Fried Hokkien Mee, Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, Blk 453.
It serves the best Hokkien mee I have ever tried in my life. It's absolutely delicious in it's lard soaked oil, cooked at once in a huge wok of noodles.
I love it because it's not too wet, it's just nicely gooey and moist. I always have it with extra lime chilli.
Their belachan is TO DIE FOR. It'll rocket you up to space and back.
I cry always, when eating it - my entire pack of noodles is not white or yellow - it's red. Of course....there's payback time in the loo later - if you know what I mean. If fire goes in...fire comes out.
This is the only thing this stall serves. It's run by a skinny man who dances while cooking it, and his serious looking wife. Once, I happened to tell the aunty how delicious her noodles are...the uncle heard me and turned around with such a big appreciative smile, saying "Thank You" repeatedly.
I even gushed about the noodles to a lady who was sitting next to me at the hawker centre. She told me she would bring her family down the next weekend.
But, I am NEVER EVER going to buy ANY MORE noodles from that stall ever again. It's a painful decision to take....and I wonder if I'm cutting my nose to spite my face. But I cannot stand the way they treat me.
The lady who packs the takeaways is INCREDIBLY RUDE to me.
She makes me feel like a kid, a pariah - and totally misunderstood.
Her sister (who replaced her at work for a while) is worst! In fact, I never bought anything from the stall after an incident. But yesterday, I happened to walk past and see that the "lesser of the 2 evil aunties" was back. So I went down today. Alas....it probably runs in their blood. Blame it on their upbringing?
I am not paying them to treat me like shit. Even if I can swallow my pride and anger (and I have let go many times) I can't swallow their noodles with satisfaction.
Their rudeness is such a killjoy - it ruins my dinner, it ruins my day.
What happened you wonder? It's so many things on so many occasions. But today was the last straw. This incident may seem trivial in comparison to my decision, because it's out of context to the other incidents. But I've had enough and I let them know it.
I approach the stall. There is a man standing in front of me, a lady on my left and a younger man on my right. The man in front of me is a stall assistant.
The lady on my left places an order and I hear it. The rude lady (who works there) doesn't look at me or notice my presence though I am 2 steps away from her. I turn to the guy on my right to check if he has ordered, so that I can proceed to place mine. He has.
So I call out very nicely, and sweetly "Auntie, could I please have..."
She cuts me off. She says 'Don't mind ah, but can you please queue up?"
I was not dumbfounded this time because this line is very familliar. She has used it on me many times - when there is no bloody queue. What does she define as a queue? There are people standing AROUND the stall waiting for their orders.
So I say "I am queueing up what. These people have already ordered and are waiting for their food." I turn to the lady and the man on my left and right and ask them if they have ordered. They answer "YES" loud enough for the lady to hear. She keeps quiet.
I stand there. Cheeks burning because I feel humiliated - AGAIN. Then I turn and walk off. I made my point. She embarrassed herself in front of her customers and lost a very appreciative one.
I feel kinda sad still. Misunderstood. I LOVED those noodles. But I just can't go back there and be treated like an outcast. There were times I wondered if she was being racist to me - but I hate having those thoughts. Maybe I look like a kid and she thinks she can talk to me condescendingly. Damn those braces. I even blamed it on just hawker centre standard - I mean, what do you expect, huh?
Sticking a hand in front of my face to shut me up from ordering before I can barely get a word out...
brashly telling me to queue up in front of other customers waiting AROUND the damn stall......and who are actually waiting for their orders.- she can take their orders but not mine.
not batting an eyelid or acknowledging my order when I give it....making me feel damn stupid and small,
and acting like she didn't hear me when I ask for extra chilli and lime - like hey if it costs so much more to give me extra, I am willing to pay for it, damnit.
So. I am truly grateful there is now a good service campaign for hawkers in Singapore. Am I expecting too much? I just want to be spoken to and treated like a decent human being. That's all. And I don't want to pay others to mistreat me. In any case, like I said, I can't eat their food happily anymore.PS : just to prove how much I love their noodles (I even dreamt of them!!), I am pasting a very old blog entry - dated August 3 2005.
The fine line between dreams and reality Dream:
"
I am walking home after running some personal errands. I stop in my tracks because I have finally found where that hokkien mee stall I love, that used to be near my home, has shifted to. I quickly order $5 worth of noodles (for myself - and it's a lot). The lady gives me my noodles and I ask her for chilli, a lot of it, and lime.She refuses. She says that is not done. I on the other hand, insist that there simply is no other way I can take my noodles. It's chilli, or no dinner. I then suggest she call the cook who made my noodles and ask her for permission to give me chilli. The cook relents and the woman hands me a huge pot....with just the bottom lined with chilli paste (very weird sense of proportion that one had!). I am pleased and I immediately start hailing taxis with much urgency so that I can get home as soon as possible to gobble up my beloved....fried... hokkien...mee...noodles."Thankfully, in reality, that stall still exists in my estate! It only sells those noodles at $3 per packet - and I think they earn more than me :-)
Mais, bien sur.....I was waiting for 15 minutes for my packet once, and there were 10 other people before me. Some bought more than 1 packet, and I think the stall easily made between 100-300 bucks in that hour. That's like a lot of money in a month.
See, I just need to find one thing that I am good at that people are willing to pay for and I could be rich....
Being airborne so early yesterday morning must have worked up a ferocious appetite because we were all so hungry by the time we were done. There was only 1 place to satiate the hunger and Dom drove us down.
We ordered butter chicken masala, sambal tahu, sambal eggs, garlic and butter naans, thosai, cauliflower with beans and carrots, cauliflower, chicken, egg curry and some mutton. I whacked the naan....because I was so hungry....and also because the food was solid.
Their masala tea is very nice. Very nice indeed. After eating up a storm, we chatted in the clean and comfortable surroundings of the restaurant. Second rounds of coffee were had. And here, you can see the 3 of us looking very satisfied indeed. Great experience flying about....great food to warm us....and great company....
Oh. By the way, i was fascinated by their wash sink...which is not a sink. It's like a flat piece of marble stone sliding downwards.....sort of like producing a waterfall effect - which you can't see cause it 's hidden by the wall. Also, I don't think you'd be pleased if it caused a waterfall effect on you.
