YOU know how chow-hound Jughead Jones always loses some hamburger eating contest against all odds, and at the end, it's revealed that it's because he'd been stuffing his face with hamburgers just before the contest?

Well, Jade Seah is just like Jughead. Only her first love is mee pok, not hamburgers.

When we first brought up the idea of letting her take us on a mee pok tour of Singapore, her eyes lit up - as we knew they would. After all, seeing as her every other tweet is about her favourite noodle dish, it's not hard to tell where her thoughts run to most often.

Still, we weren't expecting the latest addition to the second season of Point Of Entry - where she plays a martial arts expert working for the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority - to pipe up declaring mee pok should be our national dish.

"It's quintessentially Singaporean," she enthused. "Everyone says chilli crab, but then you can find that in Malaysia. In fact, theirs is slightly spicier, which is the way I like it. Oops, sorry, STB! People say chicken rice, but you can find that in Malaysia, too. And then you have this strange thing called Singapore noodles - we have no idea what that is, but you see it in the US.

"But you can't find the (mee pok) that we have here (anywhere else), which is with chilli, vinegar and tonnes of lard."

Now, that's devotion. And yet, knowing we'd have an early start on the mee pok trail, you'd think she'd have gone to bed early the night before, with visions of fishballs dancing in her head. But, no - the female Jughead had indulged freely in a midnight spicy hotpot feast.

That's Jade for you, as she will gladly admit: Always hungry, yet, mysteriously, svelte. Yes, in Jade's case, the best way to get to know her better is clearly summed up in the immortal line: "Knowing mee, knowing you".

Noodle-brained

Mee pok, said Jade, is "without a doubt" her favourite food. "I would definitely say with confidence I have it at least once, if not twice, a week. I've had phases where I've eaten it every day. And I've also gone through phases where I've eaten it more than once a day," she confessed, almost sheepishly.

"I go through these food phases periodically, where I get obsessive. I mean, I always have the few that I like: Mee pok, wanton mee, ban mian ... prawn noodles. Yes, I like noodles!" she giggled. "I don't like rice. There's something about noodles that's very comforting - the fact that it's long ... I don't know! Which is why I like pasta too, I guess. The long ones. I don't like the short ones."

But mee pok is the obsession that recurs the most often. "I guess I grew up eating it. It's comfort food," she shrugged.

"My grandmother is a huge fan. She used to eat it and I'd be like: 'What's that?' I tried it and I fell in love. So then it's just been a quest and an adventure to find the different and the best ones."

We knew we were in good hands letting Jade take us out to lunch - especially when the time came to set out and she still hadn't decided which mee pok stalls to hit up. "I've got six in mind, but I'll try to narrow it down to three!" she proclaimed.

Good mee hunting

Our first stop was at a hawker centre on Still Road, where Jade made a beeline for the Jalan Tua Kong stall.

"This one is my ultimate favourite," she said. "I think it's because it's near where I live, and it's quiet, and it's very spicy, and there're prawns. And the soup is good, too. Some people say this is the Teochew version - it has prawns, minced meat, fishcake and fishballs. Usually there's less vinegar and it's a lot more spicy.

"They have another branch in Kembangan Estate, but you have to reportedly queue an hour for your food, which I think is rubbish. I get too hungry and too grumpy by then."

Apart from the "Teochew version", there is also "the fishball version". According to our expert, there are a few good ones around, "but the fishballs outshine the noodles, in most cases".

"There's one at Toa Payoh - fishballs very good, noodles middling. And then there's the one at Bedok South, but I've just stopped eating there because you have to queue. I hate it when I have to stand and wait for food."

After Jade had scarfed down a bowl of mee pok, we let her take us to our next stop: Wei Shen stall at 271 Tanjong Katong Road.

This is a sentimental favourite - she attended Tanjong Katong Girls' School, which was a stone's throw away. "I used to sneak out by climbing the gate, just to eat mee pok," Jade reminisced. "I just couldn't wait! Life's too short!"

She inhaled another bowl as the hawker uncle smiled indulgently. "This is another style because they use dried chilli, I think."

The trail ended at Hong Lee Eating House at 7 Eunos Crescent, where we hit the mother lode: Eunos Minced Meat Noodles stall.

"This one is different because they put a lot more fried garlic," Jade said, cosying up to the noodles in a manner that would put Nigella to shame. "Because of that, it has a different dimension to it. I don't think they put vinegar at all. The soup is better because they put minced meat in the soup while it's boiling for each bowl. And it's served with wontons with the same meat. It's quite interesting because most bak chor mee stalls, like the famous one at Bedok Block 85 - which I would have brought you to, but it's a night place - serve it with meatballs."

Erm. Good to know.

"And, okay, lah, there's also an emotional aspect, because I used to da bao from here when I was in primary school. I'd buy my own lunch and take it home."

It seems for Jade, the heart and the stomach are one and the same.

A young girl's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of mee

We'd hit up three stalls, but Jade's appetite for mee pok showed no signs of waning. In fact, its perpetual presence is one of her distinguishing characteristics. Her friends are used to it, but her colleagues are a little more amused by her fetish.

"Like on Point Of Entry, one of my co-stars said: 'Are you eating noodles in a packet again?' I just roll it down and get right to it on the bus - and I stink up the whole bus," she laughed. "They're like: 'Do you not eat anything except noodles?' Uh, not a lot, lah."

A love of sports helps works off the carbs, but when you consider that she doesn't eat vegetables, it's still a mystery how she keeps her trim figure.

"This is gonna be quite gross, but people ask me how I go in the mornings, since I don't eat veg. I go just fine! And I attribute it to the carbs. It moves things along!" she guffawed.

And - clearly - romance-wise, the way to Jade's heart is indubitably through her stomach. "Actually, I've only had one first date where the guy brought me to a mee pok stall," she giggled.

"If we go out a while, then they kind of cotton on ... They'll get dragged around to whatever my current obsession is. Sometimes they will dabao for me, which I think is very sweet."

"I've gone out with non-foodies before - it's not a deal-breaker. But how nice it is to go out with a foodie," she twinkled.

Yes, that would be a torrid love affair - second only to Jade's love affair with mee pok.

Catch Point Of Entry II starting today at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.