Damn Shiok Hong Ji Mian Shi Jia Wanton Mee @ Telok Blangah Drive Food Centre 鸿记面食家

Today, Daniel and Sylvia brought me to one of their favourite wanton mee stalls at Hong Ji Mian Shi Jia at Telok Blangah Drive Food Centre. Oh... I enjoyed the tenderly springy noodles with old school aromatic lardy spicy sauce.

I've not been to the popular Telok Blangah Drive Food Centre for more than 5 years. Tall buildings have sprouted up all around it, looming over the low single storey 1970s vintage hawker centre.

Daniel said there is always a queue at Hong Ji wanton mee. Daniel so kindly waited in line for about 30 minutes to get our wanton mee 😊

The mound of slender egg noodles set in a shallow pool of aromatic sesame oil, lard, chili sauce. Topped with char siew slices, stalks of leafy choy sum and sprinkle of chopped spring onion. In short, a traditional plate of wanton mee as I remember it from the 1960s.

Oh... that greasy pool of aromatic sesame oil, lard and chili sauce was so familiar, straight from my childhood.

Thin, light, generic egg noodles but expertly done to a tender springy crunch to the bite. Every strand was well coated with that aromatic, lardy, spicy sauce clinging to the noodles.

Delicious.

The char siew though not the chunky caramelised type was tasty - the meat was tender, moist and sweet.

Customers can help themselves to crispy lard as they please 😄

Hong Ji's pork bone and anchovy soup is nice with good body and depth of savoury sweet flavours.

The wantons were good sized and traditional type with minced pork seasoned with sesame oil and light soy sauce.

They also have sui kow (pork, prawn and water chestnut dumpling) which were big and tasty.

Daniel also wanted to get the braised chicken claws which he said are very good but they were already sold out by 10am 😂 If you have eaten Hong Ji's braised chicken claws before, please share your experience with us in the comments.

For kopi, I suggest stall #01-10, 70s Best Coffee 七十年代 (same row as Hong Ji). Nice good body, robust Robusta aroma and slight bitter balanced with a bit of sugar or milk.

Restaurant name: Hong Ji Mian Shi Jia 鸿记面食家Address: Stall #01-05, Block 79, Telok Blangah Food Centre, SingaporeNearest MRT station: Telok Blangah (Circle Line)Hours: 6:00am - 8:00pm (Fri off)