Back to Basics Wee's Prawn Mee @ Wee's Family Coffee Shop near Kaki Bukit MRT Station 🦐

In today's Singapore, prawn noodle is a popular dish but there seems to be an obsession with big, big, big. Big prawns, big umami kick, big portions. I love today's big, big, big style too but find going back to basics sometimes refreshing and just as satisfying. For a delicious, down-to-earth prawn mee, I go to Wee's Family Coffeeshop at block 117, Bedok Reservoir Road.

Boss Milton Wee's idea is simple. The popular zhi char shop uses a lot of prawns and crayfish every night. Being the sensible businessman that he is, Milton decided to use the shells and heads from the previous night to make and serve prawn mee for breakfast at Wee's Family Coffeeshop.

Three years and at least three editions on, today's Wee's prawn mee is the epitome of prawn mee simplicity but certainly not short on flavours and taste.

Made with prawn and crayfish shells and heads, the soup has a smooth round body and robust crustacean umami in layers. It's classy pure prawn soup simplicity without pork or seasoning - you can taste the difference with every mouthful.

No extra large, Del Monte banana size prawns but they were fresh - the flesh was tenderly crunchy, succulent and sweet, and that's enough for me.

Bak pok (lard croutons), lean pork slices, egg, beansprouts, kang kong and in-house fried shallots add their flavours and textures to the dish.

A mix of yellow noodles and skinny bee hoon is my usual choice - the rice vermicelli pick up the soup's umami flavours and I like the bite and taste of yellow noodles.Swee (nice).Eat it with cut chili in soy sauce or chili powder. These work well with the pure prawn soup but I used them only sparingly as I don't want anything to disturb the taste profile of the soup. They also have a savoury-salty-spicy sambal chili which I feel didn't really go well together with the soup. You should try it and see.

Get Wee's prawn roll to go with your prawn mee. It's a blend of fresh minced prawn and pork with carrot, scallion, and large bits of water chestnut rolled in tofu skin and deep fried to a golden brown crisp outside. It's well fried, so there was no slick on or inside the roll.

Nice savoury sweet flavours from the meats' succulent tenderness and juicy crunchy chestnut. Shiok.

Get also Wee's har cheong gai. Nice golden crisp outside and tender juicy flesh inside. It's the old school type which uses fresh chicken and so the savoury fermented prawn seasoning's intensity is moderate, leaving some room for us to enjoy the chicken's natural sweetness in the juicy meat.