Best eats: Grandma’s ban mian and mian fen guo with grandson’s Italian twist in Bedok
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All-time eats: Grandma's ban mian and mian fen guo with grandson'southward Italian twist in Bedok
In this week's Makan Kakis, Gold 905 DJ Denise Tan meets noodle-makers who keep it all in the family, blending tradition with innovation at 456 Mian Fen Guo in New Upper Changi Route.
A basin of traditional dry mian fen guo ma with a scrap of Italian twist at 456 Mian Fen Guo. (Photograph: Arable Productions)
17 Sep 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 13 Jan 2022 04:59PM)
I never say no to a bowl of noodles, particularly one that comes with a story and characters as colourful equally its ingredients.
And then when my Makan Kaki Xin Hui Helder-Eng, from the foodie family behind Necktie Fun Wan and writer for Parched, recommended I check out this stall at a coffee store in New Upper Changi Route, I jumped at the take a chance.
Visiting 456 Mian Fen Guo was a fascinating and slightly intimidating matter. Two figures stood waiting for me. 1, a diminutive older lady with a piercing stare and the other, a younger gentleman covered in tattoos, who was in a hurry to get back to clearing up after a busy lunch crowd.
They are fourscore-twelvemonth-old Madam Lim Kwee Kee and her grandson, 28-year-onetime Dickson Ng. Together, they are the tag team of dough-making, the yin and yang of handmade noodles and the convergence of past, present and futurity.
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A three-generation operation, 456 Mian Fen Guo was started in 1991, serving bootleg noodles like ban mian and their namesake, mian fen guo (hand-torn noodles) based on recipes created by grandma Madam Lim.
Right after completing National Service in 2013, Dickson learned the ropes with his female parent until her passing two years ago. That's when he decided a total commitment to the family business was necessary – under the watchful eye of Grandma, of course. You could say things haven't changed much since he was a boy, growing up in the java store environment.
Madam Lim explained in Mandarin: "When he was in Primary One, I paid him Due south$one per day to be our bowl collector and washer. It taught him to work difficult and earn pocket money to go watch movies."
Now the tables have turned, with Dickson doing much of the heavy lifting. When she's non watching Television or playing mahjong, Grandma nonetheless comes in to assistance. Or equally Dickson put it, "to requite constructive criticism."
Once upon a fourth dimension, a lot of that criticism centred on the way Dickson chose to catapult her treasured recipes and methods into the 21st century.
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He gave Madam Lim's traditional Chinese noodles a Western twist, incorporating loftier-grade Italian pasta flour to the dough and turning it out with a paw-cranked pasta car.
He also decided to transform her time-honoured soup version of mian fen guo (mee hoon kueh) into a dry out version, which would be quicker to eat for the fourth dimension-crunched work crowds. Needless to say, he met with firm resistance from the steely matriarch of the family.
Merely he persevered and convinced her to let him try selling his creation alongside her original. Initially, nigh every customer stuck to Grandma's soupy version.
Dickson revealed: "At beginning, I sold only one or two bowls a mean solar day, just somewhen my Grandma saw the results."
Madam Lim'due south full approval came equally his thought began to grab on and these days, they sell almost equal numbers of soup and dry out versions – pre-COVID-xix, 300 bowls in total on weekdays and 400 bowls in total on weekends.
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The most of import cistron to Dickson'southward mian fen guo success has got to be their dough recipe, which he has tweaked and perfected with Grandma'south blessing.
They use a mix of tapioca flour and Italian pasta flour, a little egg for colour and water. "You have to treat your dough like pasta-making, Asian-style," explained Dickson, using a pasta machine to roll out their dough to the right consistency and thickness. Yous mian (thin noodles), ban mian (thick noodles) and mian fen guo are all made fresh this way at the stall daily.
Every bit for their star dish, Dickson'due south dry version, I could see that each flat, rustic piece of mian fen guo had been hand plucked, torn from a slice of flattened dough and tossed direct into boiling water for a quick al dente cook.
A S$4 bowl came with minced pork balls, soy-stewed shitake mushrooms, green vegetables and a runny egg, topped with deep-fried goodies like crispy shallots, garlic and ikan bilis. At the lesser of the bowl was bootleg onion oil and a special alloy of their soy-based sauce.
And finally on the side, red chilli slices in soya sauce as well every bit a homemade chilli sauce, which I poured direct into the bowl of mian fen guo. Tossed all together, this way of noodle gave the delicious dressing lots of real estate to cling to.
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As with all well-balanced dishes, this was a study in heady textures and flavours. The onion oil was fragrant and amplified the sweet crunch of the crispy shallot garnish. The special soy sauce was savoury and sugariness, fabricated rich and silky by the runny egg yolk.
The minced pork assurance were well-seasoned and meltingly moist, with a good meat-to-fat ratio. The stewed mushrooms brought another meaty, earthy dimension to the dish. The crispy fried garlic was oral fissure-wateringly fragrant, picking up on the garlic in the chilli sauce, which also had hints of ginger and zingy lime.
Finishing off each spoonful with deep-fried ikan bilis (anchovy) added a delightful crunch and umami striking that contrasted beautifully with the tender meatballs and chewy main fen guo.
If y'all prefer, at that place are also yi mian, mian xian (mee sua) and bee hoon (rice vermicelli) options, bachelor dry or in soup (Due south$three.50).
Speaking of which, their soup was definitely not an afterthought. Flavoured with ikan bilis and full of natural sweetness from corn and soya beans, information technology made for a wonderful palate cleanser in between bites of the dry mian fen guo.
For mian fen guo purists, give Dickson's tradition-breaking dry version a try – it was lick-the-bowl make clean skillful. But it's also a dish that's all-time eaten on the spot, considering the mian fen guo tin can get claggy if left for too long.
Yet, longevity in the family concern is what Dickson is aiming for. Keenly enlightened of his culinary legacy, he has a respect for the past ("this stall is older than me!") and an middle on the future.
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Together with his cousin who runs their Tampines co-operative, he hopes to see 456 Mian Fen Guo continue into the 4th generation. Dickson told me with a smile: "If my xiv-twelvemonth-old nephew decides to bring together us, nosotros tin all piece of work together equally i family."
Until and so, Dickson is holding downwardly the fort at the 29-yr-old stall. Each basin of noodles he makes is a delicious combination of tradition and innovation – palpable expression of his youthful free energy and dedication to Grandma's loftier standards, that still leaves room for a lilliputian of his ain improvisation.
456 Mian Fen Guo is located at 59 New Upper Changi Rd, Singapore 461059. It'south open from 9am to 3pm (airtight on Wednesdays and Thursdays).
Catch Makan Kakis with Denise Tan every Thursday from 11am on GOLD 905.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/best-local-food-singapore-ban-mian-mian-fen-guo-bedok-192021
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