.

I don't know about the 柚子豬軟骨撈麵 as my other friend also didn't say much about it on the noodles, all of our comments was too heavily sayced.

Not Recommended and don't even have a cup of free tea or water for us

Previously visited this place for the noodles, it was relatively new that time, so I didn’t realised they left out the French beans on my noodles until I saw the other reviews.
[previous review]
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2042517

I came back this time to try the egg with the runny centre, or sugar centred eggs as the Chinese call it.

It is good when places serve new items, it will make customers come back to try the new items, well I do anyway to try out the new things.

The egg was served in a bowl with about two spoons of wine sauce, the waitress told me to let it stand there for 2 minutes before eating it, as she said it came straight out of the fridge.
Before I started eating it, the chef also apologised that the eggs were over boiled so the centre wasn’t runny.

Usually the egg white is tasteless, but the egg white here was nice and flavoured, so the whole egg was fully flavoured.

The egg in wine sauce surprised me, I was expecting the wine to be like the drunken chicken type, which is watery, but the wine sauce here is slightly viscous with some chicken essence in it.
The wine taste wasn’t very alcoholic either, it didn’t leave the egg white tasting bitter.
The clarity of the wine sauce was slightly cloudy. The viscosity of the wine sauce is good at adhering to the egg giving it flavour.

Anyway, as the chef told me the egg was overdone, it didn’t ruin my expectations of a runny centre.

As I knew it was overdone I consumed the egg white first with the sauce, and left the egg yolk last.
The egg yolk itself already has a natrual flavour itself anyway, and it was slightly runny in the middle, so the texture was slightly sticky.

The wine sauce tasted exactly like 「女兒紅鳳爪」(chicken in wine sauce) served in Chinatown in the UK.
「女兒紅鳳爪」is a popular dish served at various restaurants in Britain’s Chinatown, but I can’t find it served anywhere in Hong Kong nor the US!

I looked with interest pictures posted by other reviewer and dropped by this place two times for different dishes. Nevertheless, I could only say it’s at best just so so and a nice change.

Dishes here reminded me of Taiwanese and Southeast Asian dishes I had over past years. The rice seemed to have a clear influence from Taiwan. The ‘fettuccine’ noodle (Mee Pok) are closer to noodles I had in Singapore and Bangkok but the sauce/cooking style is more toward Singapore’s Bak Chor Mee which was mostly laden with soy sauce, vinegar and chili (optional) but not tasty enough, ie a sort of localization of the dishes.

The stewed pork belly was soft but not flavorful I felt it’s more of an oily than savory meat dish. The only good thing I can say about ostrich meat was its tenderness. Though this meat tenderness seemed to be a theme of street food in Southeast Asia where it’s difficult to find high quality meat, there’s not much of the flavor in there either from the meat itself or the meat marinating Southeast Asian resort to boost the flavor of its meat.

The sauce, as I said earlier, seemed to be a localized version of what I had in Singapore, not bright enough to enliven the dish but more of a sauce to just moisten up the noodle. The homemade chili was way too mild to add any significant meaning to this peasant/homey dish. With this kind of 'moisten' sauce, we need the lift from the noodle. However, it has neither enough bite nor eggy to balance the dish.

Its French bean was cooked on the soft side; its pale green failed to contribution to the presentation of the dish. Its softness resulted in a lack of the power to ‘cut through’ a rather blandness and heaviness of its sauce. If you want to cook the vegetable this soft for this kind of overwhelmed but bland sauce, the vegetable should be cooked with more flavor in it. The soup was not sweet enough though the good thing is that I was told there’s no msg in it.

Every dish seemed to be ‘not there’ yet kinda thing. However, it wasn’t too bad for a change from a typical Cantonese dish in Hong Kong. The hospitality here was great both times I drop by. The place looks clean and comfortable to sit despite the size. I will definitely be back for more once in a while as a nice change but I wouldn’t suggest anybody to come across town for this noodle, kinda good if you are in the neighborhood.

Since I saw the good pictures of the noodles in sauce, I have been budding to come here.

However, the portions were very small, even with the extra vegetables we ordered, I still felt hungry.

I was expecting there would be some French beans on top of the noodles as shown on the OR pictures, but there was none.

Having said that, I really liked the egg based noodles here, they were wide and flat. Lacked elasticity as it was egg based. I love noodles in soy sauce especially when there is no pork oil involved. Had noodles with Ostrich meat and the pork belly, the pork belly was soft, and the ostrich meat tasted like beef, slightly chewy.
The whole dish reminded me of 涼拌簥麥麵 at 普洱(前名滇園) Tsuen Wan, except the sauce dosnt have vinegar, and there is more sauce to it, the portion at Tsuen Wan is much bigger.
It used to be located in Laichikok/Cheung Sha Wan before it moved to Tsuen Wan.
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=13271

The pork bone soup, tasted like chicken to me, and very strong in peppar.

As for the vegetables, it could have been cut better, it was just the whole thing cut in quarters, it needed the sauce to enhance the flavour, the homemade sauce was good too, not too spicy.

Noticed this shop opening a few months ago, yet can't recall whether it arrived before or after the Tofu Shop next door. Being a Pappardelle and Tagliatelle noodles freak, I came with high expectations.

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腩肉撈麵 -
This is the shops Signature Dish, with slow-braised pork belly in theory but not likely from the most fatty 5 layered belly part. (To be honest, I can't help but think these are probably stewed from left over 燒肉, their other signature noodles apart from Emu meat.) They're pretty lean except the skin, which suits me nowadays - unless I have spare cholesterol quota ! A bit harder than I had imagined, it was also fairly salty.

The Pappardelle like noodles lacked eggy or wheat's taste and also were quite thin - on the positive side, they had a chewy bite to them. Some Pork Rendered Oil was added on top of the Soy based mixture, which elevated it to another level!
SCORE: 3.8/5

齊撈飯 -
This was ordered by a family member and shared. Came with some ripped apart Dried Beancurds much like 烤芙, Fungus, Carrot, Cabbage, Bean Sprouts, Spring Onion, etc. This sounds healthy and the rice used were round Pearl Rice too believe it or not - cooked to perfection! A lot of heart from a small shop!

I think this was slightly too monotonously soy and sugary based in taste, so don't expect any sophistication or 南乳 influence but somehow, it might just do me if I feel like having vegetarian.
SCORE: 4.0/5

油菜 -
Surprisingly this came courtesy of the shop - adorned with a umami filled soy and conpoy based sauce on top of the Choy-Sam. It was also done quite well but a bit tiny.
SCORE: 4.5/5

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RECOMMENDABLE SHOP. Don't expect anything out of the ordinary but its a good everyday meal. I was actually slightly disappointed with their noodles and a 2nd visit months later confirmed the same. Yet - they show heart in their food and even their Chili Sauce is home-made (filled with tasty ingredients including anchovies especially).