I was drawn to this stall by the appearance of the old school sign. Vintage looking signs give off an appearance of the stall having survived a long time and thus the standard of the food must be half-decent. Beef kway teow is not something I have eaten much of in the past, in fact I rarely see beef as a protein option in Singapore. Anecdotally, it seems that many in the older generation do not seem to like the smell and taste of beef and the younger generation are used to higher quality cuts of ribeye steak or wagyu shabu shabu. Of course I could be talking out of my ass and it just has to do with supply lines, cost, and what you were introduced to as a child. Regardless. the common proteins are always chicken, pork, mutton, or various seafood. Anyway this seemed like a good opportunity to try a hawker beef based dish.

I will readily admit, even after several years, I can get intimidated by some hawker stalls. One such intimidating factor is stalls with no menu, either picture or written words. The menu on this stall consists of the single sign above, essentially large or small. The lack of choice does make it easier to decide what to get.

Watching the hawker prepare the dish, the beef is sliced off large pre-cooked cuts. The thinly sliced beef is carefully placed on top of the kway teow (you do get to choose your noodle type) and then the soup and ladled on. The kway teow is silky and smooth, perfectly cooked so you can slurp up individual strands.

The beef has a great flavour, but the thinness of the slices and the temperature of the soup overcook it so the texture becomes a bit rubbery. The real star of this dish is the broth. Obviously it has been cooked with bones, giving it a rich flavour, but it is clean and barely any oil floats on the surface. The crunchy bean sprouts and shredded pickled vegetable give it some texture.

The accompanying chilli seems to have grated galangal in it. The flavour is quite intense and overly salty. I found it overpowered the flavour of the beef and discarded it sadly.

Overall this was a great lunch. Light, clean, and refreshing. Which can be quite rare for hawker food.

Price: $5.00

Hawker centre: East Coast Lagoon Food Village
Address: #01-33, 1220 ECP, Singapore 468960
Hours: 12pm – 10.30pm