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Terence Cao, along with Dawn Yeoh, Shane Pow, and Vincent Ng, is now selling mee siam.
This project is the most recent in the spate of celebrity F&B ventures, but we're sufficiently intrigued by its popularity and the "100-year-old recipe" sell.
Packaging
For S$18.80, it comes in a black box containing two servings.
Photo by Karen Lui
Photo by Karen Lui
Photo by Karen Lui
Each serving comes in a brown box (containing the mee siam) and a plastic tray with the sambal prawns.
First impression: It's an obviously modern and aesthetic design that doesn't compromise on convenience (+points for the handle).
Photo by Karen Lui
The plastic lid over the tray containing the sambal prawns is also quite secure, so you need not worry too much about receiving a box soaked in spilled sambal.
If you don't want your mee siam tossed around, best to ensure your boxes remain upright during transportation — although it ranked very low on our list of concerns.
Photo by Karen Lui
To accommodate the depth of the tray, the brown box is not filled completely to the brim with ample space for you to mix the ingredients.
Taste test
We didn't heat up the room-temperature mee siam because we were too excited (and lazy).
The fried egg and taupok were nothing particularly mind-blowing, but the the mee siam had a slight kick that grew on us.
One of us (*ahem* me) is not a fan of wet mee siam and cannot handle spice very well, but didn't feel overwhelmed by it and could still continue to enjoy it without needing to chase it with water after each mouthful.
Photo by Karen Lui
The portion isn't huge, so those with bigger appetites can consider keeping both servings for yourselves.
Although a lime was included for those who would like a zestier flavour, we did not squeeze the lime as we felt that the tanginess of the mee siam was sufficient on its own.
Overall, we liked the taste of the mee siam.
Sambal prawns
Each serving comes with five peeled prawns (yes, we counted) for easy consumption.
The prawns were so thickly covered in sambal that we had to scrape some off for the pictures.
Although I found the sambal to be spicier than the mee siam (I had to reach over for water), I preferred the sambal prawns to the mee siam.
The sambal was flavourful with a sweetness to it, which I enjoyed.
Photo by Karen Lui
While the recommended serving style is to mix the sambal prawns into the mee siam and eat them altogether, we preferred eating the mee siam and prawns separately while having the freedom to control our respective spice levels (okay, it was just me who had to do that).
Verdict
At S$9.40 per single serving, the price is definitely on the higher side but it is pretty good dry mee siam that will not become soggy upon arrival.
The only gripe we noticed is the delivery charges of S$5.50 and S$8.50 for orders within 10km and beyond 10km of their Jurong central kitchen respectively, which pushes the total cost even higher.
A group buy could be the solution to this — or maybe the celebs could expand their venture, at the rate business is going. Heh.
Top images via Terence Cao's Instagram, Karen Lui.