The Bak Chor Mee Challenge

To look for the best Bedok style Bak Chor Mee is the objective of this challenge.

This challenge, initially planned for an 8 parts series(for 8 Bak Chor Mee stalls) was extended with an additional of 4 more parts because of my discovery of 4 more stalls. The focus of this challenge is to compare the noodles(mee), soup, dumpings(bak giao) and the minced pork(bak chor), which are all essentials that can make or break a bowl of Bak Chor Mee.

The author had personally visited every stalls and tasted all of the Bak Chor Mees and his opinion is reflected in all the individual reviews and computed in ‘The Bak Chor Mee Challenge Data Table’ below.

Details of this analysis are computed and the importance of this challenge is also concluded.

Why this challenge?

Bedok style Bak Chor Mee has been around for almost 100 years but yet, it has not ventured further than Bedok. And it’s popularity is true as far residence of Bedok is concerned. You can eat food like Katong Laksa or Fei Fei Wanton Mee in many places nowadays but yet if you want to eat this style of Bak Chor Mee, you still have to travel to Bedok. If you are living in the western part of Singapore, coming all the way here to the east, wouldn’t you want to go to the Bak Chor Mee stall that will best suits your taste? Of course we know which is the original Bak Chor Mee stall but does being original means it’ll always be the best? Not when taste is all about subjectivity, agree?

Therefore this challenge will show you, the strength and weakness of Bak Chor Mee in every stalls and hopefully it can guide you to decide where to eat your Bak Chor Mee if ever the day comes when you find the need to come all the way to Bedok to have a bowl.

Conclusion

It is clear that dumplings aka bak giao is an integral part of the Bak Chor Mee but yet 3 stalls(which also happen to be the more popular ones) have stopped serving it. But with that, they still manage to pull the crowd, therefore it’s obvious that they are scoring points in other areas. For me, it’s all to do with a masterstroke of balance in the overall taste.

Bak Chor Mee in a particular market seems to have different taste from another market. At Blk 85, the taste seems to have a hint of sweetness while at Blk 58, it’s that tad saltier while those stalls outside of those 2 markets seem to have soup that’s more bland though pretty pleasant too.

All the stalls are serving breakfast and lunch except those stalls at Blk 85 which are serving the evening to midnight crowd. For some reasons, most of the stalls prefer to have their off days on a Wednesday or Thursday, so if you’re visiting, it’s wise to avoid the midweek.

Surprisingly, the only stall that has no relation to the Bak Chor Mee family stood out for me. At Soon Heng Minced Pork Noodles, the ingredients have a lot of flavour and are generously used. Coupled with the right balance in the overall taste, it scored the highest overall points.

The popular one is of course Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian which is famously known as the original stall though Seng Hiang Food Stall beside it can steal some business too. Ah Poh Meat Noodles in the same market seems to be picking up the odd customer only. It is located too deep in the market to be noticed I suppose though the taste of my bowl of Bak Chor Mee from them did suffered an identity crisis too.

The only one that I really dread going to is Tian Nan Xing Rou Cuo Mian at Bedok Blk 511. It’s not that they are bad, it’s just that their soup have a strong ikan bilis taste which is not exactly my favourite flavour. It can definitely do well for people who has an ikan bilis fetish.

3 stalls are operating outside of Bedok. An An Ruo Cuo Mian & Cai Shi Rou Cuo Mian in Tampines while You Nuo Shi Rou Cuo Mian is at Eunos. Not the best but good enough for a fix.

So there you have it everyone, if you are in Bedok area and care about eating the best Bak Chor Mee, then go to Soon Heng Minced Pork Noodles. They are head and shoulders above the rest and it was almost flawless for me. But they’re only open up to lunch. For evening and supper, Bedok Blk 85 is still the place to go and the original stall, Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian is recommended though the queue is long. If you care about shorter wait time, then go to Seng Hiang Food Stall, the difference is quite negligible and if there are any, is worthily offsetted by the time saved.

Some Quick Facts

The Bak Chor Mee Challenge Series

Part 1: 58 Minced Meat Mee (Bedok Blk 58)
Part 2: Li Fa Rou Cuo Mian (Bedok Blk 58)
Part 3: Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian (Bedok Blk 85)
Part 4: Seng Hiang Food Stall (Bedok Blk 85)
Part 5: Ah Poh Meat Noodles (Bedok Blk 85)
Part 6: Tian Nan Xing Rou Cuo Mian (Bedok Blk 511)
Part 7: Chai Chee Bak Chor Mee (Bedok Blk 216)
Part 8: Soon Heng Bak Chor Mee (Bedok Blk 538)
Part 9: Lao Cai Shi Rou Cuo Mian (Bedok Blk 18)
Part 10: Cai Shi Rou Cuo Mian (Tampines Blk 478)
Part 11: An An Rou Cuo Mian (Tampines Blk 823)
Part 12: You Nuo Shi Rou Cuo Mian (Eunos Blk 7)