Will you pay 2 or 3 times the market rate for really good quality food? I’m not talking about excellent ambience or restaurants with stunning contemporary design or immaculate service. The thing is sometime this kind of ‘extra’ things can’t save the day and only really good food can. However if you believe otherwise then I’m afraid to say in this post I’m going to talk about real delicious food and nothing more, and the fact is you’re still going to pay 2-3 times more than market rate.

Everyone knows that the most important thing in a hor fun is the wok hei.

Even the chef at the kopitiam whipping zhi char food knows, but yet not many places practice this style of cooking and instead would ‘dye’ their hor fun with black soy sauce. Of course you don’t need to be very clever to know that it is not easy to get the wok hei, other than more labour, you need the big fire and of course the right skill too.

So maybe because a plate of wok hei flavoured horfun is not something easily to be found, that’s why I treasure it a lot. I’m going to tell you about this place which serves really authentic wok hei hor fun, who moved a few times but yet still tracked by me every single time, who are charging $10 for a plate eventhough the market rate hor fun is still capped at $3 today. And the fact that they’re still in the business means that the niche they found in the horfun business is still in demand today.

My family has been keen patron of the ‘Changi Lorong 108 Fei Lao Seafood’ ever since I was very young. They used to be at Changi Lorong 108 and they moved a few places from there to somewhere in Bedok a few times and then to Joo Chiat and then now back to Bedok. When I was young, I didn’t know how to appreciate this and can’t tell the difference between this and others except that it is wrapped in some kind of strange looking leaf(opeh leaf). But as I grew up and eat more $3 hor fun from elsewhere, I began to see the justification to pay $10 for this. And mind you, Long Beach restaurant is still charging only $8 today.

Fortunately, for readers who think it’s hard to part $10 for a plate of hor fun, the good news is that there is something more special in this hor fun than the wok hei and opeh leaf. They throw in really good prawns and a few pieces of sea cucumber too! So there you go, you’re getting a bit of seafood worth for $10, you’re not just paying for the kway teow.

But however for me, the thing that really gets me drooling in this hor fun is really only the hor fun and you may ask, ‘How good’? Well it’s so good that I can imagine eating the horfun by itself.

When you’re eating a $3 hor fun, you’re technically eating hor fun cooked in starch water and maybe if they bother to throw in a couple of eggs, then you can call it ‘Wah Dan’. But in Fei Lao, you can tell that they don’t use just water or eggs but a kind of delicious broth to bath the absolutely tasty hor fun.

If you’re looking for a really good hor fun that can make you not only have an opinion but a prejudice against the $3 version, then go and try this special one. If a normal kopitiam one can satisfy you, then this one surely can exceed that satisfaction many times over.

Price: $10

Recommendation: Only the hor fun. I can’t vouch for anything else eventhough they’re a Cze Char stall.

Conclusion: The best hor fun in my opinion. Has that delicious smell where you can whack it all up and feel absolutely satisfied after. Pack in opeh leaf for takeaways or otherwise just on plate if sit in.

Likes: Plenty of Wok Hei.

Dislikes: Sauce not enough to go around at times.

Address		Overall Rating
Fei Lao Seafood Blk 86 #01-165 Bedok North St.4 11.00am – 2.00pm 5.00pm – 10.00pm Tel: 6346 4116 Off:Tuesday		Food: 9/10   Value: 8/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.75/10