Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Soon Soon Prawn Noodle and Zhong Mei Fried Carrot Cake - A Duo of Little Gems in Bedok

A Twitter follower from Mexico saw my photo of our local fried carrot cake and remarked "That does not look like any carrot cake I have eaten!"

Indeed, it is sometimes easy to forget that to folks from the west, carrot cake means a totally different thing. A dessert that accompanies a nice cup of Earl Grey, perhaps.

Yet, for all our memories of our local variant of a carrot cake, it is getting harder and harder to find really good and authentic ones anymore.

Our recent visit to Pek Kio market elicited one where the egg was beautifully cooked almost to the point of an omelette texture.

A recent recommendation by Smartcard has thrown up another little gem in his favorite Bedok eating vicinity.

The Carrot Cake that confounded a Mexican

Fried to almost tiny little bits of crispiness, the sweet caramel sauce was almost dry by the time it hit the plate. Lightly garnished with some spring onions, this was a plate of pure carrot cake addiction.

The textures were insanely crispy on the outside and gorgeously soft on the inside. It was as if the cook took the cooking to the edge in order to achieve the almost charred but just not there yet crunchiness.

For good measure, we had a second plate and lo and behold, it was cooked almost identical to the first plate. Yup, it was no fluke.

Soon Soon Prawn Noodles

Just next to the carrot cake stall, is this equally sumptuous prawn noodle outlet. It serves both the dry and wet versions, but I was told by Smart that the dry variant is the one to go for. And as always, he was right on the money.

Be warned though, that if you arrive anytime after 12pm, you run the risk of the stall finishing that day's output of food. We were fortunate to literally have the last 4 bowls of the day.

Dry Prawn Mee, the very last bowl

It came served with its signature metal bowl to hold the prawn broth separately for the dry mee. For a stall that is better known its dry noodles, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the soup was far superior to most normal wet prawn noodles.

It has a nice combination of prawn and pork bone sweetness, and packed a nice punch of flavors when you accompany the noodles with it. The dry noodles themselves had a delectable chilli sauce that was not overly spicy, giving the noodles a nice chilli coating.

The lard chunks, slices of prawn and fish cakes were generous though not overly so. All in all, it was a beautiful bowl of prawn mee.

2 little nuggets of hawker goodness, side by side in Bedok. And very affordable too.

Soon Soon Prawn Noodle #01-90
Zhong Mei Cooked Food #01-91
538 Bedok North Street 3

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