Garlicky ‘collagen’ bak chor mee with handmade pork balls at Kallang

Given the wet climate these days, it was a godsend that I stumbled upon Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles, a bak chor mee stall in Kallang that supposedly sells collagen-based soupy bak chor mee.

I imply, wet climate and soupy bak chor mee are an ideal pairing. And to prime it off, collagen!

Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles may be present in Wu Fu espresso store, a stone’s throw away from Kallang MRT. 

Whereas Google Maps had indicated that I used to be in the appropriate coffeeshop, I nearly couldn’t find the stall. It was hidden on the very far left of the coffeeshop, tucked away from the principle row of outlets. 

It was curious to notice that Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles shares the identical house with the zi char stall. In reality, I might see the zi char people whipping up a storm behind, whereas a lone girl was manning the bak chor mee stall.

Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles specialises in bak chor mee with a collagen soup base, and it gives all kinds of choices starting from Conventional Minced Pork Noodle (S$4.50/S$5.50/S$6.50) to Candy Gut Noodles (S$6.50/S$7.50). As with each bak chor mee stall, you’ll be able to choose between soup and dry choices, in addition to your selection of noodles.

It proudly states on its storefront that it doesn’t use MSG in any respect, so I used to be curious to see how its collagen soup would prove.

What I attempted at Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles

We began off with Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles’ hottest merchandise: Conventional Minced Pork Noodle, and opted for the S$5.50 soup model with mee kia.

Nearly instantly, I took a sip of its cloudy soup, anticipating to be hit by the acquainted sticky-sweet thickness of collagen soup. As a substitute, what greeted me was an intense wave of fragrant roasted garlic. Full-bodied, wealthy and savoury, every sip of soup was extremely comforting. 

Nonetheless, right here’s the million greenback query: Did it style like collagen? 

My response could be this: Provided that you knew what to look out for, and for those who paid tremendous shut consideration to the soup. The one hints of collagen got here by the silky clean soup, which had a extremely faint thickness, however there was none of that attribute sticky sweetness that coated my lips.

I’ve bought to say that the style of roasted garlic was extremely sturdy and overpowered a lot of the different flavours, so for those who’re not a fan of garlic, you is perhaps higher off ordering one thing else.

The supple strands of mee kia soaked up the garlicky soup, such that every slurpful of noodles was teeming with a pungent roastedness that made me nervous about garlic breath. 

The quantity of mee kia was overwhelming, to say the least, and it appeared to by no means finish. In reality, my eating companion and I couldn’t end the mee kia as a result of it was simply an excessive amount of!

I used to be impressed with the beneficiant quantity of minced pork that had been given in Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles’ Conventional Minced Pork Noodle, because it added a comfortable but meaty textural ingredient to the silky soup. Every spoonful of bak chor mee had an excellent quantity of soppy minced pork, crunchy spring onions and savoury lard, making it a fairly well-rounded expertise.

Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles definitely didn’t scrimp on the components. For S$5, I noticed three common pork balls and two handmade ones. 

Whereas the agency pork balls have been nothing particular and tasted like factory-made ones, I used to be blown away by the handmade pork balls, which appeared to disintegrate in my mouth with the slightest strain. These have been savoury bombs and have been extremely comfortable, and from its misshapen kind, I might inform that these had been made by hand!

For comparability, I made a decision to order a dry variant, and bought the Candy Gut Noodle (S$6.50) with mee pok. Delightfully, I observed that it got here with loads of freshly minimize pigs’ intestines and thick folds of pigs’ pores and skin.

It took two spoonfuls of soup to loosen the dry bak chor mee, however I used to be pleasantly shocked at how luscious the noodles regarded upon tossing. Every strand of mee pok was coated in a glistening sheen of sauce, making it look actually appetising.

Whereas the mee pok had regarded extremely appetising, I used to be let down by its style. The sauce was a lot lighter than I had anticipated, with the lightest contact of vinegar that made me want I might’ve doused all the bowl of bak chor mee in black vinegar and soy sauce.

However, my colleague Rachel stated that the dry Candy Gut Noodle was fairly common to her, however that may’ve been as a result of she prefers lighter flavours. Subsequent time, I’d simply ask for extra vinegar with my dry bak chor mee.

Identical to the dry Candy Gut Noodles, the massive items of pork gut and pores and skin have been disappointing and lacked flavour, although I’ve bought to commend the stall as these components have been properly cooked with none gamey funkiness.

Closing ideas

After all the meal, Rachel and I agreed that whereas Xiang Xiang Conventional Pork Noodles serves up mediocre bowls of soup and dry bak chor mee, this undoubtedly wasn’t collagen bak chor mee. If it was, the collagen ingredient within the soup might’ve been amped up a lot greater, because the roasted garlic flavour dominated every little thing else.  

Regardless of the disappointing lack of collagen, I nonetheless loved my bowl of soupy Conventional Minced Pork Noodle for its full-bodied savouriness. Being an enormous garlic lover, I took the overwhelming style of roasted garlic head-on, however you would possibly wish to convey a mint alongside for those who’re assembly somebody after.

Anticipated injury: S$4.50 – S$7.50 per pax

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