Zhen Ji Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle – Bak Chor Mee In Bendemeer (Go For The Soup One!)

I’ve heard lots of good things about the Bendemeer ‘hood, so I decided to pay Bendemeer Market & Food Centre a visit. As I was searching the crowded hawker centre for a line that wasn’t too ridiculously long (gots to have my breakfast fast cause I get hangry in the morning), Zhen Ji Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle caught my eye. You can never go wrong with having bak chor mee for breakfast and it had a somewhat decent queue, so why not? 

There were only two things available on the menu, which were Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles (duh) with a soup and dry version in two different sizes ($3.50 for small, $4 for large). I quickly found out the reason behind the long queue; service was a little on the slow side when the auntie was cooking. It went a bit faster when the uncle took over. 

I usually go for the dry version of minced meat noodles because I love dishes with lots of flavour. Unfortunately, this one fell short in terms of it. While the noodles were plenty springy, the sauce was lacking in umami and had too much of a sweet, dark-soy-sauce-like taste. There also wasn’t any spice I could taste. 

I guess the only saving grace was the fried wantons. The meat inside was flavoured decently; if only it was stuffed more generously. The mushrooms were alright as well, albeit a little on the dry side. There were also fish cakes, pork slices and liver, so at least the ingredients are plentiful enough to give me a full tummy. 

The soup version fared much better than the dry one here. The broth was beautifully clear and held a lot more flavour than the sauce from the dry minced meat noodles. It was a refreshing change and came with the same hearty amount of ingredients and an addition of Teochew fish dumplings!

Noods were as QQ as the ones used in the dry minced meat noodles. I was surprised that they decided to add fried wanton to the soup because it got soggy but it wasn’t too much of an issue for me. 

Not the most delicious bowl of noodles but there’s something about its flavours that make it comforting. Most of the customers were regulars and it was heart-warming to see the banter between them and watching the auntie and uncle run the stall. The next time I’m craving minced meat noodles while I’m in Bendemeer, I wouldn’t mind going for the soupy one again.

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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