- 3 hours ago
Bon Appétit meets Chef Lucas Sin to try Singapore’s only Michelin-starred street food at Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. Famous for their bak chor mee (minced pork noodles), this 94-year-old hawker stall always has a queue and has retained a Michelin Star for the past 10 years. These dry noodles are cooked with vinegar, chilli, and lard, topped with pork and wontons, and are an essential stop for anyone exploring Singapore’s street food.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:05Welcome to Singapore. We're here at Hill Street Thai Hoa Pork Noodle to try their Bak Chor Mee,
00:10their minced pork noodle. They are the only one Michelin starred hawker stall in all of Singapore.
00:16They got that start in 2016 and still have it to this day. Chef has always been insistent that this
00:22should be an everyday luxury. It should be a luxurious experience. The other thing they
00:27have maintained is this long line. It's usually at least a 30-minute wait. That's probably what this
00:34looks like an hour after opening, but people say that it can be up to two hours. As most hawker
00:40stalls go, they specialize in a couple of things, which means that the space is quite compact. At
00:45the back is the cooking. We'll see the noodle pot in the front, the seasonings, a bunch of other
00:48luxurious toppings. Welcome into the kitchen. So the standard noodle is known as Mi Bo Bao Mian. It's
00:54made with egg and alkaline. It's nice and bouncy, reminiscent to me of wonton noodles. The thinner
00:58noodle, Mi Kian, is also available. When you come up to the stall, you'll order your noodles to your
01:04size and to your type of noodle. That noodle then will get portioned out into these bowls, stacked.
01:10The noodle will get cooked inside of the noodle boiler, divided in three reservoirs. On the left side of the
01:15stalk, in the center, a small reservoir for cooking noodles, and on the right-hand side, fresh water,
01:20with which they will continue to replenish the other reservoirs throughout the cooking process.
01:24Noodles come out into the bowl. The bowl gets warmed very slightly, and the noodles go back
01:29into the reservoir for the second amount of cooking. Taking it in and out, mixing it with
01:32the chopsticks, means that the noodles will cook evenly. As that noodle gets cooked, it then gets
01:37drained, rinsed, placed inside of the seasoning bowl. It's tossed so that all those flavors come
01:44together. Chef will build the seasoning on a bowl on the side. Number one, a seasoned black vinegar.
01:50Similar to Zhenjiangcu, or Qingjiang vinegar, is a black vinegar made from rice. On the left,
01:56Yulu translates to fish sauce and or seasoning sauce, source of umami and saltiness. Next, the chili sauce,
02:02slowly cooked over time, of a combination of fresh and dry spices. Finally, touch that brings it all
02:07together. It's a small splash of lard, made also fresh every day at a low temperature from pork skins
02:15and pork fat. The noodles will continue to release starch through the cook. The starch is going to
02:19help those sauces emulsify. It's going to allow that seasoning to stick to the noodles themselves,
02:24but not too much because you don't want a watery, bland bowl of noodles. That seasoned noodle then goes
02:29onto the service bowl. The second chef will top those toppings, the minced pork, the pork liver,
02:34the sliced pork, scallions, saipu, fried soul, wontons, meatballs. I'll go on top of that noodle,
02:41out back in the front where you're waiting and you're watching that cooking process the entire time.
02:45You take those noodles to your table and you have your bakchor mi. All of the toppings contribute
02:50different things to the dish. The minced pork will mix more easily with the noodle so you will get a
02:54little bit of pork in every single bite. The fresh pork will be the nice clean fresh pork flavor and
02:59the liver is going to provide gaminess, a little bit more bloodiness and a little bit more texture.
03:03The wontons and pork balls, after they come out of the cooker, they get seasoned with a generous
03:07amount of vinegar and fish sauce just to make sure that you'll get a good amount of flavor in
03:11every single bite. These are the little touches that mean that no matter what part of the bowl
03:16you start your adventure on, you're guaranteed for a bite of deliciousness. I don't like waiting in line
03:21for food, but this is the street eats philosophy. We don't abuse any of the privileges of carrying a
03:28heavy-ass camera around Asia. Singapore is a wonderful and pretty special place. There are
03:37hawker stalls all over the place, some in hawker centers, some in Kopitiam, some in food centers
03:42like this, and each of these hawker stalls oftentimes have a narrative or at the very least some sort of
03:48thread that brings them back to a specific ethnic origin. They could be Malay, they could be Chinese,
03:54they could be Indian. Here at this hawker stall, this is clearly a very Chinese dish. If anything,
04:00it actually has its roots in deojiu cooking, so chao zhou, chu zhao, which is part of southern China in
04:07Canton on the eastern side. A lot of these merchants brought a lot of their food to different parts of
04:12Southeast Asia. Pho has some origins to that place. Quay, which is rice cakes, rice desserts oftentimes, have
04:19origins in deojiu. And these specific types of pork noodles originally started as a deojiu dish.
04:25I mean, this is a very popular stall. I'd say this is probably a 10 to 20 minute wait. And
04:30the reason
04:31why you're waiting is every single bowl is made to order, one at a time. We caught boss chasing in
04:38line
04:38as I'm waiting for my Bok Chermi.
04:56The chef here has been with boss for 60 years. His touch is the magic sauce. He's still at the
05:05original stall,
05:06splitting the shifts with Chasing's son and Chasing's daughter. The touch is incredible. The instinct,
05:12the noodles in, no timers. He's getting everything cooked improperly.
05:22Okay, so here's the order.
05:24Bok Chermi with Mi Bo dry. Whenever you order dry noodles, seaweed soup always comes on the side. Do not
05:30mix
05:30the two together. Bite of this, bite of that, bite of this, bite of that. People say that Taiwha is
05:34expensive, but look at all of this
05:36food. And also, look at all of the toppings. There is a certain type of luxury here that I think
05:42should not go unmissed.
05:45The first thing you smell is vinegar. A lot of people might associate this with a little bit of a
05:48funk or a little bit of a stink.
05:50That's a fermented rice vinegar made from the rice hulls and the wheat bran, the ching yang vinegar.
05:54It's carrying all of that aromatics up because of the steam. Vinegar is important here because it's going to get
06:01rid of
06:02any of the gaminess inside of the pork, which I think is critical. And your job as an eater is
06:08to mix it well
06:09so that the flavors are even, yes,
06:11but the lard and the vinegar and a little bit of that soup and the seasoning
06:14is well incorporated into the noodle.
06:17Okay.
06:19Okay.
06:26First time in Singapore, first back to our meat. Does not disappoint.
06:32Mmm.
06:33The acidity is aggressive.
06:35It carries the spice to the back of your mouth. It's so slippery.
06:39It's a hairline away from being greasy, but that oil is so fragrant.
06:44Of all of the flavors within a cohesive flavor profile of saltiness and sweetness and bitterness and so on and
06:49so forth,
06:50I think acidity brings freshness, but it also feels like there's a little bit of an acceleration of flavor.
06:57I mean, it's aggressive bullet noodles. Compared to anything in Hong Kong, the acidity complementing that spice is addictive.
07:04It's the type of thing that you don't want to stop eating.
07:05And when it does get too aggressive, you have the soup on the side, seaweed.
07:10You can see the little, like, delicious pork particles moving inside.
07:13A little bit of that lard.
07:14It's less delicate and less clean than what I'm used to, but it's a savory counterbalance to the noodle.
07:25It also has this wonderful thing.
07:27My favorite thing in food almost ever is the same ingredient presented different ways in the same dish.
07:32A little bit of that soup goes into cooking all of that pork.
07:34It also goes into the last touch of the noodle seasoning.
07:38So you get echoes of flavor.
07:41It's definitely worth it.
07:44I was just going to stop myself.
07:45The reason why I stopped myself when I almost was about to say worth the wait,
07:49is you have to know that there is a tai hua opened by the same family right next door.
07:56This tai hua opened three years ago.
07:58Also got the star.
07:59Run on a day-to-day basis by Lao Man's daughter Moe Kun.
08:02It is a much quieter stall that does not have a two-hour wait.
08:06It is the same broth every morning.
08:08The person putting the noodles together is different.
08:11Doesn't have 60 years of experience, for example.
08:13But I would be curious to know whether there is a substantial difference in a blind taste test.
08:21Should we go get a bowl of noodles?
08:24We're now in Sister Moe's stall.
08:27Moe came back from her job running between here and Europe to run this stall.
08:32The same four bowls of sauce.
08:34The same noodle cooker.
08:35They move just as quickly and just as efficiently.
08:38So those fresh noodles are still in the front.
08:40Do you see?
08:41The mi bok and the mi kia.
08:43As well as the guo chiao.
08:45The rice noodles.
08:46Same sort of toppings.
08:48Look.
08:48Look at this.
08:49The number of spoons and the color of the spoons with the clips
08:52correspond to what the ticket is.
08:54What size a noodle is.
08:56Whether it is extra spicy.
08:58Any other modifications.
08:59Kind of reminds me of Waffle House in the US.
09:02That's so cool.
09:03Awesome.
09:07This is Moe's bowl of actual meat.
09:10Same order.
09:11Ten dollar.
09:12Cut same.
09:13Portion same.
09:14Many bowls different, but they share bowls.
09:16So I don't know.
09:18It's the same starting point.
09:19It's the same spiritual origin.
09:22So I wouldn't expect it to be too different.
09:33Maybe there's Singaporeans that have better palates than me and they can tell the difference.
09:37But 99%?
09:4198%?
09:48So delicious though.
09:50Any difference between the two stalls are negated by the fact that one day chef's mood might be a little
09:55different.
09:56The next day the pork comes in at a different quality.
10:00I bet if you came on a Monday and a Tuesday, that difference would be the same as having the
10:04same bowl on the same day made at the same time from stall A to stall B.
10:12The real win is now I get to have two bowls.
10:15But the soup here is cleaner as of now.
10:19You know, late morning, not quite peak, peak, peak time.
10:26The reason being, they're continually cooking that broth with more and more pork throughout the day.
10:30If you're less busy, you're going to add less pork to the dish.
10:33I think perhaps at Dad's stall, the stock more likely has come into contact with raw pork more recently.
10:42Which means that you might get a little bit more of that porky flavor over there.
10:46Like fresh cooked pork, kind of like blanched taste.
10:49It's cleaner here.
10:50It's a little bit more subtle.
10:51Dude, this is my first Bakhtarami.
10:53I thought it was delicious.
10:54Aggressive in the acidity, but well-rounded with that spice.
10:58It's a very sort of whole dish.
11:00When it comes out, bright red oil on the side.
11:02Glossy noodles tossed in lard.
11:04What feels like every cut of pork imaginable.
11:06The textual differences, the textual contrast, the whole thing makes for a very, very satisfying meal.
11:11Now, there's only one Michelin one-starred restaurant in Singapore that is a street food stall, which is Thai Hwa
11:17pork noodle.
11:17A Michelin one-starred restaurant is, on paper, a very good restaurant within its category.
11:23It's gauged on a couple of things, including the expression of the personality of the chef in the dish.
11:29As a result, I often think, as a consumer, that a lot of the most creative and interesting restaurants all
11:35around the world fall into this Michelin one-star category.
11:38A lot of local Singaporeans, which I agree with, reject guides like the Michelin Guide because it feels like a
11:43Western imposition of Western taste on the local market and local palate.
11:46In the same vein, if the national pastime here is telling other people that you have a better bok choy
11:51or me place than them,
11:52that you have a taste that's more authentic, or you have a restaurant that you like a little bit more
11:55than everybody else, that's cool.
11:57It is a very effective guide, and a very effective guide is for us travelers looking for a good bite,
12:02but it's not the only authority on deliciousness in food.
12:05I love this place. I had a really good time here.
12:08Knowing that a place like this is well-recognized globally makes me want to find more places similar to this
12:13in a similar style,
12:14with a similar history and attention to detail and technique that Taihua has shown me today.
12:22Welcome to this edition of Lucas is wearing a white shirt again. Who knows what's going to happen?
Comments