Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee Opens at Bukit Batok

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee is not a stranger for all Bak Chor Mee fans. They started in 1945 and has been serving Teochew style bak chor mee (BCM) for more than half a century. At Hong Lim Food Centre, be ready to wait for at least 30 minutes during lunch. Ah Kow has passed on the skills to his two sons. In the past, both brothers shared the stall at Hong Lim. The 4th son would operate from Tuesdays to Thursdays while the elder son would operate from Fridays to Mondays.

Through a Facebook group, we got to know that the 4th son has just opened his own stall in Bukit Batok serving the same old classic BCM. Jon Cher, who is the son of the 4th son of Ah Kow, shared that his father “was kicked out by his own brother” in 2000 and hence he rented his own stall in Old Airport Hawker Centre till 2014. Eventually, the stall owner at Old Airport sold away the stall, hence it was closed. Recently, they started again in Bukit Batok!

Enough of family drama, let’s focus on their BCM. Their menu is kept simple with Bak Chor Mee selling at $4, $5 and $6 together with Teochew Dumpling Soup at $4, $5 and $6. We ordered a bowl of kway teow soup and minced pork noodles dry.

The soup version has got quite a bit of “liao” in it, including lean pork, minced meat, braised mushrooms, dried sole fish and dumplings. The wife was seen busy wrapping the dumplings. Even though the skin was thick, but it was still comforting. They also serve Teochew Dumpling Soup where you can get generous amount of dumplings.

As for the soup, I thought the broth I had that day lacks a little depth and was towards the bland side. I hope it was due to their teething issue. I need to go back again and try. Neverthless, no MSG is added to the soup and this is definitely one of the better BCM than many others.

The dry version had soft and flavourful braised mushroom with chilli, soy sauce and vinegar. What truly make this dish is the braised mushroom and its dried sole fish. This add a touch of umami to the noodles. In my impression, their version in Hong Lim had so much more vinegar than the current version, which I felt was a little lacklustre. The uncle did explain to me that he has dropped his vinegar just to cater to the new crowd in Bukit Batok. Fair enough. For me, I prefer it to be more sourish but this may work for you.

I stood there and see how the uncle prepares the noodles. It was interesting to see that he was using two types of sieves to cook his noodles. The first time he would use a smaller one to lightly blanch in boiling water before moving the noodles into another more traditional sieve to cook it again. The uncle explained that this was done to prevent lumps from forming in the noodles and to retain its desired springy texture.

Looking at how the uncle has got older over the years, I started to wonder if there is anyone to take over their cooking. According to Jon, he was doing full time during the Old Airport days. As the bukit batok stall is opened for only a month, Jon still holds on to his full time job and will only be there to help out during weekends. But it looks like there is a possibility that he will be back to start full time soon once business picks up. 🙂

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