Hawker who lost $2M opens prawn mee store with handmade “Haidilao-quality” prawn paste
After losing S$2 million in a fishball factory in Jakarta, a standalone ba kut teh stall and a yong tau foo hawker chain, Michael Ho, 49, may finally have found his calling. He is opening his first prawn mee store (with a pork-centric menu) at Sixth Avenue, aptly called Sixth Avenue Porky Prawn Noodle.
Starting the (fish)ball rolling since 2005, his ever-growing list of F&B businesses does not end here.
Michael is also the man behind the famed Hosay Mee Pok that has affordable seafood mee pok and Horiginal Beef Noodle that offers both Teochew and Hainanese-style beef noodles. While the first has already ceased operations, he has suffered a 6-digit loss from the latter.
Why? Opened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the beef noodle chain was struggling to balance food costs, stall maintenance, and labour expenses. “It was lockdown on the third day of operations…I suffered very badly,” said Michael with a sigh.
Previously having up to 12 outlets dotted around Singapore, Horiginal Beef Noodle is now left with 4 outlets at Bukit Batok, Hougang, Telok Blangah and Woodlands. He continued, “Beef noodles is a very niche market. If business doesn’t pick up then we’ll close everything.” Unless demand for his beef noodles improves, Michael plans to close all Horiginal’s remaining locations when their leases expire in 2025.
We will definitely not see the last of him anyway.
Wait but why prawn noodles though? He replied, “Prawn mee can be enjoyed by anyone! I also see a demand for cheap and good food.” Determined to push down his prices even further, Michael explains that it is possible to play around with ingredients to offset pricing (e.g. substituting prawn paste with fish cake).
Despite Sixth Avenue Porky Prawn Noodle starting operations just a few weeks ago, the store has seen regulars who have been “coming for 6 days straight“. “Believe it or not, I tried no less than 30 prawn mee stores before formulating our final recipe,” the ambitious veteran said.
The stall has a variety of Pork and Prawn Noodles that uses 9 different pork cuts. This includes Pig Skin, Pig Heart, Pig Liver and Pig Tail. If you would like to indulge in the core of Porky Prawn, Michael recommends the Mixed Porky Prawn Noodle (S$7.50/S$10.50).
However, I decided to opt for something simple: Signature Prawn Noodle (S$5.50/ S$7.50). Topped with fragrant shallots, the dish featured generous servings of vannamei prawns, handmade prawn paste, handcut pork loin, pork lard, tau geh, kang kong and noodles. BTW, that fork-tender baby long gu will be incorporated into the menu soon.
Although Michael mentioned, “My prawn paste is like Haidilao’s!”, I dare say that it tastes even better! Retaining a QQ and soft texture, his handmade prawn paste was my personal favourite eh…I need an entire bowl of that.
One of my determining factors of a hae mee‘s quality is its broth. “From 100kg, we fry it down to 30kg,” Michael shared. Strongly believing that fresh prawn heads are the key ingredient behind every solid soup, his team spends 8 hours frying them. The vannamei prawns also come with their heads intact!
This therefore yielded a naturally sweet, umami-rich flavour from the prawn broth that I couldn’t get enough of.
Fun fact, behind every bowl of Sixth Avenue Porky Prawn Noodles is Michael’s fishball-factory-driver-turned-cook. “Bring your heart. I need people who use their heart to learn,” Michael said with a smile. It’s clear from the hae mee that quality does not always need experience.
With a dream to open a kopitiam that houses a history of his previous ventures, the entrepreneurial hawker has no plans of slowing down. Michael is opening another prawn mee store at Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park under a similar name — 5058 Piggy Hae Mee.
His secret to not giving up? “没有最好, 只有更好 (There’s no best, only better).” Man, I live by that now.
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