“Penang Man” Prawn Mee Hawker Says Biz Improved 30% After Featuring His Face On Signboard - 8days Skip to main content

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“Penang Man” Prawn Mee Hawker Says Biz Improved 30% After Featuring His Face On Signboard

The five-month-old Penang prawn mee stall previously had more generic branding. Its revamped signage looks suspiciously similar to another stall selling Hokkien mee.
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8days.sg first learned about new hawker stall Penang Man on Instagram when chef and owner of the popular Toa Payoh stall Hokkien Man Hokkien Mee, Xavier Neo, posted a photo of their very similar signboards, declaring that they are not long-lost brothers and that he hasn’t expanded his business. Intrigued, we began our search for said Penang man and tracked him down to Albert Centre Market and Food Centre.
The man on the signboard is Penang-born Loh Boon Pin, 38. He started the hawker stall last December and as it turns out, he also sells Hokkien mee, but a different kind – soupy, spicy prawn noodles (the dish is known as Hokkien mee in Penang). He learned how to cook the signature dish from his hawker mum, whom he pays homage to by stating her year of birth on the signboard. Also on offer are Penang specialties assam laksa and lor mee.

During our chat with Boon Pin, now a Singapore PR, we ask about his eye-catching signboard, which bears a striking resemblance to Hokkien Man Hokkien Mee’s one. Even the names of their stalls and the towkays’ hairdos are similar. Boon Pin says it was his nephew who designed it and he had no idea they were so alike until a netizen pointed it out online.

“To be honest, I had not heard of [Hokkien Man Hokkien Mee, pictured above] until someone commented on Facebook that our signboards are very similar and asked if our businesses are related. No one said I copied him or mistook me for him,” adding that he has not tried Xaiver’s Hokkien mee nor has either man contacted each other via social media.

“My nephew gave me three designs to choose from and I picked the one with my face on it. I wanted to create my own brand. I don’t feel paiseh putting my face on the signboard. People can laugh at me if they want. For all you know, people recognise me now and will give me a discount when I go out and eat,” he laughs.

He’s not bothered by the similarities and didn’t ask his nephew about it ’cos “what’s done is done”. And changing the signboard was not an option ’cos it had already been revamped once.

Biz improved by 30 percent after getting rid of the old signboard

“I designed the previous signboard. The stall’s name was originally in Chinese with the Hokkien name ‘Pin Neng Lang Prawn Noodles’ below it. But my family thought it was ugly, so we redesigned the signboard and menu in January. We simplified things and featured the stall’s name in English — Penang Man — instead so it’s easier for tourists to understand,” he shares.

Best decision ever. Business improved by around 30 percent after the revamp thanks to the clearer menu and branding. “And putting my face definitely also helped to attract more people to the stall,” says Boon Pin. He explains that folks who were curious about who “Penang man” was often ended up trying his food.

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Started biz ’cos he misses Penang food

Boon Pin isn’t new to F&B. His family has been running a prawn mee stall in his hometown for more than three decades. The business in Malaysia is now helmed by his brother. When Boon Pin relocated to Singapore in 2006, he worked as a home renovation contractor, focusing on door installation, for a decade before switching careers to become a hawker assistant and cook. He learned the ropes at hawker stalls Lin Ji Pig Trotter Rice and Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu, both at Albert Centre Market and Food Centre, for five years, before investing $12K to open his own stall last year.

“I’ve always wanted to start my own business selling Penang specialties ’cos I miss food from my hometown. I just cannot find the taste I want in Singapore. It wasn’t such a big learning curve as I already knew how to cook these dishes from my mum and had worked at other hawker stalls for a few years,” he shares.

Contractor job was a lot easier

Despite this, he admits that life was more cushy when he was a renovation contractor — he earned around the same salary but only worked a third of the hours.

“If I start work at 10.30am, I could knock off at around 2.30pm. I was self-employed and just had to handle jobs that were outsourced to me and I could go home when I was done. I rarely worked till 6pm. I made around $4K to $5K a month, which is close to what I earn now. There was once, I earned $11K to $12K,” he says.

“Part of the reason why I changed careers was ’cos I injured my leg and have difficulty squatting [to fix doors]. Hawker life is tough. I feel overwhelmed ’cos I run the stall alone and there are endless things to do, but I never regretted taking this path.”

Some tweaks to suit local palate

To keep things manageable, Boon Pin has kept his menu lean, offering just three items: prawn mee (soup or dry), assam laksa and Penang braised sauce noodles, also known as lor mee. The noodles are priced at $5 or $5.50, while add-ons like braised egg and prawns are available from $1. 

As much as Boon Pin would like to offer an authentic taste of Penang, he’s had to tone down the spice levels and flavours to suit the local palate. “When I first opened, customers said my prawn mee was too salty, so I slowly tweaked the recipe to give it a hint of sweetness. I get a lot of customers who are from Penang and they can accept this taste. My mum approves of it too,” he says. 

But it seems like he has nothing to worry about. There was a constant stream of customers at the stall when 8days.sg dropped at 3pm on a weekday and there were times where Boon Pin had to pull down the shutters so he could catch a breather and have his lunch.

“No choice, I need to eat ’cos occasionally, or I will get gastric pain and I’m not someone who can work and eat at the same time,” he quips.

Penang Prawn Noodles, $5 for soup; $5.50 for dry (8 DAYS Pick!)

Despite the Penang prawn mee branding, this tastes closer to our local hae mee, which is not spicy. Boon Pin doesn’t add chilli to his broth to cater to more customers. “If you want your prawn mee to have more kick, just help yourself to the chilli,” he says.

Nevertheless, the orange-tinged soup, made by simmering fried prawn heads and shells in pork broth for four hours, is robust and pleasantly briny. After mixing in the sweet-tangy chilli paste, the soup is pretty similar to the other Penang-style prawn noodles we’ve tried. We prefer it sans chilli so we can taste the natural sweetness of the broth.

Apart from pork slices, fish cake, beansprouts, kang kong, and half a braised egg, you get five tiny prawns — each about the size of a $1 coin. While the frozen prawns, which are fried in lard and chilli to enhance their aromatic flavour, are tasty, we’re not fans of the slightly rubbery texture.

Assam Laksa, $5.50

As soon as we took a sip of the soup, we were hit by a blast of spice and tang from the tamarind. Besides fresh kembong (mackerel), Boon Pin adds canned sardines to enhance the broth. The result is a rich, punchy soup that whets the appetite.  

The dish is served with thick, chewy rice noodles and the usual toppings like thinly-sliced cucumber, onions, and a drizzle of umami hae ko (fermented shrimp paste). A small gripe we have is the lack of the classic pineapple garnish, which Boon Pin omits as they “go bad easily from the heat at the stall”, and skimpy portion of fish.

Penang Braised Sauce Noodles, $5

The Penang-style braised sauce noodles, or lor mee, is similar to our local version, but served with prawn mee toppings. Though the gravy has a pronounced five-spice flavour, it lacks the fragrance of other aromatics often found in lor mee like cinnamon and star anise. We also like our lor mee with garlic and vinegar, which Boon Pin doesn’t add or offer on the side, so this didn’t quite hit the spot for us.

Bottom line

Aside from the texture of the frozen prawns, this is a more-than-satisfying bowl of prawn mee, even though you’ll have to stir in the chilli yourself to enjoy it as a quintessentially spicy Penang-style version. But the delish, full-bodied broth and generous toppings make up for it. The assam laksa is worth a try too.

The details

Penang Man is at #01-109, Albert Centre Market & Food Centre, 270 Queen St, S180270. Open daily except Sun, 9am-7pm. More info via Instagram.

Photos: Alvin Teo

No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.

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