[CLOSED] Shi Miao Diao Yunnan Rice Noodles: Cook your own noodles in 10 seconds

Hands-on hawker dining can be fuss-free dining too. At Shi Miao Dao Yunnan Rice Noodles, diners cook their own meal — and all it takes is 10 seconds.

While it boasts more than 750 outlets in China, its newly opened outpost at Food Republic @ VivoCity is its first in Singapore. It brings to our shores one of Yunnan’s most famous dishes – “crossing-the-bridge rice noodles”.

Their soups are served in bowls that are pre-heated at 250 degrees Celsius, and the heat brings the broth to a boil, which cooks their thick vermicelli, made from pure rice flour with no additives, within 10 seconds, hence their name. (“Shi miao diao” means 10-second noodles in Chinese.)

When your order is ready, all you need to do is dunk your ingredients in, and voila! Meal ready.

Their best-seller is the Original ($7.80), a milk-coloured broth brewed for six hours from chicken and pork bones. Clear and comforting, light but flavourful, the original also happens to be our favourite soup base.

Also available are three other variations — Tomato, Mala, and Pickled Cabbage ($8.50 each) — they all build on the original soup base. We like the Pickled Cabbage which, enhanced with pickled cabbage, spices and aged vinegar, strikes a good balance between sour and spicy. The mala is a fiery option perfect for those with more feisty taste buds; you can customise your soup base according to four levels of spiciness. We had level two spiciness, which was a little too mild for us — so we reckon if you want to taste a distinct Szechuan spiciness, level three would be a safe option.

Each set of noodles also includes an impressive spread of ingredients, such as chicken drumlet, beancurd skin, quail egg and black fungus, the lattermost being one of our favourites with its crunchiness and savouriness. Pork ham and fish slices can be added on at $1 per portion. But the star ingredient is still the slippery, springy rice noodles.

Fun, interactive and flavourful, Shi Miao Diao Yunnan Rice Noodles’ brand-name dish is akin to a mini hotpot, but at a pocket-friendly price.