58 Minced Meat Noodle – Best Bak Chor Mee in Jurong

I stay in the North East so travelling all the way to Jurong is not something I look forward to. But when Deon from 58 Minced Meat Noodles agreed to an interview, I gladly made my trip to Jurong without any complaints.

58 Minced Meat Noodles Taman at Jurong Food Centre is very popular. It was started in 1973 by Deon’s father and Deon has been helping out since his teenage years. Deon took over the business about 15 years ago and continues serving hundreds of bowls of noodles daily.

I was curious about the “58” in the stall name. Deon explained that in the past, Taman Jurong Food Centre was known as liu shi tan (六十摊), which means  “sixty stalls” in Mandarin. As you might probably have guessed, there were exactly 60 stalls in the hawker centre. And his father’s minced meat noodles stall was stall number 58. After the food centre was rebuilt, Deon’s father decided to name it 58 Minced Meat Noodles.

Nothing much has changed even after Deon took over. He took 2 years to master the art of cooking noodles and even when his father’s friends were complaining about the dip in standard, he never gave up. “My father’s friends would come up to me and tell me straight in the face that my noodles cannot make it. I take their criticism seriously and keep practising to get it right.”

READ: 27 Bak Chor Mee Singaporeans Love

Deon says that the cooking time for every batch of noodles differs. With just a quick touch, he is able to determine how long he needs to cook the noodles. His helper will take the orders, and prepare the ingredients, while he cooks every bowl swiftly. I sat in front of his stall for an hour and all I say is, this man is very serious about his craft.

Each bowl of Bak Chor Mee (from $3) includes minced meat, pork slices, pork lard, mushroom and pig liver. The lightly cooked pork slices and liver pieces were tender. The noodles, which were not too soft and had a nice bite, were dressed in an addictive sauce that comprised pork lard and chilli sauce. The noodles were then topped off with sliced mushrooms. Deon still sticks to using porcelain bowl to serve all their noodles.

Bak chor mee is definitely a staple for all Singapore foodies. If you are here in the western part of Singapore, drop by Taman Jurong Food Centre for a good bowl of bak chor mee.