Seng Huat Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (Hougang): Nice (fish)balls but lacklustre noodles
Located near Hougang Mall is a small coffee shop called Seng Huat Coffee House, home of some cute pig-shaped buns with various fillings. What is also in the same coffee house is Seng Huat Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles, which has another outlet located at North Bridge Road.
Despite going to the Hougang area relatively often for errands, I’ve never really paid much attention to this particular eating place. There are usually queues for the chicken rice and the noodles. I’ve only ever eaten here once before this from the nasi lemak stall.
A netizen on Facebook had posted about the noodles here and how nice the pork liver was, and being someone who does appreciate both a good bowl of noodles and pork liver, I decided to try it for myself.
What I tried at Seng Huat Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle
The menu at Seng Huat Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle is very simple. 4 available dishes, all priced at S$4.50 (Pork Ribs Noodle is not on the table anymore, it looks like), and choice of noodle. Apart from your usual mee kia and mee pok, there’s mee sua, yellow noodle, mee tai mak, bee hoon and kway teow.
The post I read mentioned the size of the fishballs and the fairly generous portion of pig’s liver. Wanting the best of both worlds, I decided to go for the Handmade Fishball Noodle, and asked for additional liver (+S$1). It didn’t take long for the noodles to be ready.
When I settled down with my food, I stared at the bowl for a few moments. For a dollar, that was quite a bit of liver. Very generous indeed – I’ve been conditioned to expect just a few paper-thin pieces whenever I’ve asked for extra from other stalls.
The liver is sliced on the thinner side, with some slices slightly pink in the middle. It wasn’t overcooked, and had a nice texture. It was kind of bland, though… like the liver wasn’t seasoned at all. I mean, it tastes like liver. Depending on your preference, this is either a bad thing or a good thing.
I moved on to the next item in the bowl that caught my attention – big balls. The fishballs, to be exact.
These are quite possibly some of the largest I’ve seen in a while, about the size of a ping-pong ball!
I took a bite and was quite pleased. The fishballs had a good taste and texture. They were well-seasoned and very springy, and with their size and bounce you could very well use them as replacement ping pong balls if you really wanted. Very enjoyable.
Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the consequences if you DO decide to use these as ping pong balls.
The noodles looked a treat as well – they were glossy after tossing them in the sauce, and not clumping together. I eagerly lifted a chopstick-full to my mouth and took a big bite, but… nothing.
I didn’t taste the chilli or other flavours, just an overpowering alkaline taste of the mee pok. Absolute bummer. At least the noodles are cooked to the right doneness…?
The accompanying soup looks just like your regular bak chor mee soup. Relatively clear, and cloudy with meat detritus, which is usually a good sign. Dare I get my hopes up?
I take a sip and my first thought is “Eh. How meh.” It didn’t have much taste to it, just like the noodle seasoning.
Final thoughts
For everything I’ve said above, this isn’t the worst bowl of noodles I’ve had. It just needs more seasoning.
The noodles aren’t soggy or clumpy, the liver is fresh even if bland, and the fishballs are really good. Maybe a different type of noodle would work better for me instead of mee pok.
Expected damage: S$4.50 – S$5.50 per pax
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