New Toa Payoh Hawker Stall Sells Shiok Laksa With Jumbo Cockles The Size Of A Soup Spoon
We compared the fat, meaty giant ‘hum’ to a typical laksa blood cockle and found it almost three times bigger.
A Toa Payoh laksa stall has been quietly drawing crowds since opening in February this year. Simply named Toa Payoh 94 Laksa after its block address, the coffeeshop joint specialises in shiok laksa served with jumbo blood cockles that are almost the size of a soup spoon.
The stall was set up by the kopitiam operators, who also run other hawker stalls in the coffeeshop selling prawn noodles, zi char, cai png and beverages.No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
When 8days.sg visited the stall at around 7.30am on a weekday, there was a queue and constant stream of customers. The lady helming the stall told us that the laksa, made in a limited batch of about 200 bowls a day, typically sells out at around 1pm.
Loaded laksa
The stall only offers one dish, laksa, priced at $4.80 and $5.80. The gravy here is cooked using a prawn and lala stock spiked with a supplier-bought spice blend. A basic bowl ($4.80) comes with the usual laksa fixings like springy thick bee hoon, three pieces of tau pok, fish cake strips, a halved medium-sized prawn, half a hard-boiled egg and crunchy bean sprouts.
It also includes ‘fancier’ toppings like an extra dollop of ground hae bee and three fresh blood cockles. These aren’t the puny ‘hums’ you typically find in hawker laksa, but plump, good-sized ones, each around the size of a teaspoon head.
Go big or go home
Three cockles usually ain’t enough to hit the spot (if you, like us, are huge hum fans). But here you can top up $2 for an extra serving of cockles, around four to five pieces.There is also the unusual add-on of XL-sized blood cockles, available at $1 a pop and subjected to availability, though according to stall boss Steven, they "should have some stock daily". “We find the small hums at most laksa stalls miserable, so we wanted to serve ours with bigger cockles. Since the cockle stock from our supplier comes with jumbo ones, we offer them as an add-on,” says Steven.
Taste test
We ordered two giant hums to go with our laksa (which is a $2 top-up). The Malaysia-imported bivalves are served raw by default. But you can request for them to be blanched if you find them too bloody — it can be rather intimidating to see the huge heart-shaped hum with its vividly red flesh floating in the gravy.We can see why customers avoid the jumbo cockles, though it is a good sales gimmick. Compared to the succulent smaller ones, their flesh texture is tougher and more rubbery. We enjoy the explosion of briny juices when biting into the supersized hum, but the strong metallic taste might be too much for people who don’t fancy this shellfish.
The dried shrimp topping, strained from the laksa gravy after cooking, is quite the brilliant addition. Not only does it amplify the flavour of the laksa, we also enjoy chewing on bits of hae bee with every mouthful. The stall is open from 6.30am, so you can enjoy this decadent dish for breakfast too.
Toa Payoh 94 Laksa is at #01-30, Yi Hao Coffee Shop, 94 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, S310094. Opens daily from 6.30am–2pm.
Photos: Pyron Tan
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
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