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2012-05-01
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Wan Chai is a wonderful place filled with interesting eateries and unique, uncommercialized restaurants. It's practically a lifeline for those who work at Admiralty! I asked one of my Singaporean colleagues for recommendations around Wan Chai and she recommended this shop. Thanks to her, this is yet another good find! I went there at 1:00 p.m. and there was already a small queue forming. Luckily, it's easy to get in if you're a lone wolf. I haven't had laksa for quite a while so I was a bit tem
I went there at 1:00 p.m. and there was already a small queue forming. Luckily, it's easy to get in if you're a lone wolf. I haven't had laksa for quite a while so I was a bit tempted by it. However, the name of the shop - "Prawn Noodle Shop" is quite an obvious hint , so I settled for the first item on the menu, the "Spicy Seafood Prawn Mee". (I think I chose medium spiciness, if there was such an option.)
It came after a 5 minutes wait and looked good:
I couldn't wait to try the soup immediately - Soup had a very addictive prawn taste. It's super "prawny", if there is such a word. Definitely one of the very few places I recall had such a nice and strong prawn taste! It's also a bit sweet, so I think the seafood broth consisted of not just prawns but a lot of squid and other shellfish too.
Contrary to the colour of the stock, it wasn't super spicy, again, if you are used to Korean food then you won't find any problems with it. On the other hand, if you can't handle spicy food - just don't order spicy food.
The spicy stock they used was completely different from "Tong Yum Kong". It appears to be made of garlic, a bit of dark and light soy sauce plus some herbs, possibly lemon grass. The chilli oil in the broth was similar to "Gwui Lin chilli sauce" but milder and less oily.
The red items at the left side were crab sticks. Quite a lot of crab sticks were provided (not to be confused with crab meat- which was wrongly stated on the menu - crab sticks are usually made of fish meat and some crab flavourings - you'll be paying triple the price if it's real crab meat). You might be interested to know that different brands of crab sticks have different compositions and very different tastes. Some had more "real" crab meat than others. Those provided here were quite nice and sweet.
The "Tung Choi" was an interesting surprise. It was fresh. Quite interesting with the spicy soup but the combination was a bit odd. Anyway, no complaints as the tung choi was quite fresh. According to Wiki, "Tung Choi" is also called "water morning glory", I wonder why.
There was also a piece of fish meat tofu (it's the white object on the right side of the prawn). That was quite different from the Shunde style and is probably Hokkein style. (Most Asian Hong Kongers originally came from Canton but most Asian Singaporeans originally came from Hokkein or Hakka, which affect the food culture forever). It tasted a bit like a fried fishball and was quite sweet. It's interesting.
Let's have a closer look at the prawn mee :
You could choose different types of noodles like glass noodles and possibly vermicelli (I didn't notice the options on the menu though, but the boss was asking me what type of noodles I'd like). Since oil noodle was the default option, that's what I chose. To my surprise, the noodles were very fresh and had a refreshing egg taste. I never realized that "Yau Mee" (Oil Noodle) could taste this fresh. It's not chewy but crisp. It's not too thick and was just the right size and texture. Most of the yau mee I've had was basically carbohydrates with a little bit of egg taste to fill one's stomach temporarily, e.g. like oil noodles I've tried in most "Chee Jai Min" stall or at Ocean Park). This was good. The only quibble I had was that it was not super filling. I became quite hungry at 3:00 p.m. (perhaps it's time for tea.)There were 4-5 baby squids inside the broth. Those were super fresh, crispy and delicious !! It really had a very aromatic squid taste. It's almost as if it had just been freshly caught from the sea and then served immediately! Definitely fresher than most squids which I had in Sai Kung or Lei Yu Moon, or believe it or not, sashimi. A shockingly good surprise indeed!
The mussel was quite big and fresh. It's about 5*3*1.5 cm! Because it's fresh, it had mussel taste. Not as sweet as the squid , but pretty close. Very nice.
The prawn itself, however, was nothing special. It's fresh but not particularly meaty. Probably it's essence had already gone into the broth.
A small bowl was provided together with your bowl of noodle probably for discarding the prawn shells and the mussel shell, which i used anyhow even if it's not meant for that purpose.
A noteworthy point was that the prawn had been cut in the middle before it was served, so customers could eat the prawn without too much trouble or soiling their hands. This is particularly important when you need to shake hands with people after lunch!
The noodle cost HK$54, which I find quite reasonable.
Environment: It was small but clean and well organized. Different from most noodle shops in Hong Kong, there were about 3 tables for 6 and quite a lot of counter seats facing the wall. This is good for those eating alone. You don't have to be odd one out at a table, listening to other peoples private conversations. They don't want you listening too. The other shop which got this design in Wan Chai is "Lo Baat 鹵八".
The restaurant was not too spacious but the seats were reasonably spaced apart. To be precise, you'll have about 30 inches space for you and your noodle.
The ceiling was very high for a shop like this which is very good for reducing noise in a crowded space. It also had a classic colonial style fan on the ceiling. The air-conditioning was just about sufficient.
Delivery available if the order is over HK$100 (?) but add HK$2 to each item you ordered. If you collect the items yourself, that extra HK$2 per item is waived. However, I think you'll need to pay HK$1 for the take away bowls.....etc. Furthermore, there were slogans posted around the restaurant inviting the customers to save resources (their resources), i.e. only ask for tea, water and condiments if you have to. Having said that, the waitress gave me a cup of tea without me asking for it - perhaps she's new to the shop. The male boss looked a bit serious but the female boss was quite friendly. All in all, no complaints about the service.
In conclusion:
The spicy prawn noodle live up to it's name. The noodles were good. The soup had a very sweet prawn taste. The prawn itself was not the main focus. On the other hand, the squids and mussel were very fresh and tasty.
Environment is much cleaner and organized than other shops of this size. Good for single diners.
I think this attention to detail (regarding the sliced prawns, bowl to contain the shells, seat arrangements), it's cleanliness, and "resource management" is very authentic Singaporean. I'm sure my Singaporean friends and colleagues won't object to that!
A place which I'll return for lunch once in a while.
Recommended.
總評:
星洲辣蝦麵: 非常甜的海鮮湯! 辣味與冬蔭截然不同。蒜，豉油，辣椒油為主。食慣韓國菜的話是沒有問題 (忘記了辣度有否選擇-如有的話，應選了中辣)。
配料方面：
- 魷魚仔超新鮮爽口! 像剛剛從海中"Chok"出來一樣! (注: Chok "擢" ,引，拔。 動詞 。與音樂及樣貌冇關。)
- 青口亦鮮甜。蟹柳居然有鮮甜味!
- 蝦反而冇特別。不過切開了一半，方便乾淨地進食。
- "腐角"應為福建食品? (香港較多廣州移民，而新加坡則較多福建移民。對飲食文化固然有影響。)有點似魚腐但較甜和紮實。幾特別。
- 還有點通菜。
- 油麵很新鮮。富有蛋香。比一般吃到的爽好多。唯一是有點“唔夠喉"。一兩小時後有點肚餓。
服務冇問題。要茶水好似要特別叫的。
地方整潔企理。單丁位源充足，不算太迫。都幾涼爽。
可以一試!
題外話/補充資料：
位於星街的"一碗麵"比 "蝦麵店"更重蝦味。但貴!
"Olala" 一碗麵 at Start Street is also very good. I've commented on Olala, a Michelin Bib recommendation. It's a completely different style, however, probably a Shanghainese style? The broth there was basically just prawns, prawns and nothing but prawns. It's orange. It's not spicy. Fans of super heavy prawn broth might like that too. However, Olala might have three times the prawns in their broth but the price was also three times the price at Prawn Noodle Shop!
On a completely different note, the new "Tsui Wah"翠華 at Wan Chai is also another blessing for those who work in Admiralty.
(以上食評乃用戶個人意見 , 並不代表OpenRice之觀點。)
張貼
