Tai Hwa Pork Noodle War

I grew up with Tai Hwa, from the heydays at North Bridge Road where queueing for the prized bowl of bak chor mee could last up to an hour and more to reasonably shorter queues these days. These days, the brand name has been over franchised all over sunny island with queues snaking all over.

mee kia

We made a beeline for it at Changi Airport's food court at the departure hall and even with a one woman show, there was at least a 10 minute wait from purchasing the meal cheat to paying and finally getting the noodles. I suppose it could be nostalgia running the stall rather than real quality when the taste test came. A sorry flicker of what it used to be.

Not too long after, the cravings for the real deal came too strong to resist and off we headed to the mothership stall of all Tai Hwa Pork Noodle stalls - at Lavender no less. I can only imagine lunch queues on weekdays when it was a lazy public holiday weekend and the wait was no less than 30 minutes.

sin

Sure enough, we had our fill of nearly every other item they had on offer. I like mine Mee Kia Dry and prized at $4, it is a steal with the fistfuls of minced pork and sliced pork that make it to the bowl of well concocted vinegared chilli noodle. Nothing can come between me and my bowl of noodle, yes, it tasted just like yesteryears though the vinegar was not quite well balanced across bowls.

dumplings

Mee pok.

meekia

Mee kia? I always get torn at the point of ordering for both.

soup

The seemingly unattractive soup noodle. 

slurp

The soup version definitely was downplayed in terms of spice but the hearty soup more than made up for it.

dumplings

I suppose fried flat fish made all the difference and broth boiled for hours definitely paid off. The wanton soup however was much of a letdown with too much skin and too little pork.

That being said, the point to prove is - the skills are still there but pick the outlet wisely. Prices start from $6 at the airport and $4 at the flagship. 

Changi Airport Terminal 1

Block 466 Crawford Lane #01-12

Comments

  1. I only visit the one at Lavendar. They have no other outlets!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @FoodieFC: hmm, so the rest are franchises??

    ReplyDelete

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