Grandma Ban Mee @ Amoy Street – New Look, Old Flavours

My grandmother used to cook mee hoon kueh when I was a kid. She will prepare the dough and add dong cai (preserved winter vegetables) into it, tore them piece by piece into the boiling soup. That’s one of the sweetest childhood memory. Sometimes, we would eat you mian which we bought from the wet market.

When I visited Grandma Ban Mee (老妈子板面) at Amoy Street, memories start flowing as the stall name resonates with my childhood. During lunch time, the queue for this stall is very long. We decided to give it a try to see if it really brings back some feeling of nostalgia.

Honestly, it’s not really ban mee lor. It’s more like you mee. The menu is straightforward with only 3 options (Chilli/ Dry/Soup) and additional toppings come at extra charge. We were recommended to go for their their signature dry chilli ban mee ($5).

While I have not tried Kin Kin to make a comparison, the noodles here are springy with a moderately spicy chilli paste, egg, ikan bilis and minced meat. You could feel a little heat, but it keeps you going, perhaps due to the fragrance from shrimps. Before you know it, the bowl of noodles is gone!

I belong to the traditionalist who still love ban mee soup ($4), so we had to order it. Typically during my younger days, my grandmother only uses dried anchovies for the soup. But now, the taste profile has changed and we are looking at better tasting soup than before.

Grandma Ban Mee’s clear soup version was lighter than many other ban mee stalls but it’s filled with ingredients like mushrooms, black fungus, ikan bilis and vegetables. My dining partner finds it lack of depth, which is understand-able. But for me, it is probably a similar taste to what I eat at home. I call it “comfort”.

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