Chronicles of MPT: Balestier Road

Here’s a place DC and I are divided on. Obviously I like it enough to blog about it. This is a strange sort of bak chor mee/Teochew mee pok tar hybrid. It’s got all pork balls, minced pork and dried sole, plus there’s seaweed in the soup. But it also has prawns and beansprouts, so it’s a bit of a confused dish.

Here’s why we’re divided: the pork balls are run of the mill and the soup is but a notch above the usual dishwater. The chilli sauce is decent but nothing memorable. What I really liked was that the meepok was very well done. It was done perfectly chewy, neither soggy nor underdone. Perfect. I also liked the mushroom and dried sole always hits the spot for me. Thumbs up in my book!

Noi’s Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle
Teck Seng Coffeeshop
588 Jalan Datoh off Balestier Road

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Chronicles of MPT: The One Next to Mustafa’s

DC, a man after my own stomach, had been looking up MPT places as he was concerned about the recent lack of Chronicles of MPT posts. He found this place at Verdun Road that supposedly used buah keluak as one of the magic ingredients in its chilli sauce. Of course we had to find the next opportunity to go!

The stall is nestled in a coffee shop just by Mustafa’s, that emporium of everything you need in this world (except MPT). We ordered a bowl each, DC being a purist for my blog’s sake ordered meepok, while I on advice from some reports went for the meekia.

Each bowl came with a generous topping of fish dumplings, pork mince, sliced pork, fishball and a piece of crisp dried sole. I liked the gluey fish dumplings and didn’t mind the fishball. DC didn’t like the fishball though, he felt that it tasted too mass-produced. He was also pretty unlucky because his pork was undercooked and noodles soggy. For the former, he simply pushed the offending pink pieces away, but for the latter he had no choice but to slurp up the  soft pap. Why? The chilli was heavenly. I think it’s by far the best MPT chilli I’ve had. It was smoky with deep earthy buah keluak flavour and had plenty of kick. Complemented by the crisp lard pieces and a splash of black vinegar, this combination is to die for. Do yourself a favour and order the meekia. Mine was perfect. The best in a long while.

Ah Hor Teochew Kway Teow Mee
12 Verdun Road