Hock Lee Fishball Noodle is one of the most popular food stalls at Albert Centre Market & Food Centre. I like everything about Hock Lee's fishball noodles - tender chewy noodles, robust lardy spicy sauce, handmade fishballs and tasty soup.
There are around 100 food stalls in Albert Centre Market & Food Centre. Hock Lee Fishball Noodle is among the top 3 most popular, if not the most popular stall in the hawker centre.
Unless you live near enough to Albert Centre, eating Hock Lee's fishball noodles takes a certain effort. The stall opens at 6-ish and often sells out at 9-ish. There's always a long queue at the stall. This Sunday morning there were 10 people in front of me, and another 10 behind me.
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| Uncle, why you take picture? |
I only managed to get a taste of Hock Lee fishball noodles on my third attempt, arriving at 8am.
I got the $5 set. It's really simple, no frills fishball noodle. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is fishball noodle at its most fundamental - no fish dumpling, no fish cake, no fish roll, no minced pork, no pork liver, no tau pok. No, no, no. Just fishball and noodles.
(I know right - fishball noodle is fishball noodle, bak chor mee is bak chor mee, but nowadays "hawkerpreneurs" are "creative".)
I asked for "dry" and mee kia. The mound of slender noodles came set in a shallow pool of red brown colour greasy sauce with bak pok (lard croutons or lardons) at the side.
I asked for "dry" and mee kia. The mound of slender noodles came set in a shallow pool of red brown colour greasy sauce with bak pok (lard croutons or lardons) at the side.
A good toss coats every strand with the greasy sauce - there's plenty of it for every strand.
I like the noodles Hock Lee use - they have a gummy chewy feel to the bite. But, the noodles weren't very well drained and a tad overdone today, so it felt a little clumpy with some residual water. Nevertheless, I still like it because of the quality of the noodles.
The heavy greasy sauce is robust, the way I like sauces for my noodles. It tasted lardy, spicy, savoury, sweet, tangy (from vinegar) in that order - quite complex.
My $5 set had 9 fishballs. (Update Sep 2023: Minus one, just 8 fishballs now. Inflation - I mean cost of living. Fishballs not inflated - no change in size 😅 )
The soup was almost clear. It was sweet, there was also the underlying sweet taste of fresh fish plus a hint of pepper.
The star of Hock Lee fishball or any fishball stall is the fishball. Hock Lee's handmade fishballs are among best that I've tasted in Singapore and also in Malaysia.
They were tenderly springy, pop apart to gentle bites, and burst soft sweetness of fresh fish.
Worth the queue, worth the calories, worth getting out early from the house for.
Written by Tony Boey on 7 Feb 2021.
🎗 Opinions in this blog are all my own as no restaurant paid money to be featured.
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Indeed they sell out early. I got there around 9.45am and I was very fortunate to be among the last few customers to be served :-)
ReplyDeleteThe opening days not consistent as mentioned it’s closed on Mondays , thus good to paste a notice on the stall to inform on the date of reopening to avoid disappointment by customers .
ReplyDelete