Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle (Small) There has been quite a number of notable hawkerpreneurs in the local F&B scene in the past couple of years — while some do lean towards serving up more modern interpretations of hawker food to the masses, there are some who are taking up the challenge in serving up for that is familiar to the local palate; essentially local classics that Singaporeans have had at hawker centre since the good ol’ days. One particularly prominent hawker stall that had expanded its operations pretty aggressively over the years is You Fu Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle — the establishment first opened its doors at Golden Mile Food Centre in 2020 by two young hawkerpreneurs; their involvement in their dad’s Hokkien Prawn Mee stall probably being an inspiration to their decision in opening the stall. They had since opened an outlet within a coffeeshop in Woodlands, and their latest opening would be a new stall that is situated within Chinatown Complex Market. Located in the blue zone of the hawker centre, You Fu Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle’s new outlet can be found along the same stretch of stalls where Ma Li Ya Virgin Chicken 瑪莉亞處女雞 and Kent Thong Turtle Soup are also located within the food centre. While its Woodlands outlet does carry some outlet-exclusive items not available at their Golden Mile outlet, their location at Chinatown Complex Market follow closely to what their Golden Mile Food Centre outlet has to offer — the menu only comprises of Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle that is served three portion sizes; Small, Medium and Large, with the addition of egg and extra ingredients and noodles coming at an additional price.
Since we were pretty much dining by ourselves at Chinatown Complex Market, we went for the Small portion size of the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle. It is noted that the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle comes with a mix of three different types of noodles if the order is made unspecified; the three different types of noodles being yellow noodles, thick beehoon and thin beehoon. Apart from that, the Small portion does also see scraps of sotong and pork slices, as well as two pieces of shrimp that comes along with it. It is noted that the patron would need to inform the folks behind the counter should they wish to have pork lard with their Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle, while other condiments includes fried garlic chips, lime and chilli. Truth to be told, the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle was already quite good on its own; there is no need to really add chili or lime to the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle since the stock was already pretty flavoursome. The stock which the noodles were cooked in were nothing short of being thick, rich and gloopy; absolutely savoury and umami while the noodles came with a distinct smokiness from the wok-hei during the frying process. Given how the pieces of meat and sotong were rather minuscule, they did not really have much impact to the dish; that being said, the shrimp came decent, while the pork lard gives a crisp crunch being all light and airy without being overly greasy. Considering how good the stock itself was, we felt that adding the chili did overpower some of the flavours of the stock; this is especially since the chili does fine with an inherent savouriness of its own. While it is meant to further enhance the flavours of the stock with its slightly zippiness and fiery notes to tickle the tastebuds, we would prefer to have the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle as-is. For those whom have yet to give You Fu Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle a go; the Chinatown Complex Market outlet is certainly one of their locations that is worth checking out!