This video should be shown in social studies classes. The knowledge you gain from the HKM series is eye opening! I feel all singaporeans should be aware of this. This should be a PSA video for all singaporeans and even tourists to watch.
I did more than my part 😂 I had Hokkien mee almost every week after your videos, mostly at the places you went. Yes we should love and appreciate our hawkers!!
Mate, you are spot on with the effort and cost. Living in Sydney, I make this dish a few times in a year, and whenever I do, I am reminded of how hard it is to make this dish as amazing as the hawkers. IMO, I think bar chor mee is another endangered recipe. What seems like a very simple bowl of meat and noodles, is actually NOT easy.
"As a hawker dish, our society for the most part, thinks that it is not allowed to be expensive". This resonated with me. In times of inflation and raising costs, everyone is lamenting on how they should get a wage increase....but people forget that true blue hawkers are self employed. Many have tried to maintain prices similar, at the cost of their own pockets. It is bearable for the generations that are hawkers to pass off time/to have extra pocket money but not that sustainable for those who are trying to support their families. If we truly believe in preserving our hawker fares, we need to rethink what is the value of hawker food. We cannot think that $6 dollars is "cheap" for say, western spaghetti bolognese but say it is expensive for hokkien mee.
You are doing the good work - for those who are hunting for worthy places to eat, and those who are working hard to carry on the tradition of making these great food.
Thank you for this series. Can see that lots of effort and time is done to make this series. Keep up the good work! For future series, What about something non-Chinese like Nasi Lemak/Nasi Padang/Nasi Briyani? Regardless, it will be interesting to see your future food series in Singapore.
I did my part from 2007 to 2023, eating once or twice a week at the hokkien mee stall at ABC market. Best in SG IMO, but it still closed down eventually cos it was simply too popular until Uncle had to retire early 😢
I'm 7 months late to the party, but there was a bit of buzz about this place in Jalan Besar called "Enjoy Xia Hokkien Mee Kitchen" in Kam Leng Hotel which is the most inconspicuous oldie building. Tried it and absolutely loved it. It is the upscale Hokkien Mee that Singaporeans needed but didn't know about but it's location and advertising seem hit or miss so I'm just dropping this mention here since I want local foodies to know about it. But please go next week, I now have a craving for it 😆
I’m living in Perth and I make my version and it’s very good …. Tip is add msg.. Balacan .. Ikan bills… crush dry prawns … to enhance the taste if you can’t get enough prawn heads make sure prawn head is fried before adding to stock …… would have love it if all the series show how they fried the noodle too but I know some hawkers will not like it … anyway my verdict on your series 😂😂😂😂 1… I’ll watch some of it 2.. I’ll watch most of it 3 …I’ll watch all of it …. Drum rolls. … 3 .. I have watch all of it 👍👍👍👍
i did my part by not calling ahead and went to a closed "come daily", not once but twice.... at least i live nearby. Simon Road at kovan was more enjoyable as it was a much lesser waiting time.
Thanks for bringing this to consumer awareness. I am sharing it with as many people I can. It is a wake-up call to Singaporeans who insist on the “cheap but good” drivel. And those armchair food critics who whine and gripe ad nauseum.
Iam able to do a mean black carrot cake, laksa and bcm at home but i hv no confidence of doing hkm, purely for the same reason you encountered at the end of 5hrs. We lack knowledge of the types of prawn to use, and the type of yellow noodles we get from supermarket is different from the types hawkers get from their factories. However for the effort u get five ⭐️
Indeed, for most hawker dishes, once you have tried making them at least once, you'll then understand why it is really condescending to call a dish expensive just because the ingredients used seems cheaper than the price. Sure, you can make a passable version, but a really good one? >
HKM is a representative Singapore food, nothing else. The flavour is unique and cannot be easily replicated and mastered. e.g Come daily did try to pass the baton to his son but I immediately notice the totally different flavour, texture and taste from his father.
Well said and commented on the rising price of hawker. Good food ain’t cheap, and manpower labour is more often than not undervalued. Anyone who has had their hand in the kitchen will know that the cost of ingredients forms only part of the equation; the prep, cooking and clean up needs to be accounted for. But the biggest problem of Hokkian mee? Damn fattening sia. I love Hokkian mee, but can’t allow myself to wack it each week, let alone daily 😂😂😂
@@chkam3139 yupyup, I meant more like the surface area. when I overcrowded, a lot of noodles were just sitting in the middle not contacting the wok surface.
Agree with what you said mostly but Singapore was never really a fishing village la, unless you are referring to the Sang Nila Utama era. By the time Stamford Raffles came Singapore in 1819 is very much one of the busiest ports in the region already 😂
Unfortunately, I expect 2 to happen eventually. Been doing my part for Hokkien mee especially since Simon Road's is a reasonable option now in both distance and portion. But seriously, this isn't just true for hokkien mee, don't take your favourite food places for granted. If you do have a place where you really like the food (taste, price, etc), eat it as often as you can (within reason, of course), you never know when you'll lose the opportunity forever. Yam Mee Teochew Fishball Noodles from the same Kovan Food Center used to have my favourite chicken curry mee, they stopped selling it after the chicken crisis back then. There's another shop with good chicken curry mee there, but it's definitely not the same.
@@kennytan5055 Ah, too bad for me then. They're still better than my usual option in terms of quality, but I should try the other hokkien mee in Kovan Market to see how they compare.
You know what makes me mad about this? A large portion of people who complain that hokkien mee is too expensive are the same people who would pay $10-15 or maybe even $18 for some mid ass pasta by some western stall and not make a single noise
I think few extra tips that i tried that sort of works better. But seriously good attempt! Hokkien mee is truly hard to make! 1) Wok at home should be with hot wok cold oil to achieve abit of the wok hae taste. It is hard for home cook to achieve wok hei taste due to low btu of stove. What i see alot of home cook do with to achieve at least a bit of the taste is what they call 热锅冷油 2)would suggest to fry hae bee and ikan bilis with prawn head at the start to enhance the flavour and the milkiness of stock. 3) Bee hoon is to be stired without breaking. Usually i would stir with chopstick and spatula to prevent bee hoon from breaking which willl affect the texture. 4)could try to remove some of the ingredients and fry the noodles seperately cos overcrowding of wok is never good as well for pans. If you observe swee guan he have a few orange plate where he takes out to store some of the ingredients and noodles. He did it to prevent burning and over cooking due to the uncontrolled high heat of the wok. But at home due to low btu of stove, some of the ingredients can be removed or prevent putting too much ingredients in the wok. This would preserve the heat and achieve wok hei Of cos that is in theory. Would suggest to watch using blow torch at home to achieve it as suggested by made with lau youtube channel. Haven tried the blow torch method yet. But in conclusion really good attempt. Alot of prep work and skills required to cook a good hokkien mee but the never dying attitude to recreate the dish to a high tier standard is truly admirable
thank you! I haven't heard of the 热锅冷油 technique before, shall go look into that. the blow torch technique works, not a perfect substitution but I have had great results on fried rice.
Wah if all that ingredient you used isnt enough. Just what did the top tier hokkien mee use? Is it technique? Maybe high heat dry fry noodle in oil first then slowly ladle in soup to simmer like how risotto is cooked? Is it the proportions of the types of noodles? More rice noodle to soak the broth? Yellow noodle do get soggy easily. Maybe add yellow noodle at later stage? Is it hawker got the economy of scale so they can cook the broth in more prawns heads? Dont make sense le. The average prawns should be the same right? If they only use the prawns they serve. Is it more MSG? Got secret ingredients? All of the above? HMMM. Think the Swee Guan uncle will teach us?
Literally answered yourself 😅😅 I believe once you start cooking like that or try to replicate any commercial based dishes, one will understand the immense complexity of the process.
Makes me sad. As an Indonesian I always felt that Hokkien Mee is highly underrated by SG's locals. Anytime I see someone ask for SG food reccomendations, hokkien mee is usually never in the top 5 or even top 10 somehow. But it should be.
This video should be shown in social studies classes. The knowledge you gain from the HKM series is eye opening! I feel all singaporeans should be aware of this.
This should be a PSA video for all singaporeans and even tourists to watch.
Went to 4 different stalls while watching this series, really glad that there's variety and everyone can find a stall that is their cup of tea.
Nice vid idea! Really liked that you attempted cooking it urself, adds more credibility to your review!
Thank u for all your efforts man! Mad respect!
Haven't done my part; Will do so soon. Thank you for this series, Alderic!
You should borrow the technique from penang hae mee whereby they go an extra mile to blend the prawn shells, add back to the stock and sift kt
I did more than my part 😂 I had Hokkien mee almost every week after your videos, mostly at the places you went. Yes we should love and appreciate our hawkers!!
thank you for your service.
Really like the google sheet for char kway teow. is there one for hokkien mee as well?
keep up the good work!
Mate, you are spot on with the effort and cost. Living in Sydney, I make this dish a few times in a year, and whenever I do, I am reminded of how hard it is to make this dish as amazing as the hawkers. IMO, I think bar chor mee is another endangered recipe. What seems like a very simple bowl of meat and noodles, is actually NOT easy.
Agree. Can’t find bak Chor mee here in Sydney
How about carrot cake?
"As a hawker dish, our society for the most part, thinks that it is not allowed to be expensive". This resonated with me. In times of inflation and raising costs, everyone is lamenting on how they should get a wage increase....but people forget that true blue hawkers are self employed. Many have tried to maintain prices similar, at the cost of their own pockets. It is bearable for the generations that are hawkers to pass off time/to have extra pocket money but not that sustainable for those who are trying to support their families. If we truly believe in preserving our hawker fares, we need to rethink what is the value of hawker food. We cannot think that $6 dollars is "cheap" for say, western spaghetti bolognese but say it is expensive for hokkien mee.
thanks for the videos Alderic, great videos
You are doing the good work - for those who are hunting for worthy places to eat, and those who are working hard to carry on the tradition of making these great food.
Thank you for this series. Can see that lots of effort and time is done to make this series. Keep up the good work!
For future series, What about something non-Chinese like Nasi Lemak/Nasi Padang/Nasi Briyani?
Regardless, it will be interesting to see your future food series in Singapore.
I did my part from 2007 to 2023, eating once or twice a week at the hokkien mee stall at ABC market. Best in SG IMO, but it still closed down eventually cos it was simply too popular until Uncle had to retire early 😢
I regret that this series started shortly after he decided to close down.
I'm 7 months late to the party, but there was a bit of buzz about this place in Jalan Besar called "Enjoy Xia Hokkien Mee Kitchen" in Kam Leng Hotel which is the most inconspicuous oldie building. Tried it and absolutely loved it. It is the upscale Hokkien Mee that Singaporeans needed but didn't know about but it's location and advertising seem hit or miss so I'm just dropping this mention here since I want local foodies to know about it.
But please go next week, I now have a craving for it 😆
Hkm is art, what you are eating is not only the ingredients. It's skills.
i stay near swee guan have been eating it for at least 10 years. Thank you for picking it as your best hokkien mee =D
I did my part! Simon Road hokkien mee is just as good as I remember from my childhood. Can you do Char Kway Teow next?
This guy deserves more subscribers
Thanks for the series! I did my part, went to Swee Guan while I was visiting Singapore a few days ago. Cheers from Brunei :)
thank you for your service.
I’m living in Perth and I make my version and it’s very good …. Tip is add msg.. Balacan .. Ikan bills… crush dry prawns … to enhance the taste if you can’t get enough prawn heads make sure prawn head is fried before adding to stock …… would have love it if all the series show how they fried the noodle too but I know some hawkers will not like it … anyway my verdict on your series 😂😂😂😂 1… I’ll watch some of it 2.. I’ll watch most of it 3 …I’ll watch all of it …. Drum rolls. … 3 .. I have watch all of it 👍👍👍👍
Satay bee Hoon! It’s also one of the endangered hawker food nowadays
Orh lua for the next series! Hard to find a good one in sg nowadays
I did my part! Would love to see a BCM series. My favourite is the one under my block because I'm used to the taste.
thank you for your service.
i did my part by not calling ahead and went to a closed "come daily", not once but twice.... at least i live nearby. Simon Road at kovan was more enjoyable as it was a much lesser waiting time.
Thanks for driving awareness to the glorious complexity of this national treasure
Thanks for bringing this to consumer awareness. I am sharing it with as many people I can. It is a wake-up call to Singaporeans who insist on the “cheap but good” drivel. And those armchair food critics who whine and gripe ad nauseum.
Best Char Kway Tiao!!!
Yay I did my part! Hoping to see carrot cake/Laksa series next! :)
thank you for your service.
You should try fish n chips but those coffeeshop or hawker kind not the atas kind
I did my part! How about fishball noodles next?
Iam able to do a mean black carrot cake, laksa and bcm at home but i hv no confidence of doing hkm, purely for the same reason you encountered at the end of 5hrs. We lack knowledge of the types of prawn to use, and the type of yellow noodles we get from supermarket is different from the types hawkers get from their factories. However for the effort u get five ⭐️
Indeed, for most hawker dishes, once you have tried making them at least once, you'll then understand why it is really condescending to call a dish expensive just because the ingredients used seems cheaper than the price. Sure, you can make a passable version, but a really good one? >
HKM is a representative Singapore food, nothing else. The flavour is unique and cannot be easily replicated and mastered. e.g Come daily did try to pass the baton to his son but I immediately notice the totally different flavour, texture and taste from his father.
Pizza? Pasta? Or soups?
Well said and commented on the rising price of hawker.
Good food ain’t cheap, and manpower labour is more often than not undervalued. Anyone who has had their hand in the kitchen will know that the cost of ingredients forms only part of the equation; the prep, cooking and clean up needs to be accounted for.
But the biggest problem of Hokkian mee? Damn fattening sia. I love Hokkian mee, but can’t allow myself to wack it each week, let alone daily 😂😂😂
I have been going extra hard at the gym because of the hkm.
Too much noodles cramped in a smaller wok maybe had a steaming effect ，making the noodles mushier
yeah I overestimated my wok. grabbed a little bit from everything and it filled up so fast.
thank you so much, its so hard to find decent Hokkien mee that i just skip eating it for a long long time
until finally they open one in Fernvale CC
Rojak please
Chilli crab?
U got try the Margret drive one that's now in ghim moh market bo
Because of you, now my favourite hokkien mee have super long queue and to meet quantity of demand, quality will go downtrend
you're greatly overestimating my influence my guy. all these places were famous before me and are definitely more well-known than me.
Wanton Mee next!!
black kway teow ?
I did my part! Thanks for all the hkm recommendations.
How about char kway tiao next?
thank you for your service.
@Alderic. Yes Char Kway Teow would be great! But do workout after all these. Must be such a toll on your body. Thanks for the sacrifice!
Did my part for sure :) char kway tiao next please!
Do kopi next, please! Amazing stuff.
thanks for this, theres actually an FB group strictly about hkm Hokkien Mee Hunting
Good series. Thank you. Can you search for the best Mee Goreng.
what about dessert/pastry next?
I did my part patronizing Simon road hkm and youfu hkm. Nasi lemak or wanton mee next!
thank you for your service.
Did my part. Would like to see BBQ Stingray in the next series.
Char kway teow 🎉🎉
Char kway teow or prawn noodles for the next series?
If Hokkien Mee prices start to spike, we know who to look for.
looks good bro. do orh jian next. i did my part.
thank you for your service.
Amazing series haha. I did my part :)
thank you for your service.
laksa nexttttttt
how abt something simple.. kaya toast?
Roti prata next
I think the dry frying of the noodles (before stock is added) is not enough.
I think so too. that combined with the overcrowding meant that I didn't fry it at all.
@@Alderic. Dry frying the noodles hardens the surface of the noodles. This will slow down the absorption of the stock. Not really for the wok hey.
@@chkam3139 yupyup, I meant more like the surface area. when I overcrowded, a lot of noodles were just sitting in the middle not contacting the wok surface.
I did my part. Do Ramen / Singaporean style western food next.
Char Kway Teow, pls.
Chicken rice please!
Get some prawn mee soup to speed up and add more egg. It taste good.
Agree with what you said mostly but Singapore was never really a fishing village la, unless you are referring to the Sang Nila Utama era. By the time Stamford Raffles came Singapore in 1819 is very much one of the busiest ports in the region already 😂
yeah I think it was the wrong term. my dad worked in the port when he was younger and hokkien mee ingredients were abundant.
i love hokkien mee
I did my part many times. I am hokkien mee.
bak chor mee or nasi lemak next please
I did my part! :)
thank you for your service.
Unfortunately, I expect 2 to happen eventually. Been doing my part for Hokkien mee especially since Simon Road's is a reasonable option now in both distance and portion. But seriously, this isn't just true for hokkien mee, don't take your favourite food places for granted. If you do have a place where you really like the food (taste, price, etc), eat it as often as you can (within reason, of course), you never know when you'll lose the opportunity forever. Yam Mee Teochew Fishball Noodles from the same Kovan Food Center used to have my favourite chicken curry mee, they stopped selling it after the chicken crisis back then. There's another shop with good chicken curry mee there, but it's definitely not the same.
Sadly Simon Road hokkien mee isnt the same after shifting to the hawker centre next door.
@@kennytan5055 Ah, too bad for me then. They're still better than my usual option in terms of quality, but I should try the other hokkien mee in Kovan Market to see how they compare.
You know what makes me mad about this? A large portion of people who complain that hokkien mee is too expensive are the same people who would pay $10-15 or maybe even $18 for some mid ass pasta by some western stall and not make a single noise
Wow. A lot want Laksa
Orh Luak next 😂 time to clog those arteries.
Did my part. Eating hokkien mee 7 days in a row 😂
Do ba choir mee!!!
I think few extra tips that i tried that sort of works better. But seriously good attempt! Hokkien mee is truly hard to make!
1) Wok at home should be with hot wok cold oil to achieve abit of the wok hae taste. It is hard for home cook to achieve wok hei taste due to low btu of stove.
What i see alot of home cook do with to achieve at least a bit of the taste is what they call 热锅冷油
2)would suggest to fry hae bee and ikan bilis with prawn head at the start to enhance the flavour and the milkiness of stock.
3) Bee hoon is to be stired without breaking. Usually i would stir with chopstick and spatula to prevent bee hoon from breaking which willl affect the texture.
4)could try to remove some of the ingredients and fry the noodles seperately cos overcrowding of wok is never good as well for pans. If you observe swee guan he have a few orange plate where he takes out to store some of the ingredients and noodles. He did it to prevent burning and over cooking due to the uncontrolled high heat of the wok. But at home due to low btu of stove, some of the ingredients can be removed or prevent putting too much ingredients in the wok. This would preserve the heat and achieve wok hei
Of cos that is in theory. Would suggest to watch using blow torch at home to achieve it as suggested by made with lau youtube channel. Haven tried the blow torch method yet.
But in conclusion really good attempt. Alot of prep work and skills required to cook a good hokkien mee but the never dying attitude to recreate the dish to a high tier standard is truly admirable
thank you! I haven't heard of the 热锅冷油 technique before, shall go look into that. the blow torch technique works, not a perfect substitution but I have had great results on fried rice.
hoping for Laksa or Roast meats series next
I DID MY PART
thank you for your service.
Char kway teow
WOW FUTURE MASTER CHEF !
Might as well eat hawker food in Malaysia once the gen x are gone
I did my part ~
thank you for your service.
Wah if all that ingredient you used isnt enough. Just what did the top tier hokkien mee use?
Is it technique? Maybe high heat dry fry noodle in oil first then slowly ladle in soup to simmer like how risotto is cooked?
Is it the proportions of the types of noodles? More rice noodle to soak the broth? Yellow noodle do get soggy easily. Maybe add yellow noodle at later stage?
Is it hawker got the economy of scale so they can cook the broth in more prawns heads? Dont make sense le. The average prawns should be the same right? If they only use the prawns they serve.
Is it more MSG? Got secret ingredients?
All of the above? HMMM. Think the Swee Guan uncle will teach us?
Literally answered yourself 😅😅 I believe once you start cooking like that or try to replicate any commercial based dishes, one will understand the immense complexity of the process.
I think it might be all of the above hahaha. absolutely no way the swee guan uncle will teach, not getting scolded is already more than I can ask for.
Biryani next!
Try something more uncommon like hot sauce fish head, claypot rice
Was thinking along this line too but non mainstream food may not attract sufficient view counts
Week 3 of asking for char kway teow
Do Nasi Lemak series next
I hope to see you perfect the recipe....
maybe one day!
Bak chor mee series please!
He has done bak chor mee series!
Need more MSG
I don't think a recipe like hokkien mee where there are so many ingredients backing the flavor needs MSG.
Salted egg Chicken!
Makes me sad. As an Indonesian I always felt that Hokkien Mee is highly underrated by SG's locals. Anytime I see someone ask for SG food reccomendations, hokkien mee is usually never in the top 5 or even top 10 somehow. But it should be.
Biryani next?
bak chor mee please
Next? Chicken Rice?
He alr did this what
boring
Best old school pork cutlet in SG.
laksa next!
I do my part daily. Hence "Come Daily".
thank you for your service.