Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Of wanton mee and guotie

Some of my friends are crazy about wanton mee. I like WTM as much as the next man, but am not as crazy about it as say Hokkien Prawn Mee or Char Kway Teow. But WTM floats the boat for many, and today, I feature one which is favourite for those of us who hang around the Peninsula/Funan/Excelsior triangle.

The food is simple enough, noodles, a bit of char siew, some wantons. A killer sauce is essential, as the cook's judging of the cooking time...too long, the noodles become soft and floppy...not long enough, and it tastes of kee, and sometimes too firm. Just right, and it is almost heavenly. Springy noodles, with good bite.

The chilli had a rather nice bite. The wantan, swimming in a small bowl of savoury soup is tender, soft, and very tasty. Nice WTM.

A couple of stalls down, a handmade noodle stall offers guotie...not exactly the one sided pot stickers one typically gets, but this is beautifully browned all around

Nice, crispy skin, good flavour. Bite into it, and the hot soup squirts into one's mouth eliciting a beautiful taste and flavour, in combination with the minced meat within...very nice.

Worth a check out, but the queues on the WTM stall is rather long at meal times.

Food Court at Excelsior Shopping Center

Wantan Mee stall and Handmade noodle stall for guotie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 'guotie' is fried.


This is one of the bugbears I have about local food.

Its closer to a chicken nugget than what one might consider a 'guotie'

Shortcuts are taken lazy cooks, but customers also take the blame by lowering their standards to accept this.

FoodieFC said...

Is the food court at lv 1?

Scenes in Singapore life said...

Anonymous, pardon my ignorance, why is fried guotie a shortcut to the standard pan fried one? I just see it as different, and it is quite good tasting.

FoodieFC, yes, it is in level 1 of Excelsior.

FoodieFC said...

Hi Peter

thanks. The last time I went there 2 months ago did not see this wanton mee stall. Only saw a fish soup, handmade noodle and chai peng stall.

This must be new.

suka chiak said...

I agree with Anonymous in total. The authentic way of frying/cooking a guotie is to fry it on a flat pan with some oil. Half way through, chicken/pork stock is added and cover the pan with a lid, this way, whilst the lower portion is cooked by the oil and the stock is absorbed into the body of the guotie, the upper portion of is cooked by the steam generated. The end result is, whilst the lower portion is crispy, the upper part is soft and tender as opposed to the crispy ones as shown in the photo which look more like a badly done curry puff (lol). For my personal guidance, I will not patronise a stall that deep fries guotie like a curry puff.

Scenes in Singapore life said...

Thanks suka chiak..I learn something new.