But you may ask, if that’s so, why aren’t people calling it a ‘Chai Chee Bak Chor Mee’ instead? Well, nobody may be calling it a Chai Chee Bak Chor Mee but at least one stall in Bedok is calling itself Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle.

Over at Bedok Blk 216 market, Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle has been around for many many years. When I asked how long, the lady serving me just said “Many years, hard to count.”. Upon questioning whether they have any relations with the rest of the stalls around Bedok, she said that the stall owner at Blk 58 is the cousin of her husband and she confims every stalls in Bedok are related in some ways except the stall at Bedok Blk 538. But she did mentioned that they have no direct connection with those stall owners at Bedok 85 though, so it’s more likely a case of long distant relatives or something along that line.

I had eaten at this stall in the past and wasn’t impressed, especially in the soup and bak chor(minced meat). This time, my bowl of Bak Chor Mee from this stall seems to hit a new low. I remember in the past, the soup in particular was really a let down because it had ‘flavour no enough’. This time the flavour of the soup was ok but the bak chor and dumplings(bak giao) let me down greatly. The bak chor not only has not much of a flavour, it came in huge lumps that sinked to the bottom of the soup, not really how I think a great bowl of Bak Chor Mee should be. It came with dumplings but the flavour was quite strange. The fillings tasted somewhat like Siu Mai with that sort of sweetness overkill. The noodles came with that similar QQness but can hardly make up for it though.

Bak Chor Mee

Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle’s Bak Chor Mee

Overall, my bowl of Bak Chor Mee from Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle was way off the mark. There was no queue at about lunch time and my bowl came just approximately 2 mins after I ordered. I also didn’t see any customers ordering at the stall right till the time I finished my Bak Chor Mee. It’s clear that Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle at Bedok Blk 216 has some work to do before they can attain the level of popularity that’s so zealous at other stalls.

Price: $2.50 onwards

Conclusion: Other stalls have beaten this stall for sure in many ways. Could be due to the lack of competition but to be fair, that market has a lot of good food so that might make it that little hard for them to excel. My bowl of Bak Chor Mee was a complete let down. This would be the last place I’d consider going for my Bak Chor Mee fix.

Likes: None.

Dislikes: Bak Chor not fine enough. Dumplings too sweet. Soup needs more flavour.

Address		Overall Rating
Chai Chee Minced Meat Noodle Blk 216 #01-64 Bedok North Street 1 630am to 2pm Off every Wed 5pm to 10pm everyday except Mon, Tue and Wed.( The son covering evening time)		Soup: 6/10   Noodles: 7/10   Bak Chor: 5/10   Dumplings: 6/10   Value: 7/10   Overall: 6.25/10

For food like Hk style French Toast, it makes absolute sense to pay $3.50 for it when you would need a lot of oil for the whole toast to be fried at home and then you have to crack your brain thinking how not to waste the oil afterwards.

Joo Chiat Chiap Kee’s Mee Pok Tah has been around for a long time in Bedok Blk 216 market. It is one of those stalls in the market that has super long queues during meal times and of course, like all stalls having long queues, there is a good reason. Chiap Kee do not believe in outsourcing their fishballs and so makes their own. A family run business since 1965(according to the signboard), not only their fishballs are fantastic, their chili is seriously good too. There is a lot of sambal taste in it and it can create this super delicious ‘chopstick’ licking good effect when mixed with all other ingredients(pork lards, onions etc) in your bowl of Mee Pok Tah.

Clearly this is one of those stalls that still prefers to stand out from the crowd by delivering authentic food. The fishballs here are small in size though big in flavour. It is full of that fresh fish taste and does not possess that ‘factory’ spongy texture. I am not a big fan of fishballs so I got them to change to meatballs and her giaos(fish dumpling) instead and it came in something like 5 meatballs and 5 her giao in the soup. I don’t know about you but for $2.50 I’ll grab that anytime!

Kuay Teow Tah Geh Hiam $4

Pure meatballs and her giao

Price: $2.50 onwards

Recommendation: Kuay Teow Tah

Conclusion: The special thing here is their non ‘factory’ made fishballs. Meat balls and Her Giaos to go too for $2.50 is an extremely good deal there. But the chili is power too so personally for me, it takes a lot to beat this stall interms of value. Go for pure meatballs or her giao version and I’m sure you’ll be left wondering why are they not charging you $4 for it!

Likes: Fishball is good. Not stingy with ‘liao’(ingredients) and of course the power chili!

Dislikes: Would be good if the soup can be that bit more ‘pang’. Maybe a bit of minced pork in it can do the trick!

Address		Overall Rating
Joo Chiat Chiap Kee Bedok North Blk 216 Hawker Centre #01-31 Closed on Wednesdays		Food: 8/10   Value: 9/10   Service: 7/10   Ambience: 7/10   Cleanliness: 7/10   Overall: 7/10