Singapore Food Heritage
← Back to Food HeritageHae Mee
Hokkien hawker innovation — prawn noodles were created by using prawn shells and heads (considered waste by restaurants) to make a broth of remarkable depth and intensity.
Story
Hae mee — prawn noodles — is one of Singapore's great broth dishes: yellow egg noodles and bee hoon in a deeply reduced prawn-and-pork broth, served with prawns, pork ribs, pork slices, and crispy lard. The broth is the entire achievement.
Shiok Factor
Prawn shells and heads are roasted until caramelised, then simmered with pork bones for hours until the broth turns a deep, coral orange and tastes of concentrated prawn essence
This is Hokkien cooking at its most technically demanding. The dish was created by Hokkien hawkers who used the shells and heads that wealthier restaurants discarded to make something richer than anything those restaurants served.
🏷️ Key Ingredients
Tap any ingredient to learn its role
🥢 How to Eat Like a Local
- 1
Taste the broth first before adding anything — it should be intensely savoury and slightly sweet from the prawn
- 2
Add sambal belacan in small increments — the broth is already complex and too much sambal covers its flavour
- 3
Squeeze calamansi over the prawns rather than into the broth — it brightens the shellfish flavour specifically
- 4
Order the dry version with soup on the side if available — the dry version is more concentrated and shows the stall's sauce quality
- 5
Request extra lard crackling if offered — it adds a smoky crunch that elevates the broth dramatically
Tap each step to highlight
🌡️ Shiok-O-Meter
Rated by locals, not algorithms
Spice Hit
Like drinking warm water lah
Napkin Alert
Eat with one hand, no problem
Flavour Depth
Cannot stop eating
Queue Game
10 min wait, ok lah
Shiok Value
Money well spent
Overall Shiok Score
😌 Not Bad Not Bad
Where to Find the Best
Beach Road Prawn Noodle House, Blanco Court Prawn Mee, and hawker versions at Old Airport Road and Tekka Centre. The best stalls are identified by a dark, deeply orange broth.
Best Paired With
- Sambal belacan mixed to your heat preference
- calamansi
- extra lard if the stall offers it.
Best Hae Mee in Singapore
Locally verified — not sponsored
- 1
Beach Road Prawn Mee
Katong•370 East Coast RoadThe most cited prawn noodle stall in Singapore — the broth here is reduced to a depth that is genuinely difficult to achieve
📍 Open in Maps - 2
Blanco Court Prawn Mee
Beach Road•243 Beach Road, Golden Mile Food CentreMichelin Bib Gourmand. The Beach Road institution — the dry version with a thick prawn paste sauce is the one locals order
📍 Open in Maps - 3
Tekka Prawn Noodles
Little India•Tekka Centre, #01-320, 665 Buffalo RoadThe neighbourhood version for first-timers — accessible, consistent, and properly orange
📍 Open in Maps
Find It At These Hawker Centres
Keep Exploring
More Singapore Heritage Dishes
MediumChar Kway Teow
Char kway teow ("stir-fried rice cake strips") is one of Singapore's most beloved wok dishes: flat rice noodles tossed over fierce heat with dark soy, egg, bean sprouts, and seafood or lap cheong. The dish reflects the Strait Settlements era—Teochew and Hokkien traders, Southern Chinese technique, and Malaysian ingredients meeting in port cities. The hallmark is wok hei, the smoky breath of the wok that hawkers chase at dawn and supper. UNESCO's inscription of Singapore's hawker culture celebrates exactly this: affordable, skilled street cooking passed between generations. A plate of CKT is not just calories; it is living heritage on a styrofoam tray.
Explore→
NoneHalal friendlyHainanese Chicken Rice
Hainanese chicken rice began with Hainanese cooks who adapted Wenchang chicken for colonial Singapore and Malaya: poached chicken, fragrant rice cooked in chicken fat and pandan, and a triumvirate of sauces—chilli, ginger, dark soy. It became the city-state's unofficial national dish because it is comforting, precise, and everywhere—from coffee shops to Michelin-listed stalls. Hawker centres guard family recipes for broth, timing of the ice bath that gives silky skin, and the exact aroma of the rice. That devotion is why chicken rice sits at the heart of Singapore's UNESCO-recognised hawker culture: technical skill, modest prices, and deep community memory.
Explore→
HotHalal friendlyLaksa
Singapore laksa usually refers to Katong-style laksa: coconut curry broth, rice vermicelli cut short for spoon-only eating, fish cake, cockles, and Vietnamese coriander (daun kesum). Peranakan kitchens merged Chinese noodles with Malay spices and rempah, producing a creamy, fiery bowl that encodes centuries of intermarriage and trade. Hawkers still pound paste by hand in some stalls; others guard slow-simmered broth that tastes of lemongrass, dried shrimp, and patience. UNESCO's hawker listing honours dishes like laksa where migrant histories are simmered into something unmistakably Singaporean.
Explore→