Thursday, January 4, 2007

Heng Kee Curry Mee: Yummy Curry in a Hurry: Hong Lim Food Centre 1 of 7

With smart, liverpool, Damien and iwatch_ueat


Imagine you have been dieting on fresh garden salad for a week in order to get a good cholesterol test result and today is the day you got the test done. Your taste buds have been deprived of attention for a week and you are really looking for something with a bit of KICK....

A piping hot bowl of curry mee is sure cure for your deprived taste buds. But not just any curry mee yah! The sign on the front of the stall says it quite clearly that this stall is "the one and only"



Now, it may not look very attractive, but man, this curry sure hits the G-spot (G for gastronomic). This hawker has been making the same curry for 40 years and still insists on using the same receipe. According to him, the curry is not Malay, not Indian, not even Hainanese (he is Teochew), its just something he concocted over 40 years ago, so it is a truely Singaporean dish.



In contrast to the Tau Pok which has been stewing in the curry, the plain white chicken (ala Hainanese Curry Mee style) is simply added on top of the noodles and soaked in the curry. So you get nice cool chicken meat covered with warm savoury curry. Shiok! I really like it this way and would frequently buy white chicken to eat with laksa. Don't forget to add that dark red chilli, it's sweet and fragrant and complements the curry perfectly. 4.5/5

Conclusion

Guranteed to give you that lemak fix!

Heng Kee Curry Mee Hoon Mee
Hong Lim Food Centre

Blk 531A Upper Cross St
#01-127 1
11am to around 2pm daily

Closed on Sun and Public Holidays

29 comments:

K' said...

There's this other curry chicken mee stall at Hong Lim Food Centre too I think its in a corner on the second floor I think its better than Heng Kee's

liverpool1965 said...

Have tried both, actually prefer Heng Kee's, curry flavour is somewhat stronger (gravy looks a lot darker and less healthy : ))and I like the tau pok...

smart said...

This is my number 1 stall whenever I am at Hong Lim. Been having their curry mee since my working days when they were at Boat Quay.Always pile up the chilli sauce for that extra kick.Tried the one at level 2 but just no kick.

Anonymous said...

try the porridge jus behind this stall round the corner one.
their fish with the salted vegge.
very fresh !!!

Anonymous said...

Wonder how this original stall compares with the branch at Maxwell Market? I have tried the one at Maxwell and thought it was quite good... prefer the thick white bee hoon to the noodles though :)

Lay said...

salute!!! keep up the work so that i can get best stuff for my stomach. hahaha~

should you have a category for late night dining? heez~ tat's what i search and come to ur blog.

tigerfish said...

I know this one. Always a queue no matter what time of the day! But I have not tried before.

ieat said...

Lay, late night dining is found in the 8 Looking for food after 10pm label.

The owner of the stall told me that they are the one and only stall. So the one at Maxwell is not a branch

liverpool1965 said...

Had it again today at around 1130am..., I think the later you go, the more shiok the curry...

Damien said...

Heng Kee's sauce is slightly thicker and the taste more robust than the one directly above it.

Best time to go would be before 1130 otherwise the wait is eternity...

Lay said...

ieat & itreat: sorry~ din see that... (^_^)

Anonymous said...

If I'm not wrong, the uncle of the one upstairs work for Heng Kee before starting out on his own. Heng Kee still the best but the portion is getting small or more expensive. The son is greedy, once a lady ask for no chicken wing. He insist that she order $4 even though the father said ok. Only $4 and above can choose parts.

Anonymous said...

I have tried the curry mee at another stall at 2nd storey, just directly above Heng kee.

I tell you, it really sucks! The curry somehow did not taste right(I felt thirsty after that) and the potatoes was not fresh, it had a kind of weird chemical taste. I just can't tell what it was, but it was definitely not right.

You know, I suspect the curry & potatoes were left overnight(since it was not sold out the previous day). So that the potatoes absorbed too much of the curry soup! When this happened, the potatoes becomes too soft. To make matter worse, it may have absorbed the MSG that was put into the curry! (I suspect the strange chemical taste was due to the of MSG being absorbed into the potatoes) I have heard from some radio programmes that potatoes can be used to absorb the salt in a soup that is too salty; it is a useful remedy for housewifes.

One of the stall at the Maxwell FC has the same problem. The potatoes tasted weird and was too soft! (it may just happened that if you are unlucky, you will be given the potatoes that was left overnight!)

After these incidents, I never patronise these stalls again. As for Heng Kee, I am going to try their noodle some time in the future. (too bad, they close so early)

Anonymous said...

Finally, I went to try this curry noodle, frankly speaking, I don't think their curry is that good. My mother can cook better curry.

Theirs is a bit too salty. And, I think the chicken should be cooked together with the curry in order to bring out the aroma & flavour of the curry soup. Otherwise, the curry soup will just lacks of the chicken flavour which is a major ingredient in local home-cooked curries.

Anonymous said...

Great post as always! This one hits THE sweet spot. If I were to single out ONE best hawker stall in Singapore, this would be on the shortlist. Don't go there often at all due to the long queue though.

The one above at Hong Lim, Ah Heng is not bad but different owners. They used to be at Cross Street, opposite Chinatown Point before moving first to May Sin (Golden Shoe) and now Hong Lim. Marvellous, also one of my favourites but a clear second best. Cheers!

ieat said...

Thanks for your comment! Do use a pen name. You can do this by ticking the Other option at the bottom and typing a name for yourself. This is so we know the same person is writing the comments!

Jess said...

There are 3 stall of curry noodles at Hong Lim. The original stall is located at second floor (can't remember the unit ut is one row behind the famous char kuey teow, used to be arrogant not sure about now.

The one on the ground is the most popular one though, but I have stopped patronising them since they raised the price and diluted the gravy by adding more sugar and salt!!! I know it as I have been eating there regularly for more than 10 years...

The third one directly above is inconsistent, once the potatoe had turned bad and they didn't realised it until I pointed it out!

yet to find one really good curry noodles with the natural sweetness from the ingredients used (excluding sugar !)

khim said...

i think e original store should be e one on ground floor, right?

i've tried e second floor's curry mee twice n e ground floor once n found tat i prefer e ground floor curry mee better.. =)

n e son has got such an excellent memory!! e queue was so long yet he remember all our orders correctly!

smart said...

I think Khim is right. The ground flr stall is well known for more than 40 years. I am sure because I have been eating from my favourite stall for 40 long years.

Maque said...

I like to patronise the stall that Jess mentioned, which is on the second floor, and I think it's called Teochew Street Ping Ping Curry Noodles. I have been eating it for close to twenty years, following it over from Ellenborough Market, when Ellenborough Market was demolished. It should be in operation for about thirty over years.

The curry is not very curry-like, as there is no curry powder used, tasting more like a very Chinese laksa. The soup is thus very easy to drink on its own. Besides the chicken, bean sprouts, tau-pok and potatoes, there's also pig skin and fish cake in the soup. I would consider this to be more unique in taste than Heng Kee's, which is really more like curry. The chilli sauce is rather nice too, it's a bit oily but not sweet at all, and is great to add to the soup to add fire.

smart said...

Tks to Maque. Will try that stall next time. Yes I can recollect that stall at Ellenborough Market (certainly another 'Lost & Found')

Anonymous said...

Heng Kee is suck. Expensive. The one upstair is the original. Heng Kee's worked for the family upstair may years ago. Ask around no such Heng Kee when selling at the road side store in 1960. 2nd floor is the best, he make the bowl of curry mee with heart, look at the snob (Heng Kee) down stair????

Anonymous said...

yeahhh! u're right! :DD

Anonymous said...

Dum Dum will go and eat this kind of f00d!

Anonymous said...

Look at the queue, not worth, dont be silly.

Connie said...

i had curry mee at bedok hawker near bedok interchange. its quite nice. another place where i had was at the marina square food court. it's as delicious. =)

zhouzi said...

Hi anonymous, please note that there are a variety of potatoes. Each is suitable for different mode of cooking. I believe the cook at this curry mee stall did not know. There are old and new, red, gold, blue and purple, white, yellow etc. Please follow link for info: http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-pot
-vartyp.html

The potatoes used to save a salty soup should be raw. But does it works? Check this out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A25891-2001Apr17
http://www.kitchenhintsandtips.com/salty_soup.shtml

BTW, there is a stall at Zion Rd Hawker centre that sell curry chicken mee. The chicken is cooked together with the curry before being ladled on the mee. The stall is almost to the end away from the famous CKT stall.

Mr. Anonymous said...

I've not eaten at this store for some time and I just discover that the quality of the curry mee has gone down. The tau pok actually tastes bitter! There is something missing from the gravy too which I cannot explain.

I'll give it one last chance before deciding whether to stop eating from this store forever.

Vitis Vinifera said...

This a one stalls that I will pass. Can't stand the man have to take 3 times the time to prepare a serving.....adding a piece of skin, taking out a piece of Tau Pok, add a few strands of noodle, the constant knocking with the ladder....all just to create a Q.

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