Beef Noodle/Hor Fun

Three types of beef based noodles are listed here. The beef hor fun which can come as dry beef hor fun, or with a thin layer of soup based gravy. Plus there are 2 styles of beef noodles here; the Haninanese style and the Hong Kong style beef brisket noodle. These are usually available from a tze char stall.

The dry version of beef hor fun would be similar to fried rice, except it's hor fun, a flat broad noodle that is fried with beef slices, egg and bean sprout. Wet version would be broth based, with beef slices and egg. Another gravy version would have a black bean sauce as gravy, this version's taste is more intense due to the strong flavour of the black beans.

Hainanese style of beef noodle also comes dry or soup based. Both have a variety of beef parts as choices, beef slices, beef cubes, beef tendons, beef balls and beef stomach. The soup version would have these in a beef broth and bean sprouts with a choice of various types of noodles. The wet version would have these served in a thick brownish gravy with very intense taste of thickened beef broth and a hint of herb.

The Hong Kong style would be similar to a wanton noodle except braised beef brisket in a braised gravy replaces wanton, also comes dry or soup.

Beef Hor Fun

Aug 2020

This humble stall in a coffee shop has been around for many years. Used to be family run but I believe the younger ones may have opened their own stalls elsewhere. I know of one and shall provide the stall name at the end of this article.

I will only introduce what is outstanding from this stall. Cutting my words short as one of the family had referred me a “nasty” moniker in Cantonese once, not knowing I am a Cantonese… haha… you can imagine his embarrassment and shock as I thanked him in Cantonese when he delivered my beef noodle!

I’d like to believe this is why I always get a generous serving of beef with my order of beef hor fun (thick sliced rice noodle), the guilt.... but they do serve other customers just as much…. hmmmph! The black bean sauce beef HF is a dish that I often crave for, and after each session, I am filled with a certain satisfaction, name calling forgiving satisfaction.

To my taste buds, Bee Kia’s beef noodle is miles ahead of everyone else. Nice thick beef slices and delicious sauce, if only they fry their HF to be a bit burnt… but don’t be too greedy Ziggy! I usually eat this with bee hoon or rice noodle as I think BH soaks up the sauce better, and I’d like to think it has less carbo… think again Ziggyboi…

The sauce is not starchy but is thick and delicious with a nice beefy stock taste to it. With a few cut chili swimming about, it is slightly spicy but hardly noticeable. the combination of black bean sauce with beef stock is just right. Actually, the thicker hor fun gives a nice broad feel and adds a bit of substance and some kind of crunch to the dish, so in order to get the full benefit of this dish, beef hor fun is still the way to go.

The other dishes here are pretty decent, especially their prawn paste chicken, and sweet and sour pork, worth an order if there is a few persons and you want some side dishes to share.

I used to offer to buy this dish for my colleagues whenever I had to pop home over lunch as the stall is en route to the office. Since then, a colleague of mine dared to suggest buying this dish from Amoy Street Food Centre as the beef noodle there was “as good as the Thomson one”. I tried it once when she offered to dabao from there, and to my surprise, it was indeed quite similar. When it was finally my turn to walk to Amoy to buy for the kaki’s; as I was placing my order the chef shouted a greeting from the back, I can always remember the wide silly grin, none other than the name calling Cantonese brother from Bee kia…..

His stall name at Amoy is Good Day, do say hi if you're there!

Good Dy

Bee Kia Seafood Resaurant

1 Thomson Road, S300001

Daily 12 – 11pm, closed alternate Sun (they were closed on 9 Aug 2020…)

Good Day, #01-25 Amoy Street Food Centre. 1030am – 730pm Mon - Fri.

96662623. He is quite popular there, there is the option to call ahead and place your order before lunch.

Niang doufu, Beef balls

Oct 2020

Authentic Hakka niang doufu with Hakka noodles, excellent beef balls. Must try oyster niang.

Located in a coffee shop, these 2 are run by the same person, a friendly guy that serves a lot of regulars, he would often have something to say to everyone that comes in, or as he walks pass each table.

Started as a hawker in the 70’s where the old Capitol Theatre used to be, they initially struggled for business as the owner would stick staunchly to the Hakka style of niang doufu. He later yielded and served just one or two other more conventional items. Good food together with reputation, he has now gotten himself a huge following, and then began ditching the more conventional stuff….

So, what is good here? Everything! And that's not all, this place is called the Beef House because they sell a mean Beef Ball Noodle! Carry on reading....

BeefHouse

The fish cake and meat balls are made in house. Soft and bouncing inside the mouth, the fish cake is nice! The Hakka noodle, not any commonly seen noodle, is light yellow, flatter than usual but not as flat as the mee pok, is subtly tasteful, allowing you to enjoy the taste of the noodle, bland so that you can taste the noodle but subtly tasty from the soup base. The sweet sauce is sweet and chilli sauce mildly spicy, but also not overwhelming, just gives you a subtle taste to allow you to enjoy the taste of the food with them. The mince meat cake that comes with the items are also soft and tasty, very enjoyable and you will wonder why they do not do a meat ball out of it.

One thing they don’t necessary give if you just order the niang doufu is the dried oyster, this is delicious and a must try. There can be only one regret if you try this, you can get addicted… The oyster combines very well with the meat ball that is stuck to it... tasty, soft and chewy at the same time, I can never get enough of the good feeling of it in my mouth.

The mushroom tastes “raw”, you can taste the mushroom and feel its bite, very nice. Oyster and mushroom are the 2 items I must have!

Mushroom niang

Oyster niang

The prices here is very reasonable too, the friendly owner seems to have forgotten to raise prices! $3 for a basic niang doufu set with Hakka noodles (no dried oyster though), and $2 for their suan panzi (yam abacus) is very decent. $4 for a bigger portion with oyster and mushroom.

After eating the YTF, I too forgot that I was filled and proceeded to try their Suan Panzi (abacus). This dish is fabulous! Tasty and chewy, the marinade, together with the dried shrimp and fried shallot gives the yam a great taste. I did not intend to finish the whole lot but I forgot… after finishing it, I then forget if I had eaten my breakfast and seemed to want to order more. This continued as I was walking to the car, and driving home.

Funnily, my friend who introduced me to this place, who had been eating here since he was a boy, turned up one day after a very long absence, in a mask, the owner saw him, without batting an eyelid, jokingly told him “don’t talk to you, so long didn’t visit…”, he’s not forgetful after all!

Now... I forgot to mention their Soon Kueh, which is also very nice, with thick and sticky skin, and absolutely delicious ingredients. I'm not one to eat soon kueh, but i will definitely suggest to order if I'm here with company.

Soon kueh

The Abacus, or suan pan zi

The Hakka Beef Ball noodle is one of the best I’ve eaten. Big, tasty, a good solid bite and a wonderful chew in the mouth, it has a delicious beefy taste and is solid. After biting off half the ball, it feels like the outer layer of remaining half bounces back and tense itself! Has a slight gingery after taste, which is fine even for someone who dislike ginger like me.

Usually served in a bowl of bee hoon with soup (I haven’t seen anyone order a dry version… and my friend who has been eating this since childhood stared at me blankly when I asked for dry…). The soup is clear and is a good beef broth. Again, it is not strong but has just enough of a taste to make it brilliantly tasty.

A wonderful place to go for a meal, toss a coin to see if you should have the beef balls or niang toufu, plus the suan panzhi. The portions are not that substantial, a hungry growing person may be able to finish all 3, but a hungry sideway growing middle age person… decide how you thread!

After years of coming here, I finally learned how best to place an order....

1. Order a $4 bowl (they serve $3 or $4 bowls, though I'm sure you can ask for more...)

2. Ask to add beef balls (total $5)

3. Add Soon Kueh ($6)

You get this… 👇

Made with fresh and delectable ingredients, every item here is top of the range. Come early for breakfast, take a rest, have a stroll around the area, and return for early lunch. That would be a great beginning to your day! definitely the bird that caught a nice big worm!

The Beef House Hakka Yong Tau Foo and Hakka Beef Balls

@Gar Lok Eating House, 217 Syed Alwi Road, s207776

8am – 2pm, closed on Fri

HannXig

Beef Noodle

Jul 2020

Both the soup and dry version here are exceptional, as well the fresh meat and tendon

Deciding to pick a stall from the Makansutra guide many years back, the boss and I decided upon this one at Toa Payoh, which was pretty close to where we lived. Being an ardent fan of another beef noodle stall, and generally a big fan of the Hainanese style of beef noodle, the boss was expecting to give this just a try. We became frequent visitors despite the queue…. And the lack of parking spots….

Note: more parking available at 18A, Lorong 6 Toa Payoh, which is just 2 mins walk from the Lor 7 market. Otherwise, bus 57, 232, 238 goes there. Grab is another option.

Whenever we visit, there is always a dilemma, the dry one or the soup. Obviously they’d give you a small bowl of soup with the dry version, but is that enough? We often ordered one of each and exchange hallway through but I always end up with only 29% of the soup (when I’m lucky), or 32% of the gravy (again, when I’m lucky) of whichever I eat last. We have yet to resolve this, can anyone help….? (rhetorical call for help… the boss is always right so we have to go with that)

They provide a spoonful of pickled vegetables, and spring onion (with coriander) as garnishing, and a lime with the chilli sauce. I find that a squeeze of lime gives both the gravy and the soup an extra boost. I don’t learn, I’d always eat this without the lime (my respects to the chef), but whenever I add a dash of lime after the first few bites, my eyebrows would naturally rise in amazement with the first bite with lime.

The gravy is fantastic, it is the best I have tasted. That slight twist from the usual deep herbal flavour, this feels a little diluted but with the flavour is just right.

The soup is also not as beefy or herbal as the usual ones, but my taste buds love it, as do the boss’s, as well as another group of friends who one day brought me to this market, and as I was approaching I told them there is one stall I want them to try (full of mystery and surprise), and they said the same. Only to realise we were talking about the same place.

The beef slices are tender and cooked medium when it’s onto the bowl, so that it’s just cooked with the addition of soup or sauce; beef organs are likewise nice and tasty, cooked just right. But the tendons…. Soft and juicy, like eating a lovely beef jelly! It’s definitely well worth paying the highest price on the list for this! I have recently found out that you can order an $8 bowl with more goodies, and my friend told me the lady challenged him to order a $10 bowl once. He declined claiming he doesn’t speak Hainanese or he would have a spar of words with her….

A family run stall made up of siblings and a sister in law, the operation here is pretty smooth even if there is a Q. Originally from Cuppage Food Centre, they moved here when Cuppage closed. Fresh ingredients, scrumptious gravy and soup. If there is a beef noodle stall you must try in Singapore, this should be it!

Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodles

22 Lorong 7 Toa Payoh, #01-06, s310019

8am – 330pm closed on Mon

Beef Noodle

Oct 2022

Beefy gravy that lit my eyes the moment I tasted it!

The Q was about 15 deep when I arrived, took me 20 mins to place my order, which isn't too bad for such a long Q. It was well worth it!

Tried the dry version of mixed beef noodle, saw that everyone around seems to have that in front of them, when in Rome.....

HwangHeng

This stall is run by a Hainanese family, and the dry version is covered in a thick dark gravy as all Hainanese beef noodles are, it is delicious. Full of beefy stock taste with a hint of garlic to spice it up! Wonderful and not a single drop was spared...

The tendons provided are so tender they pretty much melted in the chopsticks. Beef briskets are beefy, as well the beef balls. Beef slices a bit over cooked. Generally, the meat can be of better quality, it‘s the gravy that carries its popularity.

The soup has a mild ginseng or danggui after-taste that is a bit unpleasant for my taste...

I’d go for the dried noodles, with brisket and balls probably the best choice. Definitely the dried version! Simply the best gravy of this genre!

Hua Heng Beef Noodle

29 Bendemeer Road, #01-86, s330029

10am – 230pm, closed on Sun to Tue

https://web.facebook.com/Hwahengbeefnoodles/?_rdc=1&_rdr