Battle of the Bak Chor Mees at Fengshan Food Centre
With Cactuskit and ToothFairy
No. 7's Bak Chor Mee
Ok, many people know about this two Bak Chor Mees at Fengshan Food Centre. But which one is better? Before we set out to answer that question, another interesting thing of note is that when we talk about Bak Chor Mee, most people refer to the dry version with vinegar, chilli and whether they want liver or not. But somehow when they talk about the Bak Chor Mee here, everyone seems to know that we are referring to the soup version of this dish. It almost seem as if this is the only place to eat Bak Chor Mee soup.
So back to the question of which is better. Both stores have got its fair share of accolades but the inner stall (No. 7) seems to get a longer queue of people. So, is this a case of people simply following the crowd or is No. 7's Bak Chor Mee really significantly better than No. 8's?
In true ieatishootipost fashion, we sacrificed our money and calories so that you, dear reader, don't have to.
No. 8's Bak Chor Mee
Just by looking at the 2 bowls of Bak Chor Mee, one notices that No. 8's bowl is bigger. However, the contents of the noodles look quite similar. Perhaps No. 8's has just slightly more minced pork than No. 7's.
No. 8's Bak Chor Mee
Tastewise, the noodles of both stalls were similar. (I wouldn't be surprised if they shared the same supplier!). The soup of No. 7 is just slightly more tasty then No. 8 but the difference is so small that unless you ate them side by side, I doubt that you will be able to tell the difference.
Conclusion
So there you have it. The herd mentality works! The stall with the longer queue does have a better bowl of noodles. However, if you asked me, I would just order from whichever stall has the shorter queue on my next visit.
Xing Ji (Inner Stall)
No. 7
5pm to 1am plus
Closed Mondays
Seng Hiang (Outer Stall)
No 8
5pm to 12.30am Open daily
Fengshan Food Centre
Blk 85 Bedok North Road
51 comments:
Hahahha!!! Steven would flip to know that you call him ToothFairy. Poor dentist. ; )
I agree that its difficult to tell the difference between the 2 bowls. Soup tastes almost identical. And noodle very similar too, with a slight difference detected. The meatballs also machiam same supplier.
Overall, not a bad place for a semi-light supper.
Well, toothwizard doesn't sound quite right.
BTW are you going to settle for one pename? You have 3 active ones.
You are right, bak chor mee gives u the option for dry or soup and I was pretty disappointed on my first trip there. I too have to flip the coin for which store is nice....now that your got to the root of it, for this we go for the shorter queue but normally I will join the longer queue. By the way you can get cheaper price for your German pork knuckle or hotdog from the western store at Fengshan compared to the East Coast Road Werner's Oven cos they are relatives. Where would u go? I still think I go for Werner.
That's an interesting piece of information. Haven't tried the knuckles there. As for the queue thingy. Agree to just go for the shorter queue.
Cactuskit it is, my fren.
only the east-siders would know bak chor mee as a soup first, before thinking of the dry version. East side! where the food rocks.. hahaa
also there's a story where the two stores are related in some manner? like they were brothers but split up due to some misgiving, hence the similar taste.
No no no.... in da west there's bak chor mee soup version that is very popular too too probably even way longer than these stalls at 85 Market. The popular one was at the old Taman Jurong Market which was previously known as the number 1 market - yes the 1st Food Centre in SG! Have not tried after renovation and dunno if still around. They also had another stall at Jurong West St 51 FC but that FC is currently under reno.
I stay in the East and it's a haven for not just only good food but plenty of choice too. I still miss very much the POWER NASI LEMAK in the West ---> it is really packed with POWER.
I patronised stall No.7 bacause they open earlier at 5.30pm. Stall Nos.8 start around 6pm. Agreed both stalls are equally good (hard to tell the diff). One diff. is stall No. 8 do sell the dry mee.But their soup version are the main attraction.
jems is our foodie ambassador for the West. :). She's trying really hard to prove that the west is just as good for food. ;)
i use to order from the stall which sells dry version, cos i only like dry version bah chor mee.
Can't remember which stall, but dun tell me they change to sell soup only??? -ivylock
a little bit about the history of this local favourite: It started out as a mobile hawker stall which frequented the Changi Kumpungs and is known as Chai Chee BCM as the stall owner stayed in Chai Chee. It was passed down to his sons and daughters and the people running the stalls now are basically cousins. However the traditional version should not come with the commercial pork balls, but teochew pork dumplings.
Over the years I have seen the following stalls selling this variety of BCM, in its traditional manner:
58 BCM, Blk 58 Market, New Upper Changi Road;
Chai Chee BCM, Bedok Centre Food Centre (near the POSB branch)
Chai Chee BCM, in a coffee shop along NUC Rd.
Thanks for sharing. Chai Chee BCM is spouting everywhere. Are they the same franchise as the one you mentioned? There's also one at East Coast Rd and another at Ang Mo Kio Blk 62-something.
Hey, hope you can create an account and share more with us in the forum. : )
If I'm not wrong, there's a 'branch' of the Fengshan BCM soup at the Tampines Round Market. I thought I saw the signboard, but I haven't tried it yet!
Don't know which one of these 2 stores. I was there for dinner after doing some work in the area one day and my colleague ordered for the whole group of us. We ordered soup and dry.
She came back with all soup and told us.... "uncle said nicely to me... Miss.... I never sell dry version before in my life......"
at this place...cannot just eat the BCM....must have the satay, porridge, stingray...everything ! ....remind me to go there only after dinner....
To my knowledge Chai Chee BCM sell the Teochew type of BCM'
Stall No 8 sells the dry version too. Pls read my earlier post.
Bedok Blk 58 & the Tampines round market do sell this type of BCM but in the morning/lunch time.Being eating at these stalls too.
no no no, never think west has as as good food :) It's just that there still quite a few choices and more sprouting up :) But I kinda agree that in the extreme west you the choices gets lesser haha~~ something like pasir ris, nothing much great there that I have heard of thus far.
Personally, i prefer the soup version of Tai Hwa's style of BCM as compared to these 2 stalls.
But this FC has many gems as wahcow mentioned: oyster omelette, bbq wings, porridge etc...
Good supper place :)
cant tell the diff between these 2 stalls..... wonder why they do not sell the dry version.....
Note between 12.30 - 1.00am, no need to flip your coin cos u gote one choice Xing Ji (No. 7); No 8 already closes at 12.30am.
Is there a difference between BCM and TA MEE? Batu Pahat has a nice ta mee store call "Chew Song Ta Mee", not sure if that is the name of the store or owner but each time I will pack back 20 pkts back urgh...
smart: I believe this all soup BCM is Hokkien instead of Teochew? there was an article on Zaobao on this before.
Are both stores sworn enemy of each other? I'm really curious if there were any bad blood amongst siblings or the tu tee (disciple) xia san (came down the mountain) to start a new BCM etc etc. how come side by side leh?
Anyway, ieat you posted two pictures of No 8 stores. Could it be you sub-consciously liked No 8 better?
Nono scs, they are not enemy, they in fact share information - they told channel U before, the noodles also order from same supplier i think.
One of the stall sells dry version, and comes with the deep fried flat fish too.
Hey, I ate here before. So, I should have order the soup version la. Found the soup that comes with the dry version not bad. I think I ordered from No. 8.
it doesn't taste as good as many years before. i stop patronising them ever since there soup got very tasteless and the noodles losing the texture.
there's another gem hidden away in the BLK 511 market(Bedok) that sells simliar bak chor mee which is 100x better than blk 85. you should give it a try if u have the chance.
-witchz-
I did the same thing and ordered one bowl from each stall before. Just like you guys, I found that stall 7's soup is slightly better than stall 8's. I found that the noodles from both stalls taste the same. One difference I did notice was that the meat balls from stall 8 tastes slightly better than stall 7's, ie the balls had more taste (or more salty). So I always tell people, if they prefer nicer soup, go for #7, if they prefer slightly nicer meat balls, go for #8. I go for stall #8 coz I prefer a shorter Q and also I love meat balls.
I always end up pigging out when I eat at that market. Gotta have the BCM, chicken wings, satay, chai chee porridge... And I always go home damn smelly as well.... This hawker is one of the smokiest hawker in Singapore. I think its coz there are too many chicken wings and satay stalls...
Bar Chor Mee? The best one not from Hougang meh? I love that stall... when I was in Singapore.. I used to go there to take Bar Chor Mee..Delicious!! Please TA PAU!
I have been eating this dish at Fengshan Food Centre for over twenty years, and have of course tried some of the other stalls in Bedok, mentioned by others here. I think the allure of this dish is the springy noodles and the fragrant but oily soup, spiked with lots of lard, garlic and spring onions.
The noodles used by the stalls in Fengshan Food Centre have been the same type for as long as I remembered, way before this springy-type noodles become common elsewhere. The mee kiah is specially made, and looks different from the normal: it is slightly flattened, unlike the more cylindrical noodles found normally. Thus when ordering, the noodles should be mee kiah and not mee poh (or other varieties such as bee tai mak).
From my experiences, the Fengshan Food Centre stalls taste best, compared to some other stalls mentioned (such as the one in Blk 58, New Upper Changi Road) because of the robust nature of the soup and the special springy noodles.
Besides Xing Ji (Stall no.7) and Seng Hiang (Stall no.8), there are actually two other stalls selling this type of minced meat noodles in Fengshan Food Centre itself! One operates only in the day; and ther other is Ah Poh, which is a related stall/branch to Xing Ji.
Ah Poh is in another section of Fengshan Food Centre, which serves the inner areas of the food centre away from the al fresco area near Stalls 7 and 8. The queue is shorter, and they do serve the dumplings ("kiau") by request, but the dumplings are available only on weeknights. The dumplings are not exactly Teochew in style, although they do contain tiny bits of fried flat fish. From what my mother tells me, Ah Poh (the cook in this stall) is actually a son of the original cook in Xing Ji.
As for Stall no.8 (Seng Hiang), there are actually two teams working in this stall in shifts, each with a different day off. The one who cooks in the first shift is the original one who has more experience. If you go after 12.30am, it is usually the second shift cook (who incidentally used to sell satay in this food centre a long time back), but the quality of the minced meat noodles is not as good. The dry version, for example, tastes much better when cooked by the first cook.
Both Xing Ji and Ah Poh do not sell the dry version, only the soup version (which is Hokkien in style, apparently). Lots of people have been disappointed partly because they thought it was the Teochew-style, but it would be unfair to compare the two as if they are the same kind of food, viz. comments such as "this is not as nice as (insert name of favorite Teochew minced meat noodles stall)".
hihi
cannot help but want to pen down some comments after reading so much about my favourite BCM in Fengshan mkt. I ate there for ages in fact this BCM kept my friends and I company during our exams mugging time all the way from our JC days to completing uni to completing post grad studies. During those days, no 7 have a much much longer queue than no 8. Now it is similar. But the other stall that maque mentioned was the one that we patronise years ago. About 8 yrs ago, No 7 stall split into 2 stalls. And from then on, we patronise the one in the same row as the porridge stall.
I am salivating as I am thinking of the BCM. yum yum
Awwww.. agree thumbs up that both are almost similar!
Been eating from these stalls since young... probably 13years already.. theres really no difference.
Although more people prefer stall no. 7 i stick to stall no. 8. Been eating from there
Stall no. 8 has a dry version too. Not for the non-chilli eaters though.
yea! i'm a frequent eater of their bar chor mee! my dad prefers to order from the longer queue one though. anw, i heard both stall owners are siblings that's why they share similar tastes!!
I totally agree with Witchz!!!
The standard for both BCM has dropped considerably over the years.
Blk 511 (Bedok North Street3) has a much much better tasting BCM. It even comes with 'shui jiao' (dumpling)
=p~~~~
Ya both really look and taste the same in my opinion too! perhaps they are brothers? HAHA...
what "even comes with". BCM "MUST" come with bar kiaw. those who are lazy and skip this step are deemed CMI to me. :P
ok, i'm a purist. i dislike the pork balls.
the original one is actually on the same stretch as the chai chee porridge. 2 stalls away if i am not wrong.
It's call the "Ah po Bah Chor mee" with red color signboard.
If you tried that, you then will realise the diff btw that one and the 2 stalls in the front row. that one is very good.
It moves to the back aft the market revampe. i think family fallout or the brothers.
Ah... the plot thickens. Another one which is the original... Family fallout... Must try...
Just like the Adidas and Puma rivalry. Both brothers once worked together...
I actually doubt it is a family fallout, as I have seen the two stalls help each other (e.g. Xing Ji ran out of meatballs, and one of the stall staff ran over to get some from Ah Poh).
I think part of the reason why they split the stalls was to capture the bigger crowd before 12mn. In fact, they used to sell until 7am in the morning (just in time for me to have bak chor mee as breakfast!) by working in two (or maybe three) shifts.
yeap i forgot to mention the bar Kiaw ( meat dumpling) it's very tasty with bit of ti por ( flat fish) and if the aunty ask whether you wan meat ball juz say no coz the meat balls are factory made nth fantastic. and this stall at BLK 511 has noodles specially made very different from others.
ieat if you do have a chance do check out this place. =)
Hi Doctor,
Maybe you want to give this Chicken Rice stall a try. "Good Year Local Hainanese Chicken Rice Ball" at Blk 111, Toa Payoh Lorong 1.
Huh? Chicken rice in Toa Payoh post here?
Maybe icecreamneko wanted to post it in the BTK section.
But since we are on the topic of Good Year chicken rice, tried it once and the rice ball is not bad, albeit my buddies find it a novelty.
I still prefer to have a bowl rather than a slightly mushy clump of rice for reasons that visually, the glistening grains whet my appeitite :)
The white chicken is average only and i usually only order the roasted chicken.
I know Mien. I was just pulling his leg. ; )
actually, the most original stall would be the one beside the Chai Chee pork porridge.... Tat's the nicest, with the sweetest and tastiest soup base ever....
Heard one of the stalls in front, their boss, used to work with the stall, beside the Chai Chee Pork Porridge... And they sort of quarrelled, and the guy (the worker then) opened his own stall using the same recipe. (But till today, he is unable to fully mastered it)
:)
Heard a friend's son, a QA eng married one of the daughters of either S7 or S8. A new generation BCM in future?
i realise there's no rating for the bcm??
I've to agree with "Witchz" on the fact that "511 BCM" uses a better and richer stock. But I have to say that, it is definately very much watered down now, compared to 10-20 years back (and yes, they have been around that long). I still remember, back in the 80's, the "ABC" BCM stall, a few stalls away (only open in the morning), sold their BCM for only 0.70cents (they're still around btw) :)
hello! Just wanted to recommend this BCM stall which I don't think a lot of people may know of. It's at ang mo kio st 22 block 226 and it's called Sin Kian Heng. Really yummy noodles, though it's not your typical BCM. The secret lies in the soup I think. It's very eggy and comes with seaweed, minced meat, slices of pork and a meatball. The soup's seriously addictive. And the egg's perfect to be broken and eaten with the noodles. Just find it amazing that there's no newspaper cutting/food program recommendations haha
I totally agrees with Maque's post. :) I have been patronising blk 85 since 20 years ago, my dad always brought me there for BCM and Youtiao ( i always liked to dipped the you tiao into the soup of BCM and eat it *SUPER NICE!). No. 8 stall was originally a you char kway stall and the stall owner passed down the stall to his son, which is now the cook of the 1st shift of BCM which Maque had mentioned in his post.
For stall No.7 and the other stall beside the chai chee porridge which runs by Ah Pok, are actually the brother-in-law of stall No. 7's owner. For those who patronise Stall No. 7 before, remember that there is a dark toned tall lady (aged about 40 plus who always sits in front of the stall) she is the No.7 owner's sister and she "was' the wife of Ah Pok. But they fell out and split years ago and the wife is now 'walking' together with one of the helper (a fair toned guy who is quite short) at Stall No. 7. (I always saw 2 of them at Tampines Mall shopping together .)That's why Ah Pok opened another stall in blk 85. To my opinion, both stalls have the same supplier and it taste equally good. 20 years ago, Xing Ji doesn't include meatballs in their noodles (they just have "Kiao"). It's stall number 8's stall owner who started it first. I don't know for what reason, Xingji follow the trend of adding meatballs besides kiao. Maybe it's because their business dropped after stall No. 8 added the meatball cos singaporeans always go for more variety i guess :) But personally, I prefer stall 8, cos got dry version and their meatballs are tastier, portion also bigger. Stall no 8. has a shorter queue, is it b'cos the stall owner cooks faster then Xingji? maybe those interested can stand in front of both stalls and compare their cooking speed :P. I'm quite impressed with stall no 8. cos even that there are 2 strong competitors in the same market, they are still standing strong!
As for blk 511, i think the soup is too bland and more expensive than blk 85 cos for $2.50 a bowl, they give lesser meatballs and lesser bak chor. For new upper changi rd, i think it taste normal, noodle not as springy as blk 85 and more oily. Well, just my pov. I will always support the BCM stall in the east side no matter which stall it is from! :D
JENCOOK, think you personally know the QA Engg? He is now a manager at intel i heard :)
how about ah poh? when I was young there was only the corner stall, but I read its sold off. so they are saying, no.8 better? and AH poh.
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