 |
| Hwa Heng Beef Noodles 華興牛肉粉 | Bendemeer Market & Food Centre, stall #01-86, Singapore 330029 🚅 5 minutes walk from Boon Keng station ⏰ 10am - 2pm (Sun, Mon, Tues off) |
I love beef noodles and count myself lucky that I can still get one of my old favourites 旧爱 today.
I have two old favourites. One I cannot remember the location anymore.
When I was in secondary 2 (age 14 in 1974), during school holidays, I worked for a glass window contractor. The shop was somewhere around Victoria Street, I can't remember exactly. For SGD4 a day, I carried metal and glass window frames up the stairs at buildings under construction.
I remember one was the Seiko factory in Woodlands which opened in 1976. The building is still there today (now it is Okamoto lathe factory).
Of the SGD4, I spent a good part of it to treat myself to the beef noodle at the back lane just behind the contractor's shop. I have no idea now where that was.
As for the beef noodle, I remember that it was the gooey dark sauce type with thick rice noodles and grated peanut sprinkled on top.
My second favourite was the beef noodle stall at Scotts Picnic food court in the 1980s. We went there fairly often for lunch as we worked nearby.
This too I cannot remember the details, except that it was also dark gooey sauce type and it had a special spice aroma. I can't remember anything else and can't describe the aroma now.
The Scotts Picnic beef noodle stall is in the third generation now. One of the successor stalls is Hwa Heng Beef Noodle 華興牛肉粉 at Bendemeer Market and Food Centre run by the grand daughter of the founders Mdm Lee Suan Liang and Kiang Teck Huan.
Mdm Lee from Hainan Island started her push cart stall in 1948 around Cashin Street / Bain Street. Odeon Cinema opened in 1953 at the intersection of Cashin Street and North Bridge Road, hence Mdm Lee's stall became known as "Odeon beef noodle". Mdm Lee later moved her stall inside Wah Hing Coffee Shop opposite Odeon Cinema, hence the name Hwa Heng beef noodle.
Mdm Lee had two sons, Richard Kiang Kin Nam and Kiang Kin Tong. In 1985, one of Mdm Lee's two sons Kiang Kin Nam (with partner Daniel Mok) opened the beef noodle stall in Scotts Picnic.
Daniel Mok later registered Odeon Beef Noodle under his own name (that's another story for another day).
There are two streams of Hwa Heng Beef Noodle now. This stall at Bendemeer by Kiang Kin Tong's daughter Kiang Hui Ling is a sole independent stall. The other Hwa Heng stream by Kiang Kin Nam's successors have franchise stalls across Singapore (as well as in China, Indonesia, Europe).
Okay, lets get back to Bendemeer now 😄
To avoid the 1 - 2 hour queue, I got here at Bendemeer food centre at 8am. The stall holders were preparing for the day's business opening at 10am.
I could smell fleetingly that familiar aroma as they cooked their signature sauce. I still couldn't describe it other than aromatic as it was subtle and went away too fast for me.
Hwa Heng has a good system for early birds. We were given a number tag. At 8am, I was fourth in line.
When the stall opened at 10am, we skipped to the front of the line according to our queue number.
The secret recipe magic sauce.
I got the SGD6.50 serving. The noodles and beef were hidden under the thick black gooey sauce, and heap of chopped parsley and blanched bean sprouts.
Gave it a good toss to coat the thick rice vermicelli with sauce.
I like the texture of the slurpy slick smooth rice noodles. They were just like the rice noodles they use in Hainan Island. The strands were soft tender to the bite - I like. (I don't like thick rice noodles which are springy firm chewy.)
The sauce enveloping every strand was mildly savoury with subtle sweet and Chinese 5-spice flavours. It's nice through I can't really put it in words other than these.
However, the signature smell from Scotts Picnic days, I couldn't detect it from my bowl of beef noodles.
There was a lot of beef for SGD6.50. There were lean meat slices, tendon, tripe and beef balls. Generous amounts of everything, especially the spongy soft tendons.
The beef was neither gamey nor beefy, I wish they were a bit. But, this may account for their wide appeal as the daily queue attests.
I am not a fan of factory beef balls but the two in my bowl were actually surprisingly good - tender moist chewy to the bite and mildly beefy savoury with spice flavour.
The watery brown soup had a little bit of Chinese 5-spice flavour and subtle beefiness.
The cincalok sauce was just mildly salty which I like. The chili sauce was salty and spicy hot. Didn't use the sauces much as I like to taste the beef's natural flavours.
Huge hearty lunch for a princely SGD6.50, I enjoyed myself reconnecting with an old favourite from long ago.
Epilogue: Doing this research and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced now that the beef noodle I had when I was a child labourer at 14 years old was very likely the legendary Odeon beef noodle. At that time, they had crushed peanut dressing on the beef noodles which they have discontinued.
Stall name: Hwa Heng Beef Noodles 華興牛肉粉
Address: 29 Bendemeer Rd, stall #01-86, Singapore 330029 (Bendemeer Market & Food Centre)
Nearest MRT: 5 minutes walk from Boon Keng station
Hours: 10am - 2pm (Sun, Mon, Tues off)
Read more 👉
Bao Luo Fen Noodle 抱罗粉 Famous Hainan Beef Noodle from Wenchang Hainan Island
Follow me on Facebook & Instagram
Written by Tony Boey on 25 Apr 2025
 |
| The Straits Times, 22 March 1987, Page 4 |
 |
| The Straits Times, 9 September 1979, Page 15 |
 |
| The Straits Times, 21 May 1987, Page 1 |
 |
| The Straits Times, 21 May 1987, Page 1 |
 |
| The Straits Times, 3 November 1996, Page 2 |
 |
| The Straits Times, 30 August 1987, Page 4 |
Was just there last week for this … Solid 👍 Their jelly like Cincalok however was strange for me 🤔
ReplyDeleteThis is one of best ones for sure. My favorite however, is the one from the defunct Lavender Food Square called Bugis Street Ngak Seah Beef Kuay Teow
ReplyDeletethe stall opposite Oden Cinema.. wondering where they are now
ReplyDeleteThai Desserts - red ruby.
ReplyDeleteI remembered the beef noodles and Yumi yogurt stall in Scotts Picnic when I was working in Singapore in the late 80s - early 90s..such great memories
ReplyDeleteAnd Cost Plus was upstairs with the promise that any items bought cheaper elsewhere, difference will be refunded with produce of receipt. Metro Scotts targeting youths with it’s local designers and Japanese influenced clothing line was the rage there, which draws in students in uniforms (At that time, it was uncool to be seen in uniform in glitzy Orchard shopping belt). There was a notable stall selling Penang Assam Laksa n other Penang delicacies. And a middle eastern Shish Kebab stall was there too which created an eclectic mix. The dessert/drink stall was famous for its Red Ruby Ice as they could be the first to introduce this Thai dessert to our shores. The was steaks on hotplates in the shape of cows also. The rest of the stalls were mostly regular food court stuffs. Hwa Heng Bendemeer is independently operated separately from the rest of the Hwa Heng stalls across the island. Both under the same family umbrella. The Scotts Service Apartments were also famous for its sprawling luxurious apartments with gardens for those who knew. This iconic building contributed and revolutionized the Orchard shopping district but lost it’s after the economic bubble burst leading to massive closures of all it’s tenants.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Ng fellow foodie Bobcatsysop YK Chan had nailed down the history down accurately on one of his detailed post. Kudos to his efforts. Tony Boey would be able to verify its authenticity. It accurately points it down why there are now 2 Hwa Heng Beef Noodles. The original one that we loved was Tpy Hwa Heng which is now the Hwa Heng in Bendemeer. Tpy was removed when they shifted the stall unit facing the open area to the current unit.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/media/set/vanity=ykchan01&set=a.10152020226881761
It bring back. Old memories
ReplyDeleteOne if the best traditional Hainanese beef noodle in town. Other outlet not the same
ReplyDeleteI remember eating this with six saucers of chili at age 10 and the Ang moh at the next table asking me to slow down, take it easy. 🌚
ReplyDeleteThis was once my favourite but queue took too long, now I like the one at commonwealth fc, Ah Kee.
ReplyDelete