Wonton Noodles

I had the worst dry wonton noodle experience today. Growing up in Malaysia, more specifically Paramount Garden in Petaling Jaya saw plenty of encounters with the dry wonton noodle. With the encounters you tend to have a fixed idea of what a plate of dry wonton noodle should be. I generally do not like the way dry wonton noodle is cooked in Singapore, as they use heavily alkalined thin egg noodles. I don't like the way Hong Kong do their dry wonton noodles either, they use oyster sauce... such a no-no.

For those of you who are not familiar with the dry wonton noodle, it's a plate of thick egg noodles, cooked in boiling water, rinsed in cold water and plunged back into the boiling water for a few more seconds, dished out with dark soy sauce and sesame oil, barbequed pork and wrapped minced meat (dumplings). The noodles have to be springy, crunchy and not clumped, the thinly sliced barbeque pork well marinated, juicy with bits of fat and the dumplings must contain a hint of fresh water chestnut.

Anyways, it's been a while since we ventured to the Tiong Bahru food centre and market and spotting a wonton noodle shop with a queue, I decided to try it. People always say that where there's a queue, the food can't be all that bad. After 15 minutes of queuing, which didn't bring me closer to placing my order and the lack of enthusiasm orders were taken, I decided to find another shop. This one, specialising in Cantonese meats, had no queue, but they were just starting out. The water to cook the noodles in wasn't even boiled, so even as I was the first to place an order, I had to wait another 8 minutes. Suffice to say, I won't be heading to this food centre anytime soon, the noodles were 'lembek', the pork was dry but the wontons were alright.