MELAKA, Feb 10 — The most surprising thing about Little Boss Yee Wat House is not that it serves noodles.
It is that, among offices and parked cars and the mild fatigue of weekday routines, it manages to unsettle your expectations of what a “simple lunch” can be.
Because a weekday lunch is rarely meant to be memorable. It is supposed to be functional. Quick. Familiar.
A bowl of dry noodles slicked with dark sauce, perhaps, or curry mee if you are feeling indulgent. A side of yong tau foo, eaten almost absent-mindedly.
Little Boss Yee Wat House is a noodle and ‘yong tau foo’ shop in Kota Syahbandar in Melaka. — Picture by CK Lim
Something to fill the stomach, steady the mood, and send you back to your desk without drama. These are meals built on repetition, not revelation.
Located in Kota Syahbandar, Melaka, Little Boss Yee Wat House looks, at first, as though it belongs firmly in that category.
By late morning, it is already humming with regulars, mostly hungry office workers from businesses nearby. We are happy to join them, grabbing the first table we find, for — like them — we are famished too.
Patient readers can recite our beverage order by now; without fail our ritual today begins with cham, one hot and one iced. Dark, intense and fully kaw.
Hot and iced ‘cham’. — Picture by CK Lim
(It might help to note that we aren’t responsible for falling back to our default drinks today; the boss himself recommended their cham and we are mighty glad he did!)
Our food soon arrives: first, the signature dry noodles — the dish most people order, and for good reason. It’s basic, yes, but so good all the same.
You may choose koay teow, meehoon, or yellow noodles. Whichever your noodles of choice, they are coated in a soy-based sauce that glistens and promises plenty of flavour.
Every bowl is topped with crispy shards of fried foo chuk, savoury minced pork, crunchy bean sprouts and fried shallots. Their bouncy yee wat (they make these fish paste fresh daily) comes in a side bowl of clear soup.
Nothing shouts yet every bite feels like a standout moment. How deeply pleasurable.
Signature dry noodles with ‘yee wat’. — Picture by CK Lim
Alongside this, the homemade yong tau foo offers another layer of textures and tastes. The assortment runs the gamut from the usual suspects — okra, bitter gourd, tofu, eggplant, enoki mushrooms — to more unusual offerings such as capsicum and broccoli.
Then there is the you tiao (or Chinese crullers) — golden, filled with fish paste, faintly oily — its crunch a sudden but very welcome exclamation mark.
If you prefer your noodles submerged and spicy, the curry mee provides perhaps the best of both worlds: santan richness and chilli heat.
An assortment of ‘yong tau foo’. — Picture by CK Lim
Koay teow — the ideal noodle for this dish, surely — slips easily through the orange-red broth, glossy rather than greasy. Half a hard boiled egg, slivers of foo chuk, more springy yee wat, and — to complete the picture — a spoonful of sambal, dark and glistening, waiting patiently.
Yes, it is just dry noodles with fish paste. It is just yong tau foo and curry mee. But it is also so much more when you realise that a “simple lunch” can be prepared with both efficiency and effusive pride.
That every bowl rings of consistency and care.
In a time where weekday lunches are often designed to be forgotten, Little Boss Yee Wat House offers something more than required: a meal that is practical, yes, but also delightful.
Curry mee, with ‘koay teow’. — Picture by CK Lim
It reminds us that even the most routine bowl of noodles, eaten in the middle of an ordinary work day, can still contain small moments of bliss — if someone, somewhere in the kitchen, cares enough to make it so.
Little Boss Yee Wat House
Kompleks Perniagaan Kota Syahbandar,
Melaka.
Open daily (except Thu closed) 8:30am-3pm
Phone: 016-274 9572
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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