Prawn Mee Not

This is the 4th day of Lunar New Year and I must admit that its simply feels great to be lazing around, doing nothing and nothing, spending quality time with my PS3, in-laws + families, TV, food and more food.

This happen some weeks ago on one of the lazy Sunday when me and my better half "Missy" was driving around the east, looking at potential "upmarket" properties that we can yet afford, unless of course, we become rich very soon or have the property market crash in a big way to $10 psf. 

Anyhow, by no luck and sheer chance, we came across this Beach Road Prawn Mee along east coast road with scores of people parking their cars illegally along the main road with just two lanes, so being a kiabo Singaporean, my first instinct was that we MUST try this "famous" prawn mee taking into consideration that there were so many typical kiasu and kiasi "friends" whom were willing to park illegal and risk paying a fine for $XX dollars by our trusted traffic warden who is about to rule the world with their ever worthy electronic summon device, we can't afford to give this dish a miss, else we will regret this for our eternal life, right ?

Upon entering this coffee shop, one will only two choices with the prawn mee obviously being the main attractive and the ngoh hiang acting as a secondary dish for those greedy souls like myself who can't stop ordering more than I can eat, however I must admit or even admired that this is an interesting combo that I have not seen before. 

Ring + Ring = Come $$$ come to DADDY

I reckon I would do the same if I too owned a business with $$$ rolling into the doorsteps with tons of FT working as cheap cost effective labors, just so that I made a politically correct statement.

Nevertheless, I must said that all the places are starting to look the identical with FTs running the F&B operations, makes me wonder where have all the locals gone to (or is our CPF finally sufficient for retirement, since no locals longer need to work in F&B anymore as cooks, servers or cleaners), or the other possibility is that the FTs are taking over Singapore slowly but surely.

In this case, I believe my photography skills did contributed to making this photo look too good

Lets us begin, the prawns to their credit was fresh without a doubt and it should have stopped there, however the pork ribs was solid like a stone or at least close to it, the noodle was noodle like any other stalls in any other hawker center or coffee shops with no surprises and lastly, the one thing that must be right but went terribly wrong personally for me was the soup, it simply tasted like water with some soya sauce added to it which is so uncharacteristic for a famous prawn mee. 

This was somewhat more decent

The ngoh hiang was undoubtedly more decent in comparison, ingredients were fresh and cooked to a nice crisp, but other than that you would be better off eating bread as it was just average and did I mentioned that the sauce was just below expectation, for it lacked texture, spice, taste and was a little watery, as if the prawn soup wasn't bad enough to deter me further. 

Stop looking at me fool, and eat your "overrated" prawn mee

  Verdict Out of Five (5*):

1. Quality of Food: 1 (Even my maggi mee may taste better, I said "may")
2. Ambiances: 1 (Illegal parking is way too much for an old man like me to take without a stroke)
3. Audiences: 2 (Mostly locals whom may have lost their taste buds or just curious like me)
4. Price: 0 (A bowl for $4.50/5.50/6.50 is more expensive than my combo meals at McDonald) 
5. Services: 1 (Cleaning can wait, we need more FTs)
6. Hygiene: 2 (Not the dirtiest I have been too)

So my overall conclusion is 1*, given that I believe this is simply a case of overrated food that is using their past reputation, and have foolish followers whom never had better prawn mee in their life.

Will I ever go back again, I reckon it will be a long long time like "Never" or till the cows come home from work in Mars whichever comes earlier, but do I wish to be take over as the owner, Yes please : )

Quote: "Eat, Money, More Money"