Dear readers, on a recent Saturday, while I could have waken up much later than the usual 6am on working weekdays, I woke up especially early at 530am, having set my alarm the night before.
The reason: I would want to beat the queue, be among the first customers to partake the very famous 58 Bak Chor Mee or 58 Minced Meat Mee (as the stall name goes) at 58 New Upper Changi Road hawker centre as soon as it opens at 6am, before 58 Bak Chor Mee closes down for good on 1 Oct 2022! I have aimed to be among the first customers as I have read “horror” stories online of recent queuing time for 58 Minced Meat Mee of as long as 2.5 hours! As I do not drive, I arrived at the stall at around 0610 hrs after taking a train down. And I would have arrived even earlier if not of the constraint of the starting time of train services.
To my horror when I arrived at the hawker centre, there was already a queue. I would have expected that the queue line would be somewhere along the length of 20 to 30 mins type (trust me, I have visited this Bak Chor Mee stall many times to the extent that I can imagine how queue lengths of different waiting times looked like). But even more surprising, was that the queue was not the usual normal 45 minutes queue that customers would usually experience. It was longer than that, the queue ran all the way down to a chicken meat stall in the market! Based on the length of the crowd, I estimated that it would be easily a 2 hour wait and it would be the longest queue ever in my years of visiting this stall or waiting for food in my life. With that in mind, I prepared my long wait for the famous Bak Chor Mee. The picture below was photo of the queue at 0610 hours.
Of course, for someone like me who values time, I have prepared on what to do while waiting in a long queue: I took out my phone and began reading online newspapers, alike other customers queuing who engaged in one or other form of mobile phone activity.
While keeping my mind occupied, I was very puzzled that after 30 minutes of waiting, I was still at the same spot. The queue did not move a single notch at all! Yes, not a single centimetre forward at all after half an hour of waiting! And the stall was already open since 0600hrs. I reckoned this is due to the fact that each customer in front of me is now buying more than normal. I mean this is only logical for who will be prepared to join a queue of minimum average waiting time of 2 hours just to buy one or two bowls of Bak Chor Mee?
Finally, after 90 mins of wait, I moved up to somewhere more airy, into the hawker centre, where I could view 58 Minced Meat Mee stall.
As I waited, I could not help but to think that it seemed that the entire Singapore has descended on 58 Minced Meat Mee in recent days before the stall closure on 30 Sep 22. I believe there are two groups of customers queuing these days. First, new customers who have read of the stall closing down online and are rusingh down to have a bite of one of Singapore’s best Bak Chor Mee before it is too late. And the second group will be loyal customers like myself.
But be it old or new customers in the very long queue, it seems to me that Singaporeans are not just paying homage to 58 Bak Chor Mee, but are paying homage and capturing one last memories of another soon- to- be gone good, old and traditional Singapore food and food craft!
As I waited beyond the 2 hour 30 minutes mark, I saw contractors unloading more noodles at the stall, simply to keep up with the incessant demand!
At the 2hour 45min mark, I got even closer to 58 Minced Meat Mee stall. Leaving you readers photos of 58 Minced Meat Mee stall below which will soon enter into Singapore’s food history:
Photo of the 58 Minced Meat Mee Boss:
58 Minced Meat Mee@work
I have not heard of a successor for 58 Minced Meat Mee, it is almost a certain that this unique 58 Bak Chor Mee and the craft of making the unique noodles and soup will be lost forever. And I hope I have done my best in capturing a bit of Singapore’s food history in this post with my sharing of experience and photos taken. In all, I waited 3 hours for my order of the Bak Chor Mee.
But wait, I may still make another visit to 58 Minced Meat Mee before its final day of business on 30 Sep 2022 (but please note: 58 Minced Meat Mee opens only on Tues, Thursdays and weekends, hence I am not sure whether this stall opens on 30 Sep 2022 which is a Friday).
I may just run to the 58 Minced Meat Mee stall ahead of trains opening time, to be in the queue at 0530 hrs (I believe there will be a queue there, albeit a shorter one) for my final bite of 58 Minced Meat Mee, a Singapore food icon and legacy before 58 Minced Meat Mee becomes history.
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