You Peng Noodle Dumpling House at Beauty World Food Centre is immensely popular for their affordably priced xiao long bao (小笼包) and jiaozi (饺子) that are freshly made at the stall daily.
Despite located at a inconspicuous location of the food centre, the stall continues to attract a healthy queue of followers who are willing to stand in line for their fix of dumplings. It is a norm to see individuals savoring multiple bamboo steamers of xiao long bao at one go.
To be honest, I am not too big a fan of either as I find such pork fillings usually too heavily marinated for my liking.
That is why I tend to avoid pork items like siew mai, xiao long bao and even big pau as they tastes the same to me after a while which can be a little overwhelming.
Pray tell, what am I doing here then? Well, that is because they also offer a few noodle dishes on the menu such as dumpling noodle, wanton noodle, Sze Chuan dan dan noodle, egg & tomato noodle, special sauce noodle and sour & spicy noodle.
After some considerations, I decided to go for the sour & spicy noodle (suan la mian/酸辣面). Anything sour with black vinegar will appeal to me.
The male stall owner attended to me and wrote down my order in a stack of white papers. I paid up and was given a buzzer to notify me to collect my order once it is ready.
It did not take more than five minutes before my buzzer buzzed. I returned to the stall with it, collected my noodle and he crossed out my order on the paper.
Ingredients in the bowl included dried lily buds, slivers of wood ear, cubes of tofu and knobs of minced pork.
I did not realize that dried lily buds are part of the recipe for the dish. If I had known earlier, I would not have ordered this as I disliked the texture as well as its earthy flavor but thankfully, there was not much of it to deal with.
On the other hand, the crunch from the wood ear and softness of the tofu provided some contrasting textures.
I know the knobs of minced pork are probably the same as those that gets wrapped in the xiao long bao. What gave the game away? The heavy marinade.
I wished there were more egg ribbons though as they are not too visible if there is any at all.
If you would like to have xiao long bao or jiaozi and guo tie at home, they do sell frozen ones which you can store in your freezer so you could have them anytime when the occasion calls for it.
YOU PENG NOODLE DUMPLING HOUSE 有朋拉面饺子馆
Beauty World Centre
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#04-23
Singapore 588177
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#04-23
Singapore 588177
Business Hours
Mon - Sun: 10.30am - 9pm
Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/vV1D6Rm7vgMLBMFG9