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Monday, July 22, 2024

Woodlands Claypot Prawn & Hokkien Mee @ Marsiling in Woodlands [Singapore]

Videos of bubbling hot claypot prawns had been appearing on my social media feed for quite some time and with a review score of 4.5 from 326 reviewers, I guess it's time for me to make my way up to Woodlands!

Time was 9.11 pm, with less than an hour to go before its closing! I was so dead afraid to come during lunch or dinner as Singaporeans can be real crazy with queuing; hence, I decided to wait for a friend who was working till late to join me for a late dinner.

How to order? Make a beeline for the cashier at the stall, take the double sided laminated menu and a whiteboard marker, find a table, ponder about your order, indicate your order and write down your table number on the menu using the whiteboard marker, proceed to the cashier, make payment, and then wait for your food.

While waiting for our food, I was enjoying the fun and laughter from the table near us, and was patting myself on my back that I went for the bare basics for this meal, without opting for the extras that would have been too much for us!

You can also take the opportunity to take / design your own sauces; in addition to common ones like thai chilli sauce, there were also homemade chilli sauce, Japanese sesame dressing, hot chicken korea sauce, and even nacho cheese! Help yourself to the raw garlic, coriander and chilli padi too.

These items were placed on our table and I knew I shouldn't be so enthusiastic to immediately remove the cover of the claypot. From observations, the claypot would be cooked via the charcoal stove and I should just be patient, and bide my time. 

Seven minutes later, a stove with tongues of uncontrollable flames and a mouth filled was red-hot charcoal was placed on the metal plate. I must admit; high quality charcoal was used as there were hardly any smoke!

Cooking the claypot.
Wait again.

Hokkien Mee - let's begin with the specialty hokkien mee first! Despite the raw egg, there's no further cooking required and you would have to mix everything up! Honestly, it would have been nice for the stall to inform us as we were totally clueless, until we asked.

Tossing process threw out a disappointment; I realized the noodles used for the hokkien mee were a mix of yellow noodles and thick bee hoon but 90% was the former, which I generally don't enjoy. Oh well, must try before commenting further. p.s. portion looked tiny but bowl was deep. 

Initially, I thought the noodles were too dry and didn't soak up enough of the thickened prawn broth. Turned out the broth was at the bottom! As it turned out, it was just too much yellow noodles for me and while the broth was above average with a rich seafood flavour; it's the prawns that were the main stars. There wasn't much wok hei and I would love more pork lard too...

Specialty Prawn BrothClaypot cover was sizzling and we had to notify the stall operator before it was removed; revealing boiling hot soup that was bubbling over a school of prawns that numbered a total of twelve! That explained its basic high price of S$32.80! 

Couldn't wait to take sip and my first sip was unexpected as I thought the soup would be thick and heavy of prawns but it turned out to be lighter, more watery and tasted more like typical prawn soup that will not have commanded such a high price.

But we have to be fair, the prawns were not small prawns and I had to admit that they were fresh tasting with sweet, succulent meat that made me almost regretted not paying the S$15.80 more for an extra 500 grams! 

In addition, the broth tasted much better as the prawns simmered further in the claypot, slowly releasing all their sinful essences into the soup, making it taste a lot more robust, and yummier! p.s. might get a bit too salty towards the end. 

Before long, the claypot dried up and the prawns were comfortably in our tummy. As the charcoals were still burning, you can opt to top up the claypot with normal stock soup for free but there were just two of us, and our tummies were already full.

Again, the prawns were so good! 

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I wouldn't go back for the hokkien mee but on a cool, rainy day, I bet I would seek solace in boiling claypot of delicious tiger prawns. That would have been so shiok! 

Not wasting the videos I took! 

Address
10, Marsiling Industrial Estate Road 1,
#01-01, Stall #7, Eden Food Mall,
Singapore 739276

Map
As above.

Operating Hours
12.00 pm to 10.00 pm
(Last order at about 9.30 pm) 

Pricing
Hokkien Mee - S$8.00
Specialty Prawn Broth - S$32.80
(NETT)

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