Popular MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles At Tai Thong Crescent Relocating, Future Of Coffeeshop “Uncertain”
Some say the best bak chor mee in Singapore is found at Crawford Lane’s Hill St Tai Hwa Pork Noodle, but another stall, MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles, is also pretty popular. It currently has three stalls operating under the same brand name islandwide, with the original stall now located at Tai Seng.
But of these three stalls, the Tai Thong outlet is the most popular online, garnering a 4.3-star rating and over 300 Google Reviews to date (by modern standards, that’s considered a good thing). And even more surprising, it’s run by an apprentice of the OG hawker.
But Tai Thong stallowner Ho Qiu Yong (who goes by Yong), 40, tells 8days.sg that he’s closing his bak chor mee eatery this Aug 14, and is looking to relocate to a nearby location. He had been operating out of a coffeeshop at 47 Tai Thong Crescent for three years.
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What happened?
His decision to close comes after the unfortunate news that the coffeeshop’s owner, Look Chee Kiow, passed away in March this year aged 95. News of Chee Kiow’s passing was first announced by Facebook user Jeremy See, who wrote in a post that “the future ownership of the coffeeshop looks uncertain”.
Planning to relocate nearby
Similarly, Yong tells 8days.sg that “the future of the coffeeshop is uncertain, ‘cos we don’t know if the owner’s son wants to sell the building or rent it to a bigger organisation”. Thus, instead of waiting around, he prefers to “find a new location”.
The hawker shares that he is currently “in discussion with one of the owners of a coffeeshop 1.5km away [from his current stall], but it’s not confirmed yet”.
Not affiliated to the OG MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles
The original MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles stall is owned by hawker Yap Lye Hock, who bought it over from its previous towkay back in 2009. He shifted his business from Opal Crescent to Tai Seng in April this year.
There are now three outlets under the MacPherson name, but Lye Hock tells 8days.sg that only his Tai Seng outlet is the ‘original’.
The other two in Tai Thong Crescent and Bukit Batok, he says, are run independently. His former apprentice Yong runs the Tai Thong stall, while Lye Hock’s sister and brother-in-law man the Bukit Batok branch.
Yong, who used to operate an IT retail store, trained under Lye Hock for two years. During that period, he learnt how to cook bak chor mee from the older man.
Lye Hock shares that “[Yong] expressed interest in learning how to cook bak chor mee, so he worked part-time with me to learn the ropes before he went on to open his own stall”.
Yong didn’t have to pay any fees for the apprenticeship, but he still repaid Lye Hock monetarily. He explains: “At the start [of running my Tai Thong Crescent stall], Uncle Yap came down to help, so I gave him a percentage of profits from the stall.”
As for why his Tai Thong outlet is seemingly the most popular of the three, with the most reviews online, Yong says: “I refined a bit of the original recipe to make it better, so maybe the flavour suits customers more.”
Not worried about losing regulars
With his upcoming relocation, Yong tells 8days.sg that he’s not worried about losing his regular customers. “Most of my regulars already know I’m shifting, and they’re all asking where I’m moving to,” he says, adding: “Some of the customers live around here, so they have spread the news”.
MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles (Tai Thong Crescent) is at 47 Tai Thong Cres, S347867. Open Mon, Wed-Sun 6.30am-1.30pm (closed on Tues). Tel: 9152-4414.
Photos: MacPherson Minced Meat Noodles, Burpple/Triffany Lim, Burpple/Jonathan Lim, Facebook/Tann Benjamin, Facebook/Kelvin Tan
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
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