[Singapore] Best Curry Noodles in Singapore from Heng Kee, Hong Lim Hawker Centre

Heng Kee is a four-decade-old hawker stall specialising in curry chicken noodles at Hong Lim Hawker Centre. Started by the late Mr Tay Yong Heng (who passed on at the age of 68 back in Sep 2013), the stallowner-cook is now his son, Tay Khang Huat, 46, who’s managed to replicate his father’s cooking to the ‘t’. Same flavours, same textures. If I don’t see the person behind the stove, I’d not been able to tell that the son has taken over from the father. He’s assisted by his mum, the feisty Mdm Theng Pow Chen, whom all regulars would easily recognize.

The queue starts building up from the moment it opens for business at 10.30am. Try to be there around 11am. By noon, you’ll be joining a queue with at least an hour’s wait time.

Heng Kee’s curry noodle is best when you ask for “beehoon mee”, i.e. a mix of thin rice vermicelli (“beehoon”) and thick, yellow Hokkien noodles (“mee”). The curry gravy, concocted by the late older Mr Tay, is fairly liquid, sweet-savoury and enriched with thin coconut milk. The chicken is poached separately from the curry, chopped up and added atop the blanched noodles before the curry gravy - containing potatoes and tofu puffs - is poured over. Large strips of Teochew-style fishcake is also added, together with extras like chicken liver or gizzards.

The last time I came here, I brought along Jim Leff, founder of Chowhound - I just needed to show him my favourite noodle stall in the whole wide world. I was a bit worried if he’d find the noodles too spicy, but no - he finished every single drop of the gravy.

P.S. - Some people actually go for Ah Heng, a copycat curry noodle stall upstairs. Not for me, I’d been a regular at Heng Kee for nearly 30 years now.

Address
Heng Kee Curry Beehoon Mee
531A Upper Cross Street
#01-58 Hong Lim Food Centre
Singapore 051531
Opening hours: 10.30am - 2.30pm, Mon-Sat (Closed on Sundays)

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P.P.S. - Please take note that Hong Lim Hawker Centre will be closed for upgrading from 1 Nov 2018 till 1 Jan 2019. Heng Kee will also be taking a two-month break in the meantime.

The latest Michelin Guide to Singapore 2023 has listed Heng Kee under Bib Gourmand - at last!

My most recent visit to Heng Kee was last December, when I returned to Singapore for Christmas. The ever-present queue …

Super-busy Tay Khang Huat has a moment to flash a smile when he recognized us regulars. His mum, Mdm Theng Pow Chen, looking rather serious in this picture, but she’s a dear: and will banter and joke with us when she could spare a moment.

Our order - two large bowls of super-delicious curried noodles, topped with poached chicken, tofu puffs, fishcakes and curried potatoes. This will be my last meal on Earth if I have a choice.

I prefer yellow Hokkien noodles:

My friend, Tony, prefers thick rice vermicelli:

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We know we are in likeminded food company when this thought crosses our minds with various delicious morsels :joy:

Re noodle preference, in recent years I am veering more and more towards egg noodles and away from rice vermicelli. I think I’d pick york of the two, but if an even thinner wonton noodle-type situation was on offer, that’s where I’d land.

All looks delicious!

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As always, I am profoundly jealous. Looks like heaven, especially with the puffs and what looks like a squirt of sesame paste/sauce (the brown liquid in the otherwise red oily base.)

The thick round noodles I have easy access to taste like bad spaghetti.

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*yours not york!

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when I had a bad case of covid, I was thinking I’d done most of what I’d set out to do in life but wanted to have xian n2 one more time. once I recovered, I took matters into my own hands and learned how to make it.

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here’s mine



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Whaaaaat
Recipe please?

here’s what I used for the biang biang noodles:
https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=68669.0

I’ve always wondered how many male subscribers she added by consuming noodles at the end of the video :slight_smile:

xian published their recipes here:
https://www.amazon.com/Xian-Famous-Foods-Cuisine-Favorite/dp/1419747525/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OY2VAPNUX2WA&keywords=xian&qid=1688334113&sprefix=xian%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1

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Just saw this on instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuRNVSdp5SN/?igshid=YzcxN2Q2NzY0OA==