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Welcome to Singapore. We're here at Hill Street Taiwa Pork Noodle to try their bak chore me, their minced pork noodle. They are the only one Michelin starred hawker stall in all of Singapore. They got that start in 2016 and still have it to this day. Chef has always been insistent that this should be an everyday luxury. It should be a luxurious experience. The other thing they have maintained is this long line. It's usually at least a 30 minute wait. That's probably what this looks like an hour after opening, but people say that it can be up to 2 hours. As most hawker saws go, they specialize in a couple of things, which means that the space is
quite compact. At the back is the cooking. We'll see the noodle pot in the front. There's seasonings, bunch of other luxurious toppings. Welcome into the kitchen. So, the standard noodle is known as mi pa. It's made with egg and alkaline. It's nice and bouncy, reminiscent to me of wanton noodles. The thinner noodle, mikyang, is also available. When you come up to the saw, you'll order your noodles to your size and to your type of noodle. That noodle then will get portioned out into these bowls stacked. Noodle will get cooked inside of the noodle boiler, divided in three reservoirs. In the left side of the stock, in the center, a small reservoir for cooking noodles, and on the right hand side, fresh water with
which they will continue to replenish the other reservoirs throughout the cooking process. Noodles come out into the bowl. The bowl gets warmed very slightly and the noodles go back into the reservoir for the second amount of cooking. Taking it in and out, mixing it with the chopsticks means that the noodles will cook evenly. As that noodle gets cooked, it then gets drained, rinsed, placed inside of the seasoning bowl. It's tossed so that all those flavors come together. Chef will build the seasoning on a bowl on the side. Number one, a seasoned black vinegar. Similar to chenzenjangu or vinegar is a black vinegar made from rice. On the left, yulu translates to fish sauce and or seasoning sauce source
of umami and saltiness. Next, the chili sauce slowly cooked over time of a combination of fresh and dry spices. Finally, touch that brings it all together is a small splash of lard made also fresh every day at a low temperature from pork skins and pork fat. The noodles will continue to release starch through their cook. The starch is going to help those sauces emulsify. It's going to allow that seasoning to stick to the noodles themselves, but not too much because you don't want a watery, bland bowl of noodles. That seasoned noodle then goes onto the service bowl. The second chef will top those toppings, the minced pork, the pork liver, the sliced pork, scallions, taipu, fried soul, wantton, meatballs, all go on top of that noodle
out back into the front where you're waiting and you're watching that cooking process the entire time. You take those noodles to your table and you have your bakar meat. All of the toppings contribute different things to the dish. The minced pork will mix more easily with the noodles, so you'll get a little bit of pork in every single bite. The fresh pork will be the nice clean fresh pork flavor. And the liver is going to provide giness, a little bit more bloodiness, and a little bit more texture. The wanttons and pork balls, after they come out of the cooker, they get seasoned with a generous amount of vinegar and fish sauce just to make sure that you'll get good amount of flavor in
every single bite. These are the little touches that mean that no matter what part of the bowl you start your adventure on, you're guaranteed for a bite of deliciousness. I don't like waiting in line for food. But this is the street eats philosophy. We don't abuse any of the privileges of carrying a heavy ass camera around Asia. Got to wait in line. Singapore is a wonderful and pretty special place. There are hawker stalls all over the place. some in hawker centers, some in Kofutm, some in food centers like this. And each of these hawker stalls often times have a narrative or at the very least some sort of thread that brings them back to a specific ethnic origin, right? They could be Malay, they could be Chinese, they could be Indian. Here at this
hawker, this is clearly a very Chinese dish. If anything, it actually has its roots in deu cooking. Chao Chu Xiao which is part of southern China in Canton on the eastern side. A lot of these merchants brought a lot of their food to different parts of Southeast Asia. Fur has some origins to that place. Quay which is rice cakes, rice desserts often times have origins in Dejio. And these specific types of pork noodles originally started as a deji dish. I mean this is a very popular stall. I'd say this is probably a 10 to 20 minute wait. And the reason why you're waiting is every single bowl is made to order one at a time. We caught boss chasing in line as I'm waiting for my boxer me.
Chef here has been with boss for 60 years. His touch is the magic sauce. He's still at the original saw splitting the shifts with Chasing's son and Chasing's daughter. The touch is incredible. The instinct, the noodles in, no timers. He's getting everything cooked properly. of sweet woman. Okay, so here's the order for me with dry. Whenever you order dry noodles, seaweed soup always comes on the side. Do not mix the two together. Bite of this, bite of that, bite of this, bite of that. People say that Taiwa is expensive, but look at all of this food. And also, look at all of the toppings.
There is a certain type of luxury here that I think should not go unn. The first thing you smell is vinegar. A lot of people might associate this with a little bit of a funk or a little bit of a stink. That's a fermented rice vinegar made from the rice holes in the wheat brand. The china vinegar. It's carrying all of that aromatics up because of the steam. Vinegar is important here because it's going to get rid of any of the giness inside of the pork, which I think is critical. And your job as an eater is to mix it well so that the flavors are even. Yes. But the lard and the vinegar and a little bit of that soup and the seasoning is well incorporated into the noodle. Okay.
First time in Singapore, first back to Germany. Does not disappoint. The acidity is aggressive. It carries the spice to the back of your mouth. It's so slippery. It's a hairline away from being greasy, but that oil is so fragrant. Of all of the flavors within a cohesive flavor profile of saltiness and sweetness and bitterness and so on and so forth, I think acidity brings freshness, but it also feels like there's a little bit of an acceleration of flavor. It I mean, it's aggressive bowl of noodles. Compared to anything in Hong Kong, the acidity complimenting that spice is addictive. It's the type
of thing that you don't want to stop eating. And when it does to get too aggressive, you have the soup on the side, seaweed. You can see the little like delicious pork particles moving inside. Little bit of that lard. It's less delicate and less clean than what I'm used to, but it's a savory counterbalance to the noodle. It also has this wonderful thing, my favorite thing in food almost ever, is the same ingredient presented different ways in the same dish. A little bit of that soup goes into cooking all of that pork. It also goes into the last touch of the noodle seasoning, so you get echoes of flavor. Is definitely worth it.
I was just going to stop myself. The reason why I stopped myself when I almost was about to say worth the wait is you have to know that there is a Taiwa opened by the same family right next door. This Taiwa opened 3 years ago. Also got the star run on a day-to-day basis by Laban's daughter, Mun. It is a much quieter stall that does not have a 2hour wait. It is the same broth every morning. The person putting the noodles together is different. Doesn't have 60 years of experience, for example. But I would be curious to know whether there is a substantial difference in a blind taste test. Should we go get a bowl of noodles? We're now in Sister Moy's stall. Mui came back from her job running between here and Europe to run this stall. The
same four bowls of sauce, the same noodle cooker. They move just as quickly and just as efficiently. So those fresh noodles are still in the front. You see the mibo and the mika as well as the gua. The rice noodles, same sort of toppings. Well, take a look at this. The number of spoons and the color of the spoons with the clips correspond to what the ticket is, what size the noodle is, whether there's extra spicy, any other modifications. Kind of like reminds me of Waffle House in the US. That's so cool. Awesome. This is Mu's bowl of same order, $10 cut, same portion, same may different, but they share bowls. So, I don't know. It's the same starting point. It's the same spiritual origin. So, I wouldn't expect it to be
too different. Maybe there's Singaporeans have better pallets than me and they can tell a difference, but 99% 98% So delicious though. Any difference between the two stalls are negated by the fact that one day chef's mood might be a little different. The next day the pork comes in at a different quality. I bet if you came on a Monday and a Tuesday, that difference would be the same as having the same bowl in the same day made at the same time from stall A to stall B. Yummy, though. The real win is now I get to have two bowls. But the soup here is cleaner as of now. You know, late morning, not quite peak time. The reason being they're continually cooking that broth with more and more pork throughout the
day. If you're less busy, you're going to add less pork to the dish. I think perhaps at dad stall the stock more likely has come into contact with raw pork more recently which means that you might get a little bit more of that porky flavor over there like fresh cooked pork kind of like blanched taste. It's cleaner here. It's a little bit more subtle. Dude, this is my first box for me. Thought it was delicious. Aggressive in the acidity but well-rounded without spice. It's a very sort of whole dish when it comes out. Bright red oil on the side. glossy noodles tossed in lard. What feels like every cut of pork imaginable. The textural differences, the textural
contrast, the whole thing makes for a very, very satisfying meal. Now, there's only one Michelin one-star restaurant in Singapore that is a street food stall, which is Taipua Pork Noodle. A Michelin one-star restaurant is on paper a very good restaurant within its category. It's gauged on a couple of things, including the expression of the personality of the chef in the dish. As a result, I often think as a consumer that a lot of the most creative and interesting restaurants all around the world fall into this Michelin star category. A lot of local Singaporeans, which I agree with, reject guides like the Michelin Guide because it feels like a western imposition of Western taste on the local market and local pallet. In
the same vein, if the national pastime here is telling other people that you have a better bach place than them, that you have a taste that's more authentic or you have a restaurant that you like a little bit more than everybody else, that's cool. It is a very effective guide and a very effective guide is for us travelers looking for a good bite, but it's not the only authority on deliciousness and food. I love this place. I had a really good time here. Knowing that a place like this is well recognized globally makes me want to find more places similar to this in a similar style with a similar history and attention to detail and technique that Taiwa has shown me today.
Welcome to this edition of Lucas is wearing a white shirt again. Who knows what's going to happen.
