Cheng Hui 72 Handmade Wanton Noodle – Delicious KL Style Wanton Mee in Seletar Hills Coffee Shop

Wanton mee needs no introduction. When it comes to a great wanton mee, it’s hard to find one which gets all elements perfect – from the noodle texture to the wanton toppings. One of my favourite is Cheng Hui 72 Handmade Wanton Noodle.

Located in a quaint coffee shop at Seletar Hills, Cheng Hui 72 Handmade Wanton Noodle is owned by 37-year-old Ah Hui. He has been helping out at his father’s wanton mee stall (previously known as M.S 36 Wanton Noodle) at Jalan Besar before moving to this neighbourhood. He runs the stall on his own now.

Their superb egg noodles take centrestage, which is different from the usual mee-kia. They used to make it on their own, but it is too much work. Then he got the noodles from a factory in Malaysia but the quality is not consistent. Recently, he worked with a noodle factory in Singapore and they manufactured his noodles according to his requirements. If you have tried his noodles before, you will know that his noodles does not have the alkaline taste. And the appearance of the noodle is pale – showing the real colour of the wheat and egg base. Ah Hui has minimised adding lye water in his noodles.

He will first blanch the noodles in boiling water, before ladling out for a cold water bath to give them a springy texture. They are then dipped into hot water again and quickly tossed in the sauce to give them a silky texture. The QQ egg noodles is what I like the most. They continue to remain springy and bouncy even when consumed slowly and do not become soggy, maintaining that bite from the first to the last strand.

There are different ways on how to you can enjoy the noodles. You can have the usual style with just chilli sauce and lard oil. I like the KL style where the noodles are tossed in a black soy sauce, chilli sauce and heaped with fragrant pork lard which gives it the glistening look.

The next star is the huge and juicy dumplings (水饺) filled with pork mince wrapped in the stall. Ah Hui wraps his own dumplings and wantons daily with fresh minced pork and flavoured with dried sole fish (teepo). It boosts good flavour and texture. Seeing him skilfully hand-pressing out one dumpling at a time through his thumb and index finger – that is a lot of work!

My husband loves party in a bowl so he prefers the wanton mee which comes with fried wanton, char siew, vegetables and a bowl of soup wantons. Don’t expect modern fatty char siew, they use the old school kind of char siew here.

This was, for me, one of the better wonton noodles I’ve eaten in a while.