HotJap – Crunch on This Uber-Crispy Claypot Fried Bee Hoon (They Have Affordable Maki Too!)

There must be something in the waters over at Ang Mo Kio because lately, a lot of my delicious finds have been located there. A certain stall recently caught my attention — they serve a claypot bee hoon that comes with a magnificent crown of deep-fried bee hoon. Not only that, they also serve up maki sushi as well. Bringing affordable Japanese food and claypot dishes together under one coffee shop roof is Hot Jap. 

The HotJap Mee Hoon ($6.90/12.90) comes with three choices of protein: chicken, seafood and shabu-shabu. If you prefer to skip the crispy bee hoon, there’s the HotJap Mee ($6.90/12.90), with either seafood or mushroom tomato chicken. Salmon lovers should give their Salmon Soup ($5.90/10.90) a go. It doesn’t seem to come with rice but it would be nice if it was paired with a small bowl of it. 

The Maki side of the menu certainly looked luxurious. The sushi fillings are split into three different tiers, with options like katsu chicken and crab meat in the basic one ($8.90) and additions of smoked duck and abalone in the premium category ($12.90) and unagi and smoked salmon in the deluxe ($13.90) category. They also have an array of sauces to choose from to top your sushi off with, like lemon tobiko and wasabi mayo. 

A buzzer was given after I made my order and it was a while before I collected my first dish, which was the Ebi Fry Maki topped with the ever-popular mentaiko sauce and ebiko. There were eight pieces, which was a pretty good portion for its price. Stuffed with fried ebi and some chives, it made quite a tasty mouthful together with the rich mentaiko sauce. 

The HotJap Mee Hoon was an absolute stunner, with a beautiful fried bee hoon nest perched on the edge of the claypot. Some might find this dish similar to the crispy noodles that can be found at zi char stalls but to me, this was much better because the thin bee hoon strands made it even crisper. 

Made with pork bone broth that had been boiled painstakingly for at least eight hours, the thick, aromatic gravy was super flavourful. Hiding beneath were a couple of prawns, lala and greens, with an egg beaten into the broth. 

I first tried breaking off a chunk of the bee hoon for a very quick dip into the gravy so that it stays crisp without becoming soggy. And I LOVED it. In addition, it was not oily at all. I also tried leaving it to soak up all the flavour from the broth and that was also delicious for me to gobble it all up in a heartbeat. 

Hot Jap is a good place for friends and family to enjoy a good meal together. The latter part was especially true for me as my parents are ones to enjoy such claypot dishes while my younger siblings expressed more interest towards the maki. For me, the HotJap Mee Hoon is a definite must-try!

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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