22-Year-Old Grandson Of Ah Ter Fishball Noodles Hawker Opens Own Stall & His Food Is Better Than Grandpa’s
The culinary school grad trained for only a year at grandpa’s popular stall Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Noodles before opening his own biz called Hock Lai Seng. But we think his noodles are yummier than the OG’s.
Over the past couple of months, a few new stalls have opened shop at Maxwell Food Centre, including Danlou, BBraise, and more. Among them is two-month-old Hock Lai Seng (Fu Lai Cheng in Chinese) Teochew Fishball Bak Chor Mee. Despite its traditional-sounding moniker, the stall is helmed by young hawker Marvin Kan, 22.
Don’t be fooled by his age — bak chor mee runs in Marvin’s veins. The culinary grad from At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy and fourth-generation hawker is the grandson of Ah Ter of the eponymous fishball noodle and bak chor mee stall at Amoy Street Food Centre.
Ah Ter’s dad founded the well-loved stall in 1958 and now Ah Ter runs it with his son, hawker hunk Gilbert Lim (Marvin’s uncle).
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without the permission from 8days.sg.
Trained by ah gong
Marvin has always been interested in F&B. He used to help out at his maternal grandfather’s stall during his secondary school and National Service days. After ORD last year, he spent a year working full-time at Ah Ter, learning the ropes from his grandfather and uncle.
Rather than carry on the Ah Ter legacy, Marvin decided to start his own brand with the help of his parents, investing around $30K into Hock Lai Seng. The name, he says, means "something good will happen”.
“I want to strike out on my own,” the young towkay tells 8days.sg. “I didn’t even think of opening an Ah Ter branch. Though I learned how to cook the noodles from my ah gong and uncle and I follow their recipes, all three of our bak chor mee taste different ’cos we have our own styles of cooking, so I feel I should start my own brand.”
His family has been supportive. Marvin’s parents help him with the food prep at the stall each morning at 6am, before his girlfriend, Hubei-born Huang Qin, 32, takes over at around 9am. The couple met when Marvin was interning at Hai Di Lao, where she worked as a server, in 2019.
While Marvin acknowledges that rental at the popular food haunt is a tad steep – he pays $5.5K a month – he decided to follow his ah gong’s advice and open shop in the Maxwell area.
“His stall has been in this area for a long time and he says it’s good for business,” says Marvin. “We can also help each other out as our stalls are near each other. A few days ago, they ran out of sambal chilli and came to get some from me.”
He’s very serious about his bak chor mee
Marvin is a purist when it comes to bak chor mee. He cooks it the traditional way like he was taught and even uses the same suppliers as Ah Ter. “I don’t like fusion stuff or when people try to modernise techniques,” he explains.
To keep his food consistent, he insists on handling all the cooking himself and refuses to train his girlfriend or let his mum, who used to run Ah Ter, take over the reins when he is away from the stall.
During our shoot, we observe the stoic hawker as he tosses the noodles for each order of dry bak chor mee in the sauce blend around 20 times with utmost concentration. Is there a specific number of times that you must toss it, we ask.
“No,” replies Marvin, breaking into a shy smile. “I just want to cook a good bowl of noodles for my customers. I get annoyed when my girlfriend or mum tell me to cook faster. I don’t want to rush things and end up doing a bad job.”
He’s definitely doing something right. Despite not having a social media account for his stall – and has no intentions of starting one – Marvin tells us that business has been pretty good. There was a constant stream of customers when we dropped by on several occasions after the lunch rush.
“We sell around 300 bowls of noodles a day. Some days, we can sell out at 5pm,” he says.
The menu
The menu here is simple: soup or dry bak chor mee in various sizes. Amped up with handmade fishballs. Customers can choose from eight types of noodles including mee pok, mee kia, and tang hoon for their carb. The most basic BCM ($4.50) is adorned with two handmade fishballs, sliced fishcake, alongside braised mushroom, and a generous serving of minced pork and lard. Their popular $6 bowl comes with extra trimmings like a meatball, regular-sized prawn, pork and liver slices. For $2 more, you get an upsized portion with two larger ang kar (red leg) prawns.
Dry Bak Chor Mee, $6 for medium
As the stall is known for their signature chilli and soup, we opt for the dry version of the medium-sized bak chor mee, which comes with two fishballs, tender, fresh pork slices and liver, minced pork, braised mushroom, a meatball, and fresh prawn.
It is served with springy mee pok tossed with an umami blend of hae bee-spiked sambal, vinegar, ketchup, mushroom braising sauce, aromatic pork lard and shallots. The sauce is well-balanced and has a spicy kick, though it can afford to be more vinegary — easily fixed by helping yourself to more vinegar on the side.
While we have not tried bak chor mee cooked by Marvin’s uncle, we prefer this to his ah gong’s ketchup-forward version. The flavourful soup here also trumps Ah Ter’s. Made by simmering pork bones and other “secret ingredients” for at least four hours, the slightly murky soup is more robust and delish. If you’re feeling bougie or really hungry, we recommend adding $2 for the premium version which comes with two ang kar prawns and fried sole fish slices that accentuate the flavour.
Also worth mentioning are the fishballs which are same as the ones served at Ah Ter. Handmade by a supplier with yellowtail flesh, the orbs are delicately bouncy. Also available as a side dish in soup for $4.50 (eight pieces). 
Bottom line
Traditional bak chor mee and fishballs that hit the spot. All the components of the dish, from the umami chilli to the noodles and toppings are well executed. We especially like the robust soup, but if you’re thinking of getting the premium $8 version, go early as it was sold out when we wanted to tapow some one afternoon. We’re impressed that the young hawker’s noodles are as good, and if we’re being honest, even better than his ah gong’s. We’ll be jumping ship to this stall since prices are the same and the queue shorter.
The details
Hock Lai Seng Teochew Fishball Bak Chor Mee is at 01-26 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street, S069184. Open daily except Thu 7am – 7pm, Sat & Sun 7am - 3pm (or till sold out).
Photos: Kelvin Chia
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat.Related topics
bak chor mee fishball noodles Hock Lai Seng Teochew Fishball Bak Chor Mee Ah TerStay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.
Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.
By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.
