肥仔排骨蝦麵 Fei Zhai Pork Rib Prawn Noodles @ Pepys Road ... last bowl and without the prawns at 12 noon.

At Pepys Road, an off shoot of Pasir Panjang Road, there's a popular coffee shop that serves the folks working in the nearby offices and warehouses. There's limited parking spaces along Pepys Road and many who park here don't like to display parking coupons. So while you are having your food, you can hear the stall owners shouting "Parking Lai Liao", in Hokkien meaning to say that the parking wardens are here to issue parking tickets. That was exactly what I heard when owner of 肥仔排骨蝦麵 Fei Zhai Pork Ribs and Prawn Noodles blasted the exact lingo while I was queuing for the last bowl of noodles at exactly 12 noon. 

Here's a peek at 永樂居 Eng Lock Koo coffee shop where tables and plastic chairs are strewn around spilling out of the shop and onto the "five foot way" (A colloquial to mean a five foot wide corridor connecting several adjoining rows of dwellings or retail spaces). Apart from Fei Zhai's Pork Ribs Prawn Noodles, the kway chup and the wan ton noodle stalls are equally popular to the regulars who crowd the coffee shop as early as 7.30am

I not sure if I'm lucky or unfortunate to order the last bowl of soup noodles from Fei Zhai. At 12 noon, their prawns ran out, there wasn't enough pork ribs and I was offered a top up of pig's tail. It's a shame that this was the first time I had pig's tail. There wasn't much meat actually, just very well braised pig's skin and some collagen. The pork ribs was phenomenally tender, Fall-off-the-bone category. The soup was tasty but just wasn't as sweet as the Beach Road or the Joo Chiat that I frequent. Maybe that was the reason why I need not order Coke to curb the effects of MSG. I get this tingling annoying ache like fine needle pricks all over my back when I have too much MSG. Coke was a quick fix for me during those occasions. I'll have to visit Fei Zhai again, early in the morning, to check if their pork ribs is actually this tender. It could be due the 'last bowl' effect when everything is stewed till perfect tenderness and sweetness juiced out of the ingredients.

Don't know if it's because this is the last bowl that I got to find out that Fei Zhai actually uses dried scallops to sweetened the soup apart from prawn shells and pork ribs. If Fei Zhai is adding this premium ingredient, there's probably minimal or no MSG in the soup like the 'sensors' on my back suggested.

114 Pasir Panjang Road (Pepys Road)
Eng Lock Koo Coffee Shop
Singapore