There’s a fish ball noodle stall, almost anywhere in Singapore. These days, they are mainly contained in the modern “KopiTiam”, hawker centres (called so because there’s no airconditioning) and food court (normally in malls). But getting a satisfying bowl of noodles that would elicit one’s return again and again is a challenge.

In my adult life, I think the one fish ball noodle stall that I would go, almost without fair, each morning for my tea break is in this typical kopitiam (coffeeshop) along Choon Guan Street. Alas, this coffeeshop is long gone, to be replaced by the Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Being a long time customer, despite price increase, I still had my mee-pok-tah (akin to the Italian linguine except that it is broader) at 60 cents a bowl. A complementary old-world-Singapore-kopi capped it all.

For the uninitiated, mee-pok-tah or sic-mee-tah (this is the oily noodles, known as sic-mee, meaning cooked noodles), this is the “dry version” of the dish, which  come with a concoction of gravy consisting of chilli paste, oil, lard remainant (what is left after oil has been extracted from the pork fat through heating in a wok), light soya sauce, perhaps some other secret ingredients that would make one noodle stall different from the other. A bowl of soup with fish ball swimming in it accompanies the noodles.

Because of different people’s liking for different kind of chillis, one’s great mee-pok-tah might not be so to another.

Soon, there was another search for the mee-pok-tah for me again. While there were a couple of acceptable ones, they were not the “die die must go” type.

Soon, I discovered yet another wonderful mee-pok-tah stall. Interestingly, sometimes, one need to take a few times to confirm if one would miss it after a few days. Locating at this rather old, dirty looking and yet quaint coffeeshop. The owner was, I think, Hainanese. The coffeeshop was at the corner of the famous “gao-lau” (Hokkien), the brick-flat at the corner of Pickering St and South Bridge Rd. This place used to be the modern landmark of Chinatown.

By the time I discovered this coffeeshop, the place was already ageing. The atmosphere was friendly but noisy. I used to walk there from home. And then, when I started driving, the nightmare was to look for the few carpark lots just next to the coffeeshop. Next was to locate an available table. It was the place for breakfast before we go to work.

When my kids came along, we would start with the handcarry baby basket and proceeded to strollers. So, for a good three to four years, they would stare and wondered what it was that we were enjoying. And then, they started eating. For kids, nothing fancies them more than fish balls. But they are dangerous food because they could cause problems if the kids should accidentally swallow them. So, we were careful.

Then, they came to the stage when they could eat the noodles .. first in soup, and then, “dry” and soon, they were curious enough to ask for some chilli .. and more.

All good things would come to an end. In Singapore, they seem to end earlier and faster! And so, one day, we found that the coffeeshop was gone .. and it was not long before the building was also gone!

The big hunt for the next mee-pok-tah began again. 

Thanks to a tipoff, we went to this small market at Aljunied, near to Joo Seng Rd. In the dirty environment, next to the wet market, this almost authentic Teochew fishball noodle stall was a good stopgap. This noodle stalls only offer noodles with fish balls and fish cakes. All, made by the stall .. signature produce. These days, the stalls do not have the time to make their own fish balls and fish cakes. And so, the fish balls taste almost the same everywhere we go.

And then, they moved to a new hawker centre. The taste was no longer the same again. I didn’t know why. 

We were on our hunt again. Once again, I spotted this old couple run noodle stalls at Hong Lim Complex Hawker Centre, nested between two stalls selling Prawn Noodles - from the famous Hokkien Street of the old days. The wife was doing the cooking and the husband the delivery. Over time, the husband took over. Somehow the taste was not the same. And then, we have to queue up for our noodles. It is self service.

One day, while doing my other favourite activity, that is tracking Chinese temple activities, I spotted this old kopitiam at Lengkok Bahru. The kopitiam looked boring, almost dirty with a display of tables of different sizes. It looked very local and everyone seemed to know everyone, almost like a village kopitiam. I decided that it would be worth a try on the noodles since it was the only and anchor tenant of the kopitiam.

I hit jackpot. Since then, my family and I would come here during weekends to enjoy our mee-pok-tah. The Singapore kopi was also good. Although the coffee powder is delivered instead of being roasted as in the old days, the kopitiam boss confided in me that he still tried to do some blending, like using some of the white kopi from Ipoh and mixing with the black kopi, which could be from Java.

On a lazy weekend, taking a cuppa while waiting for my mee-poh-tah, I enjoyed listening to the bantering flying across between the noodle stallholder and the kopi brewer, often each digging at the other. The customers joined in. While continuously engaging in the bantering, our mee-poh man maintained his memory of the numerous orders stored somewhere in his brain. He is indeed one of the rare breeds who makes good use of his brain and could actually multiplex the uses of his brain, taking orders, joking and entertaining customers.

Often, I wondered, in panic, what if .. the old man decided to call it a day. The hunt will begin again!