Authentic Hock Lam Street Popular Beef Kway Teow

Started way back in 1921 at Hock Lam Street, this brand of authentic Teochew Beef Kway Teow recipe was brought in by a certain Mr Tan from Swatow, China, and the rest, as they say, is history. So famous (or popular as stated on their signboard), is Hock Lam Street Beef Kway Teow that it is seen as the benchmark for the rest of the beef noodle stalls – or at least that is what HFB thinks.

What is so special about their soup-based, said to be boiled for at least 18 hours, is the additional of Preserved Salted Vegetables that gave it an extra ‘kick’ to the fairly light flavoured soup, or ‘Cheng’ as how the Teochews described it, although HFB finds it inconsistently salty at times having tried it on separate occasions. Prices ranges from $4.50 (small), $5.50 (medium) to $6.50 (large), and one has a choice of Kway Teow, Bee Hoon and Mee. One can also have a combination of Sliced Beef, Beef Tripe (Stomach), Beef Brisket (Cooked Meat), Beef Liver, Beef Ball, and for an additional of $1.00 – Beef Tendon.

The small portion of Sliced Beef with Beef Ball Kway Teow Soup was pretty pathetic in my opinion – unless one is not very hungry during lunchtime, braving the crowd for such a small serving is simply not worth the effort. Besides, the beef ball is definitely factory produced and not handmade, which is a disappointment considering the legacy of this eatery.

The medium portion of Sliced Beef, Beef Ball and Beef Brisket Kway Teow was slightly more adequate and the brisket was palatable – it is intense with flavour and malleable to consume.

The thin version of kway teow used was also something HFB is happy about - it was pretty smooth to slurp, although compared to Tuck Kee Sar Hor Fun, it was nowhere close in standard.

Hardcore Teochew Beef Kway Teow fans would also be delighted to discover that their original dry version comes with an additional topping of Grinded Peanuts to give it an extra crunch, the familiar Chinchaluk (shrimp paste sauce), and a pretty ‘solid’ chilli to go with.

You can view the all photos here.

we had lunch there today and it was a long hot walk back man.

anyhow, we had:

1 LARGE sliced beef and beef ball noodles (the laksa beehoon sort) dry
1 Medium sliced beef kway teow soup
1 Medium sliced beef noodles (the laksa beehoon sort) soup
3 Lime juicies

well because i believe in upsizing everything, i had to have the large one, what else? small is almost usually never worth it.

essentially we all had the same thing and one of my friend's gripe (which i share the sentiments of) was that it was a little pricey. like, the smallest bowl was $4.50, medium $5.50 and large at $6.50.
Also the fact that the waitress who was busy zooming around taking orders and all that took our orders almost as soon as we sat down but we had to wait surprisingly long (the raffles place definition of long - which equates to around 15 minutes from the time we sit down and have our orders taken till the time the food actually arrives)for the noodles to arrive. i think we also felt like that because its just noodles! with gravy or soup and then you just throw on the ingredients and thatsit!

anyway yes we did wait 15 minutes for our food and well lots of people do wait longer for stuff. but everybody's in a rush to eat and go these days.

anyway the dry beef noodles comes with a bowl of soup, which i tried and it was pretty good. but not the best ive had, i would say. my friend think another stall at the beach road hawker centre is better. i thought the sliced beef was tender and easily swallowed - so no complaints. but i thought their beef balls were excellent. i could go back and have 20 more. it had just the right hardness and texture and tasted very good. the large noodles (comes in the largest bowl) and is served with something like 6 beef balls together with the sliced beef. the gravy for the dry version was decent, in that it wasnt too salty or starchy or anything of the sort. tasty enough.

my friend who always has the soup kway teow thought her medium portion (which according to the waitress, is the "normal order") was just nice in the sense that it doesnt completely fill you up and make you sleepy after lunch but fills you up decently. my other friend thought the medium was still too small and she could have had a large. i had a large. and i thought the large was just an oversized small. so value for money wise, no not really.

service wise - average. everybody rushing around. when ordering we told the waitress, no beansprouts for the two mediums, no parsley for the large and she sounded like she could totally do that. she did, for the no beansprout thing, but there was still parsley in mine. this is probably just me nitpicking in any case.

their lime juice was priced okay - $1.20 but theres no ice, its just served cold and it probably came in some cordial form. too sweet.

loved the chilli that went with the beef noodles. will be back, but its a little far and a little pricey. maybe we should just stick to golden shoe forever and ever.

$5 got me a medium serving of kway teow ($4 for small and $6 for large) with about 5 beef balls. The beef balls tasted like they came right off the shelves of some supermarket. My guess is that they really did. The beef slices were nicely done though I found them to be a little too thick, which rendered them a tad too chewy at some point. Overall quite decent and more value for money than the one at Far East Square and comparable to the outlet at Purvis street.