Lai Lai Handmade Noodle

(Tài trợ: https://baophuc.vn ) - A food visit to the Balestier area isn’t complete without a stop to whampoa market . Sometimes known as Whampoa Drive Food Centre, the huge complex is split into two blocks and a wet market, where you’ll be spoiled for choice by the variety of stalls. The “Morning Market” at Blk 91 serves the early birds, while Blk 90 next door only gets busy later in the day. But no matter the time of day you drop by, there’ll always be something open, even if it’s at 2am on a Sunday night (except when it's closed for cleaning, of course).

This guide focuses more on the hidden gems of Blk 90, where most of the stalls are open from late afternoon onwards, thus its other nickname as the “Night Market”.



The uncle at Lai Lai Handmade Noodle makes all the noodles himself by hand, and prides himself on his mee hoon kueh. Prices start at $4.50 for a variety of fish and seafood soups.

I add milk to the fried fish soup for an indulgent, creamy bowl of fish soup. I like my fish soup with milk and most fish soup places can’t get the amount right. However, the broth here was light and flavourful, and I liked how fresh it tasted thanks to the natural ingredients and vegetables. You can tell if MSG is used because you’ll start to feel thirsty after a few sips due to the salt used. No such problem here!



The portion of fried fish is also very generous. I counted at least five pieces of huge fish! The fish was fried in batter before being added to the soup, where it soaked in the broth for sweet bursts of flavour.

I would definitely make a trip back to Whampoa just for a bowl of this fish soup!

I also opted for a tom yum soup base for an additional $0.50 for my order of mee hoon kueh, which came with square slices of noodles swimming in a spicy broth. I was expecting soft, bouncy pieces of mee hoon kueh in irregular sizes, a handmade mee hoon kueh trait, but they were cut into uniform slices. The mee hoon kueh was slightly disappointing as pieces were clumped together, and had an overly chewy bite.



The tom yum soup broth is on the sour side with a slow, spicy burn, and comes with a beaten egg and minced meat. The fried ikan bilis remained crispy and golden brown event when mixed into the soup, giving salty bursts of flavour with every mouthful.