Ban Mian

The Ban Mian ($3.50) here is cheap and good. Most well known for their dry version, expect the noodles to come in deep black sauce. Noodles are QQ, portions are huge. Also comes with a healthy serving of vegetables.

Finally having this after 6 years (?) and it is still as good as I remembered. Qiu Rong Handmade Noodles boasts a really savory and cloudy soup, a testimony to the amount of ingredients put in to boil the soup. The best part? The endless minced pork, vegetables and anchovies. All for just a friendly price of $3. #BurppleCheapNGood

Grandma Ban Mee can easily be spotted with the longest queue along its row at Amoy. Initially resistant to get Ban Mee for lunch, I eventually succumbed to the idea of dry ban mee (and needless to add, @juliuslim's constant nudging). I sure didn't regret it. This $5 portion came with some crispy anchovy, a perfectly made is poach egg and most importantly the most kickass chilli! Toss it all together and you get a real savory and filling bowl of ban Mee.

I came with high expectations for this supposedly precious bowl of ban mian ($3.50 for small portion) and the soup was watered down 😭. The ingredients weren't as fresh or as generous as other ban mian stores I've tried (even those in Kopitiams are wayyyy better). Only saving grace is the springy noodles, which I didn't finish anyway cause the soup was so diluted. I think the old Roxy Square Ban Mian is still my #1.

Back at Kin kin and it's sad to say that the standard is slightly inconsistent. The noodles were dry and hard, probably partly because it's been left out too long before serving. At least it could be saved by pouring some soup over the noodles. Otherwise, everything else was good. That kickass spicy chilli, the generous portion of shallots and anchovies, and oh, that lovely wobbly egg.

More ban Mian madness this week. Here at Bedok Interchange lies an extremely popular Ban Mian store, with its signature yellow bowl. Found the soup to be a little bland initially, but the flavours started to come out after letting the bowl sit for a while. The texture of the noodles was soft, perhaps slightly too soft for me towards the end. Not the most satisfying bowl out there, but definitely one of the better ones.

Insane craving for Ban Mian so I decided to head down to the famous L32 Handmade Noodles stall, wanting to eliminate my craving once and for all. And in spite of the overwhelmingly positive reviews of this place, I found that I wasn't for me because I'm not a fan of sweet black sauce. Nevertheless, the noodle texture was really good. And their soup was fragrant too. But will I make the effort down and spend another 40mins waiting for this bowl of ban mian? Probably not. Ah well, the insane craving goes on.......

Found a delish bowl of You Mian hidden on the 4th floor of Far East Plaza to cure my insane craving for this savoury bowl of noodles. Tasted of anchovies, minced meat and fried onions, the soup base was fragrant and not overly salty (which is a major plus because you can finish drinking all the soup!). The texture of the noodles here is worth a mention, for its QQ springy texture. Oh, and the Chilli they serve on the side just goes so damn well with all the savoury ingredients in that bowl. Almost ordered another bowl because I just couldn't get enough.

If U need something to lift your moods after paying that horrid traffic saman, head on down to the Traffic Police Cafeteria and order a bowl of Ban Mian Dry. Handmade ban mian noodles that is soft, not overly starchy, yet still very filling, doused in a wonderful concoction of black sauce, tomato sauce (I think), vinegar. Loved the addition of shallots and ikan bilis to give that added crunch!