Fishball Noodles

Introduction
The humble Fishball Noodles is a lunch and dinner staple of the Little Red Dot. In fact, many fishball noodle shops start selling from breakfast time, which is my favourite time to have this simple dish.

As far as I know, the Teochew Chinese were the originators of this dish. I suspect the immigrants either brought this from China, or re-invented the dish when they arrived in Singapore.

The Singaporean fishball is a springy ball made from a mixture of salt, flour and fish meat. Usually made from very fresh fish, it has a smooth, springy texture, is white in colour and of the size that is slightly smaller than a ping pong ball.

Thus, the fishball noodle, as the name implies, is simply a bowl of noodles served with fishballs.  The dish is served either dry or in soup. You get to also decide on the sauce and noodle type.

Preparation
For sauce, the usual choices are with chili, with tomato sauce or just tossed with oil (ask for "white", ie cooked without other condiments). Some varieties are served with black soy sauce (quite rare) and gives you the options to add black vinegar.

For noodles, the choices are quite varied as well. In fact, this is a big feature in all Singaporean noodle shops; you always have a choice of types of noodles. I'll probably talk about that in a separate blog, but generally, for fishball noodles, we can go for Mee Kia, Mee Pok, Kuay Teow and Bee Tai Mak.

In a sense, the noodle stalls in Singapore is very much like ramen stalls in Japan; there is actually a lot of variety around the standard ingredients. Every Singaporean grew up eating one type or the other, and therefore you will have fans for each kind. Some like the noodles cooked through, while others like them al dente. Some like to add beansprouts, while others have it with lettuce. I've seen very oily tossed noodles and also very watery ones, all with their fan base.

Personal Thoughts
My personal favourite is the dry "white" version, served with Mee Pok, tossed with pork lard, shallots, minced meat and fish cake slices. I don't think I'm in the majority though, as most Singaporeans prefer to have them with chili or with tomato sauce.

To me, fishball noodles is the ultimate comfort food. I grew up eating the dry "white" version, having it almost every week. It's one of cheaper "proper" meal options you can find in hawker centres in Singapore, and depending on how you order it (eg. in soup, or dry with no oil in the sauce) it can be a very healthy dish.

A good bowl of fishball noodles centres, quite naturally, around the fishball.  It should not have the stingy, fishy smell, and should be able to mix well with the sauce. Some patrons actually like their fishballs to have a a slightly fishy taste. To them, that's the taste of the ocean! Either way, the taste of the fishball should be pleasant and not overpowering.

The rest of bowl, then, revolves around how the noodles pairs with the sauce. Given the wide variety of sauces, there is no single "best" taste. But needless to say, a popular noodle stall would get this pairing just nice, which in turn complements the fishball.

A lot of times, as with dishes the world over, the secret is in the sauce. A lot of veteran fishball noodles chefs put in a lot of effort into perfecting the sauce mix. This includes making their very old chili paste used in the noodles A good sauce mix can make all the difference in the taste of the entire dish.