I guess you might be wondering what is so difficult about making Satay Bee Hoon that there are so few hawkers willing to do it? Well, for one, the sauce is not easy to make. To make a good Satay sauce, you need to roast the peanuts with the skin on, then remove the skin and grind it into sandy powder and then slow cook it with 15 different ingredients in order to achieve that smooth, nutty, spicy, sweetly goodness.
But before you think that that is the end of the story, don’t forget about the the Cuttlefish! Ever wonder how the cuttlefish is made? Well, you start with dried cuttlefish, soak it in a lye water (kee zhui) solution and keep circulating the water overnight in order to rehydrate it into that translucent, crunchy consistency. It is little wonder that there are not many people want to sell the stuff!
Those who do sell Satay Bee Hoon, people like Mdm Tan for instance, do it because they really love the dish. Without passion, it won’t be easy to continue stirring that pot of Satay sauce otherwise. The satay sauce is so precious that you can’t actually ask for more of it. The sauce is afterall the star of the show while the other ingredients are just there to give you a reason for eating it.
I don’t eat Satay Bee Hoon frequently, but when I tasted this one, it left me wondering why. The sauce was absolutely delicious and well worth the calories. And it has launched me on my quest to find the other great Satay Bee Hoon stalls. 4.5/5
Conclusion
No wonder whenever you ask people what is there to eat at Ang Mo Kio Central, they always say Satay Bee Hoon!
