Triple One

I got a call today from a Singaporean friend inviting me to lunch.  Who would be foolish enough to pass up a free lunch?  Not me!  I suggested that we meet up in Chinatown since there are a lot of places to eat there.  Once there, we headed for the food court at the Maunakea Marketplace.  The food court is made up of about 20 stalls or so, and as usual, it was packed.

We quickly walked around and decided to try the last stall on the end, Triple One.  It proclaims to sell, Chinese, Singaporean and Malaysian Food. 

My friend decided to have the Singapore laksa (US$5.00).  After all, isn't this Singapore's signature dish?  There are actually many different types of laksa, but this one seemed to be a variety of laksa lemak.

When the dish arrived, it looked much different than the picture that was on the menu board.  According to my friend, the flavoring of the soup was almost correct, but a little salty.  It was also missing the flavor of the laksa leaf, which I'm told makes this soup special.  The other thing that was wrong?  The noodles.  This version used a very thin rice noodle.  I'm told that the traditional laksa noodle is a bit thicker and much tastier.  Otherwise, the toppings were all there:  tofu, shrimp, fish balls, squid, bean sprouts and spring onions.

I, on the other hand, decided to have the Singapore hay mee (US$5.00). 

Now my understanding was that hay mee is a type of prawn noodle soup.  The stock, or soup, should have a strong prawn flavor for this to be authentic.  Sadly, this one did not.  The presentation of the dish, however, was OK.  There were bean sprouts and some spring onions to garnish, and 8 medium sized shrimp!

All in all, this was a bit of a disappointment.  I was hoping that this would be my introduction to at least a few of the traditional Singaporean dishes...oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait to try the real thing!

Triple One
Maunakea Marketplace Stall 121
Telephone:  808.533.4264

Comments

[Renee]

the hay mee looks pretty good from the photo tho' : )
and wow, the laksa really has a lot of "liaw" (chock-full of ingredients!)

[Min]

OMG!!Everything looks SO GOOD!My state is so deprived lol!

[Reid]

Renee,

The hay mee was not too bad, it was the laksa that was a let down. I'm hoping to try the real stuff soon!

Min,

There are only a few places here that sell this sort of food. There was another restaurant called New Century, but it closed down about 9 months ago. =(