Tik poh(dried sole fish) is said to be a Teochew invention, and it’s no surprise that it’s mostly only found in Teochew dishes.

Have you wondered how it would be if a Hokkien Mee uses tik poh? I do look forward to the day when some Hokkien Mee sellers bother to throw in a few pieces of tik poh together with the noodles to perform the wok hei. Or if a chok(porridge) has plenty of findly grinded tik pohs sprinkled at the top. FWAH! I can imagine it to be very shiok!

So far, my favourite dumplings are still the Teochew types like her giao(fish dumpling) or bak giao(meat dumplings) which have that strong tik poh flavour. Other types of dumplings like wanton, sui gao or guo tie have never managed to do it like how the teochew version can for me.

So for those bak giaos aficionados, where do you go for a good bak giao(pork dumpling) or her giao(fish dumpling) fix?

Her giao is something we can easily get from the market so I don’t really care about getting to eat it from any stalls or not. But bak giao is different, you can only eat from a Bak Chor Mee stall and more so must be a Hokkien Bak Chor Mee, and more so, the famous ones have already called it a day as far Bak Giao is concerned.

Well not sure if I’m a suaku here but I don’t actually know of any Teochew Bak Chor Mee stalls serving bak giaos except one.

Bak Chor Mee Tah $3.50 ($1 for bak giaos)

Fu Yuan at Tampines Blk 201 is a typical Teochew Bak Chor Mee stall except that they excel at two things. Chilli sauce and bak giao. Well the noodles are just the noodles while the pork is just the pork. So it’s hard for me to tell you good this Bak Chor Mee really is because all pork and liver taste the same to me. One thing(or bad thing for some) for me is that I don’t take chinese mushrooms so it’s good that here, they don’t use braised mushrooms but some kind of special sauce for the noodles.

Bak Giao aka Pork Dumplings

The bak giao here is the main attraction for me. Unfortunately they don’t serve bak giaos for a normal bowl of Bak Chor Mee which is priced at $2.50. The bak giaos are served only in a bowl of bak giaos soup, with plenty of bak chor(minced pork, ter kwa(liver) and pork slices. The flavour of the soup is quite good especially with a few pieces of tik poh and laver thrown in. Not your usual tik pok flavoured bak chor mee soup here but the flavour is more towards ter kwa and bak chor. If you are not a soup person, you can request for bak giaos to be added to your noodles and you get something like 5-6 pieces( i think) for just $1 more.

I’m not going to lie to you and tell you this is the best bak chor mee but it is a different type with strong flavours of the pork and liver. So if you like livers or anything to do with pork, this will do very well for you. For me, I’m not a liver person so it is just a fantastic place for me to get my bak giao fix.

Bak Chor Mee Tah $3.50 ($1 for bak giaos)

Price: $2.50($1 more for bak giaos to be added), bak giao soup will cost $3 and you get more than 10 bak giaos.

Recommendation: Bak giaos and dry version kway teow tah with upsized chilli sauce! (If you like tik pok, ask for more too!)

Conclusion: A good Teochew Bak Chor Mee in my opinion. Different from others as the concentrated flavours are more towards pork and liver. Tik pohs are served generously on the noodles and in the soup. If you are a tik poh(as in whole piece to bite) person, this will score very well for you. And it won’t cost you more if you are to request for a few more pieces of tik poh in your bowl! This is the only Teochew Bak Chor Mee stall I know that serves bak giaos. So if you really like bak giaos, here is where you should go.

Likes: Bak giaos. Lots of tik poh pieces. Chilli sauce is power!

Dislikes: No bak giaos served for $2.50 version.

Address		Overall Rating
Fu Yuan Teochew Bak Chor Mee Coffeeshop at Blk 201C Tampines St 21 630am to 2pm Off: Thursday		Food: 8/10   Value: 7/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Service: 8/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7.5/10