Over the course of last few months we have had meals from this stall about, shall I say, five or six times.
Discovery of this stall came as quite a surprise.
We had not known how the food of this stall here at Marine Parade Central was, if it be tasty, if it be good, if it be worth our dollar, so, imagine, how, to our surprise, the first time we tried the food, we found it to be incredibly tasty, appetizing, worth the palate, worth the dollar.
These days there aren't many places where one can have a sufficiently shiok meal at a reasonable single-digit price.
Thankfully here at this stall, I can.
When we first started coming here we ordered just the chili mala dumplings.
Afterwards I realized that they had some dishes that I'd always been wanting to try, so I tried.
One of the very first bowls I ordered for myself was the Black Bean Noodle, or the Zha Jiang Mian. It was something I had learnt from the Korean side a very long time ago but somehow had never had the opportunity to try.
First time I had the noodle I didn't take the picture nice.
So the second (or third or fourth) time I had the noodle, I made sure to sweep all them shredded cucumbers to the side, lay aside the noodles, and then shovel out the minced meat and sauce until it were all on the top.
Much better.
Actually it didn't matter how it looked.
The taste all were as delicious the same.
I'm not sure how to describe the taste. There's not much of the individual black beans, honestly, but the taste of it rests entirely in the sauce, and which, given the way they do it, gets mixed thoroughly with the minced meats.
I got more of the sauce taste when eating the little balls of meat compared to when I was eating the noodles, but that being said, it didn't take me long to discover that the best way was really to mix everything up with chopsticks- cucumber, noodles, meat, all- and have them one mouthful together.
That way you got the fermented taste of the sauce, the rough grainy texture of the meat, the fresh green of the shredded cucumber and the smooth of the noodle all at once same time.
You know, it has been a while since we've gone back there.
Perhaps next time I decide to eat at this stall, I'll order the tomato egg noodles, and try, see if this time I can get the uncle to give me the flat noodles instead of them typical round ones.