Kallang Cantonese Live Prawn Noodle: This hae mee (prawn noodles) stall uses fresh live prawns!

Kallang Cantonese Live Prawn Noodle has been selling prawn noodles since 1973, but in 2011, they decided to stand out from the competition and offer live prawns instead.

So when you order their Live Prawn Noodle ($6/8/10/12), owner Seow Toh Chio, 57, will scoop out live prawns from a freshwater tank in front of her stall and immediately dunk them in hot boiling water. A couple of minutes later, the cooked prawns are strained into a bowl, and prawn broth is poured over them.

Located in Old Airport Road Food Centre, Seow is the only hawker offering live prawn hae mee in Singapore.

The resultant prawns are simply amazing. Fresh, sweet-tasting, juicy and springy. It is hard to get better quality than this.

In fact, her prawns are so good that some customers order just her broth and live prawns without the noodles.

The broth is strictly the clear Cantonese style and is full of prawn flavour. The stock takes centre-stage and is augmented with only a restrained amount of rock sugar and lots of fried onions.

The prices are also much lower than the competition. A $10 order gets you five mid to large prawns plus noodles. Incredible value.

Seow gets her live prawns from a supplier every day, but they only come in from 11am onwards.

Not a bad timing as her prawn broth tastes better the closer it gets to lunchtime.

The dry noodles are a secondary highlight, redolent with slightly sweet chilli sambal, fried onions and pork lard. It contrasts nicely with the predominantly savoury prawn broth. Seow also throws in a decent amount of kang kong and bean sprouts for good measure.