Bib Gourmand Hor Fun Shi Hui Yuan and Margaret Drive Fishball Noodles

Bib Gourmand Hor Fun stall Shi Hui Yuan Hor Fun Speciality is probably the most famous stall in the Mei Ling Market and Food Centre in Queenstown. There are many other stalls that are also highly regarded. Today’s story is about our late breakfast of the Michelin award-winning hor fun as well as some crunchy fish balls and noodles from Xin Lu Teochew Fishball Noodles, which used to be at the Margaret Drive Hawker Centre.

 Bib Gourmand Hor Fun Shi Hui Yuan

The storefront of the stall that sells the Bib Gourmand Hor Fun,  Shi Hui Yuan, is simple and uncluttered. They only sell one thing – hor fun. But it is available with different permutations of toppings – mushroom, chicken feet, chicken, duck, braised spare ribs etc.  There are large tubs of gravy which is where the magic of this stall lies.

We selected the hor fun with chicken and duck ($5 for a medium-sized portion).  The Bib Gourmand hor fun was served neatly presented. The neatly cut chicken and duck were placed in opposite corners, separated by some vegetables.

The hor fun was the narrow type. The texture was smooth and silky like Ipoh hor fun. But the thing that made us take notice and probably the reason why it received the Michelin Bib Gourmand award was the gravy. The gravy has a complex, multi-dimensional taste. Rich, smoky and refined are adjectives that come to mind. But one has to try it to experience the taste. For just $5, the portion of hor fun with duck, chicken and vegetables was generous even if it was an average plate of hor fun. For a Michelin Bib Gourmand hor fun, we must say this was extremely good value for money.

Another stall that has a good following at Mei Ling hawker centre is Xin Lu Teochew Fishball Noodles, which used to be at the Margaret Drive Hawker Centre.  We decided to have some mee pok tar with fishballs that day as well. They make the fishballs themselves at the stall.  As we approached the stall, the smell of fish was very strong. Maybe strong enough to put off some people. But we persisted and ordered our noodles.

The $3 dry mee pok noodles comes with a bowl of soup with five springy fish balls. We were glad there was no fishy taste. The fish balls were very good and so were the noodles.  The portion was not as large as the hor fun but it was still reasonably good value for money.

Overall, a fruitful visit to the Mei Ling market and food centre that day.  Some Michelin awards may be controversial, but we think that Shi Hui Yuan fully deserves its Bib Gourmand Hor Fun status.