My first visit to Fishball Story was in April 2015 when Douglas Ng, 26, just started it at Golden Mile Food Centre. I remember it well that every bowl of noodles then was diligently cooked by him. This stall was closed later when a new one was opened at the University Town in National University of Singapore (NUS) and expanded to include another stall at Timbre+ in Ayer Rajah Crescent. After he closed the stall at NUS, he went into partnership with Char Grill Bar and 818 Seafood, they bought a coffee shop in Geylang and named it Hungry Bee, he started another stall there.
The newest stall is at the recently opened Yishun Park Hawker Centre, their first franchised stall. It was announced on their Facebook page and I commented on the same post, I wrote, "Hope the quality is the same." and gotten a reply, "Do not worry. He has been training with us for more than a month." I visited their stall at Timbre+ a few months back and was disappointed with the standard then. They received the Bib Gourmand award by Michelin in 2016 but it was dropped from the list in 2017.
I visited their stall at Yishun Park Hawker Centre on the first Sunday after their opening. The queue was still long even it was already past 2 pm. I waited for about 15 minutes to order. I went for the Premium Fishball Noodle ($6.50), the first item on their menu board. A basic bowl is priced at $3.50 with only the fishball and fishcake. Joe, the franchisee, was a bit slow in the cooking process. Apparently, a month of training did not seem to be quite adequate for him but hopefully he will do better in time to come.
The Premium Fishball Noodle consists of a good portion of nicely cooked mee pok tossed with sambal chili and lard bits, with 3 pieces of handmade fishballs and a few slices of their handmade fishcake with 2 pieces of fried fish skin and a piece of fried beancurd with stuffed fish paste. Those fishballs are made from using yellowtail fish and no flour is added at their central kitchen, its texture is firmer and springier as compared to most of the others.
It was still good but somehow, it did not taste as good as my first time tasted it, something is just missing somewhat and it just did not taste quite the same. I felt the additional fried fish skin did not actually go too well with the noodle. The likely reason for doing so is to justify a higher price.
FISHBALL STORY
51 Yishun Avenue 11 #01-27 Yishun Park Hawker Centre SINGAPORE 768867
Operating Hours: 6.00 am to 10.00 pm (Closed on Wednesdays)
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