Hong Lim Crayfish Hor Fun by Tuck Kee Ipoh Sah Hor Fun 德记怡保沙河粉

I've long set my sights on Tuck Kee's famous crayfish hor fun 

but I was always either too early or too late at the stall. So, its quite ironic that it's only during Singapore's Covid-19 Phase 2 Heightened Alert that I finally checked it off my Must Try list. Today, buddy Paul kindly dabao-ed for me. Thanks so much 🙏

Stall name: Tuck Kee Ipoh Sah Hor Fun 德记怡保沙河粉

Address: Hong Lim Food Centre, #02-40, 531A Upper Cross Street, Singapore 051531  

Hours: 11:00am - 2:45pm (Sun off)

I have many favourites at Hong Lim, it's one of Singapore's best hawker centres. Today, dabao from Heng Kee curry chicken noodle and Tuck Kee crayfish hor fun. This review is about Tuck Kee, you can read my review of Heng Kee here 👈 click 

The hor fun, prawns and crayfish were packed separately from the sauce.

We transferred the contains on the box to a more atas plate 😛

The gold-amber sauce was thick like syrup.

There was just enough of it to smother the noodles with not much to spare.

The narrow hor fun (Ipoh style mah...) had soften during transit but still smooth and slurpy when coated with the thick sauce. 

And the sauce, it was delightful!

It struck me as mainly sweet of the vegetable kind probably extracted from vegetables in the chicken and seafood stock. Then, there's umami-savouriness which likely came from prawn heads and shells. There were hints of pepper heat underlying the sweet crustacean savoury sauce. The sprinkle of fried shallots melted into the sauce, melling its savoury flavour and aroma into it. After tasting the sauce, it is easy to understand why there is always a long queue at Tuck Kee stall.

But, do note that the sauce flavours are relatively mild, though exquisite and well balanced. If your preference is for more robust, assertive flavours, you might feel it doesn't have enough "oomph".

I like Tuck Kee's sauce as it is.

There were several finger size shelled & deveined prawns and three halves of crayfish. They were all quite fresh. I like the prawns which still had a bit of tender crunch and sweetness.

The crayfish looked more impressive but texture and flavour wise, I personally still prefer ordinary prawns. The crayfish meat was softer than I like and the taste was milder than the prawns. I like my crustacean meat tender-firm.

Worth a try - the best thing here in my opinion is their unique sweet savoury peppery sauce.

The crayfish hor fun came with a small bag of sambal. It's nice excellent with belacan umami but I didn't use it as I couldn't bear to mess with the seafood sauce's delicately tuned flavours.

The crayfish hor fun costs $10 and 50 cents for the takeaway box.

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Written by Tony Boey on 28 May 2021 🥡 Day 14 of Singapore Phase 2 Heightened Alert to curb Covid-19 spread.