Lee Tong Kee Beef Hor Fun

Really?

Apparently so, and just to provide that extra assurance that you'll get a good meal, allow me to cast away any doubts you are harbouring in your unbelieving mind.

Lined in the midst of painting, art, calligraphy and figurine shops, a humble restaurant on the bend facing a newly built Chinese temple blends in perfectly into the setting, a developing fusion between rustic faces and drastic changes. But as time forces on its perpetual charge, changing and modifying and moderning everything standing in its path, people and cultures get absorbed into a whirlwind of change where thinking becomes liberated and cultures start to become obsolete. In the midst of it, food have taken the harsh brutal swipe of reality, losing its tradition, culture and ultimately, the passion that made it unique and with it, taste. Hawkers become food courts, markets have been transformed to tourist attractions and people, instead of cooking for passion, have begun cooking for money to survive in the unrelentless economy as traditionalists deperately cling on to the ways of old.

So as I stood outside this little eatery called Lee Tong Kee which claims to promise the taste of 1948, the ultimate question looms deep, "Has its taste survived the test of time?". That's what we're about to find out.



I certainly do not know the taste of its hor fun in 1948 but right here, right now, its beef hor fun ($5.50) tastes pretty damn good. Made from the silkiest strands of rice noodles, its softness lets you slurp it up and slide it down with the least effort. Really, the hor fun is the softest and silkiest I've eaten! The sauce is uber duperly good! Similar to Guangdong Braised Beef Noodles at Maxwell FC, this one is a thicker, richer, and more potent interpretation. Its hard to put the taste onto paper [or to type into my keyboard] but it coats every strand of noodle so well, the taste fills your mouth as it slides down your throat.



The beef is equally tender and moist, with sporadically spaced portions of melt-in-your-mouth fats. Theres certainly a good flavour in the beef also.



One other item to note is the Lee Tong Kee tender chicken ($8 for small) which is literally, super tender chicken! Unlike those served at chicken rice stalls which are slapped with the cleaver or done with whatever, this chicken is truly tender. So good that I felt the "jelly-ness" as I bit into that succulent piece of chicken. The accompanying sauce compliments the meat and the chilli sauce they provide is a more unique (and better version) of normal chicken rice chilli and brings out the flavour in the chicken and hor fun.

This is one beef hor fun I will recommend to my friends. Heck, its number one on my list now!

Address:

Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Sar Hor Fun
278 South Bridge Road
62260417
www.ipohhorfun.com

Guangdong Braised Beef Noodles

Once again, another gem found in Maxwell food centre. This stall, Guangdong Wanton Mee, certainly sells super duper kick ass braised beef noodles. I know the signboard displays WANTON MEE, but I heard such good reviews about the braised beef noodles that we just had to try it and erm, give up wanton mee just this once.

But of course, we had to add char siew into our braised beef noodles. Haha! Yeah I know, such retards.



The beef is soft, tender and tasty. The sauce is rich, thick and well stewed. The chilli is good. Hey! It's a good deal! The flavours really blend well together and the sauce is not so rich as to make you sick but just right. Juuuust right.

I can't explain much further because I realise my english and vocabulary are getting from bad to worse. Either that or I'm just to lazy to think of words to describe. But trust me on this one and go down and try it yourself.

Oh, and while you are there, give the wanton mee a go and tell me how it tastes like okay?



Address:

Maxwell Food Centre
Guangdong Wanton Mee
Stall 99

Alexandra Village

With all the revamping of food centres going on, most of them despite looking new and spanking clean, has lost much of the old atmosphere which had once made them special. Not to mention that most of them had also lost their much treasured stalls, making the new "kopitiams" just a skeleton of it's old self retaining their names.

Thankfully, there are still gems to be found on this little island. One of which is Alexadra Village Food Centre which is still a good ol' food centre with loads of old stalls still around, most of them selling deliciously good food.



One stall I vividly remember my parents frequenting when I was still a kid was Soon Lee Beef Soup. This stall which is tended by two ladies serve a lip smackingly good beef stew. The kind which is still served in a claypot and heated over a flame, definately hard to find these days.

Well of course they also do sell other items but what I usually go for is the beef stew which contains soft, well stewed beef, tendons, carrots and potatoes in tasty, rich gravy.



The beef is really soft and very well marinated holding a strong flavour in without sacrificing it's beefy taste. The gravy, however, is what draws me back time and again. Eating here, you will not feel cheated by gravy which look thick and dark but taste bland and starchy. The gravy is rich with beef flavour and spices with just the right amount of saltiness and sweetness.



Splash it on some rice and you're good to go!

Just a few stalls away is also an awesome stall which sells avocado milkshake. Yeap, you heard that right. It's AVOCADO milkshake.



Decorated with various foodie recommendations and well arranged fruits, this stall is the first stall to come up with this fantastic concoction. The avocado milk is a thick, light green milk and taste really good. I don't really know how to describe it but I think it's a touch of pandan juice, evaporated milk and avocado blended together to make a drink that is rich and sweet yet not too much to turn you of after a few sips. Instead, I find it suprisingly addictive and I usually order two at a go!



Well, invention will definately lead to copycats and a few other stalls in the food centre has "copied" them by selling the same drink, no doubt noticably lacking in flavour. This original stall is the colourfully decoratoed one beside the duck rice stall at the corner. If I'm not wrong, they also have durian milk which I'm definately gonna try the next time round. It may be a little bit pricey at $2 a cup, but please go for the original stall because the other stalls just don't make it (trust me I've been there).

In the same row, there's also a famous duck rice stall and shui jing pau stall which I'm going to cover in my next post. Not to mention that there's also the famous clapot laksa, tze char, carrot cake, mutton soup, chicken rice, bak kut teh with Da Zhong Guo (which sells good chinese pastries), Lina's confectionary (which sells darn good curry puff and lapis kueh) and a famous Ang ku kueh stall in the vacinity.

Wow, now that's quite a mouthful isn't it?