大华猪肉果条面 Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle

Tai Hwa is a 35 year old name that serves delicious bak chor mee (minced pork noodles). Business started in 1974 at Hill street beside Elgin bridge. After some time Tai Hwa shifts to the Marina Square food court when the neighboring area was marked out for city development. This happens when I was still in my 20s and Marina Square used to be a hip place to visit. It was then I had my first taste of Tai Hwa's bak chor mee. The queue for this local hawker food, as far as I can remember, was crazy.

I only manage to know that Tai Hwa had shifted to their new location in Crawford recently when one of my food enthusiast friend brought me and our kakis (colloquial for a group of people who hang out for a common activity) there for lunch.

One thing that did not change is the long consistent queue waiting for their bak chor mee. Business must have been so good that Tai Hwa owns the whole coffee shop space and operate in one of the food stalls. 

My S$5 portion of the bak chor mee.

A close up shot. The brown piece on top is the crispy fried sole fish  that is used for adding flavour to soup and dishes.

Why are people so crazy over their bak chor mee? Well I liked the dark vinegar that is added to the dry version but not too much, just their standard proportion. Some like to have more vinegar added. Another ingredient added to this food is sole fish that is fried to crisp. It's just a small piece to enhance the taste. Small bits of this fish are added in the filling of the dumpling that is provided in the S$5 portion of bak chor mee. The main ingredient, the bak chor and the lean meat pieces, are fresh and tender. The chilli that is added for the dried bak chor mee is good.

There's 2 extra dumplings and a meat ball for the S$5 portion compared to the S$4 one.

Apart from their bak chor mee, I noticed that their dumpling soup is also popular with the crowd

Cost : S$4/5

Address : Blk 466 Crawford Lane #01-12 Singapore 190465 (Behind Singapore Immigration, Tai Hwa Eating House)

Country : Singapore

Website : www.taihwa.com.sg