Dear readers, in recent weeks, I have had the opportunity to savour four famous Singapore mees all around Singapore and had a different thrilling experience each (hence four thrilling experiences)! In this post, join me in my sharing of my dining opportunities, thrilling experiences with these four famous Singapore mees!
First, a famous Hokkien mee stall in the East. I would not share further details of this stall, except that this store used to be a favourite of mine as the stall tucked away in a corner of a shophouse drew crowds with its very nice and tasty Hokkien mee. There were other stalls in the shophouse selling other fare but the highlight of the food shop is none other than the Hokkien mee.
When I went to try the Hokkien mee again in recent days, I noted that the whole food shop was converted into an air-conditioned shophouse but the Hokkien mee stall was still there. The ambience of the food shop was different not just physically but commercially. When I sat down to order the Hokkien mee, the attempt by the food shop assistants seem more on promoting the other dishes that the food shop had, other than Hokkien mee. I stayed true to the Hokkien mee, ordering just the Hokkien mee. When the Hokkien came, I was shocked at the quantity: it was little. I had another surprise when I tucked into the mee: the authentic taste and quality of the mee was gone and it was not just gone, but the mee tasted worse, in my opinion than any Hokkien mee, one can easily get elsewhere. I will not patronise this Hokkien mee stall again.
The second mee stall which I tried is a famous Lor mee, which was situated in the East. This famous Lor mee stall has expanded to various outlets and had employed some technology (but not AI please) to help them with certain aspects of the business. Prices there have gone up but have since stabilized. The quality of the Lor Mee which I had at the Old Airport Road branch was still as delightful as ever and this quality, from my experiences was consistent throughout the other branches that I had patronised.
As compared to the Hokkien mee stall, I believe the Lor mee stall stayed true to what it has specialised and have expanded on it, as versus the Hokkien mee which has seem to now focus on other different areas (aka food in this context) and becoming average there. Worse, the Hokkien mee stall seems to not maintain the speciality (Hokkien mee) that draws customers to the stall. This is an example of a business case of specialisation versus diversification.
The third mee stall whose mee, to be more accurate, that I attempted to favour is a famous Wanton Mee in Amoy Street. The wanton mee served by the stall is one of the best in Singapore but few times there in recent days, I was left disappointed as the stall was closed (which should normally not be the case).
Last but not least, the fourth mee is ramen from a famous ramen chain. I used to think that the price of the ramen was on the high end but with inflation and given the fact that this ramen chain has roughly maintained its price, the pricing of the ramen seems to be more acceptable now. The quality of the ramen remains good and I had a satisfactory meal.
There you have, my four different experiences from four different mees. Hope you enjoy this read and perhap you have also gleaned some tips on what you can have for your next meal. For me, I will be heading down for a delicious Bak Chor Mee from a hawker centre at just $5 per bowl. Enjoy your meals and weekends!