Marine Parade FC. Seremban Beef Noodles and Neptune Dim Sum

   Welcome to Marine Parade Central FC. We are visiting here today, since there is news releases last year that they will be doing major renovations to this place, once their lease expires in 2017. So I thought, we should come, here, before that happens and try their food. And come early, so we can try it many times before the renovations. Here are the links for the renovation news. http://news.asiaone.com/news/soshiok/hawkers-fret-over-centre-renovations

How to get there :-

Address

84 Marine Parade Central

Nearest MRT station is Dakota MRT station. Once you pass the gantry gates, you turn left and head towards Exit A. Take the escalator up and once at the top, turn right to the main road. At the main road, turn right again and walk along the MRT station, until you see a traffic light. Cross the street at the traffic light and infront of you, you will see Block 99. Directly infront of Block 99 there is a bus stop. From this bus stop, take either the Bus no. 16 or 31. The Bus ride will take around 10-15mins. 

The landmark you should look out for is the Church of Singapore building. It is a brown and white building along Joo Chiat Road. After you see this building, you can press the bell and stop at the bus stop at Marine Parade Road. Once you alight, head back towards the junction and cross the road. Make sure you cross the roads twice. Then walk ahead until you see the statue of 2 dolphins. At the statues, turn left and walk straight until you see the Marine Parade Central FC. Or if you have a direct bus here, please take that. Alternatively, you can also view my trip here on YouTube at the link below or click here, https://youtu.be/uXC90SY9DtM

The first place I head to was here. Mr Wong Seremban Beef Noodles. I remember eating beef noodles in Seremban (a town in Malaysia) their beef noodles and it taste similar. I am not sure if it was from this particular brand of beef noodles but this style is beef noodles, you mainly find it is Seremban. So I always get abit nostalgic when I eat here. 

Address :

Marine Parade Central FC #01- 184

Timing :

Daily 11am to 8.30pm

(but i have been there on Monday and it was not open)

How to Order:

1) Join the queue. And decide what you want to order. The menu is on the right hand side of the stall.

2) Decide if you want noodles or just soup?

3) Decide if you want noodles, then 

- beef noodles (with fresh sliced brisket) 

- beef noodles mixed (meat & stomach/tendon)

- jerky beef noodles (jerky & meat/tendon & stomach)

- beef tendon noodles

- beef ball noodles

 4) If you decided to take soup, then

- fresh beef soup

- mixed beef soup (meat & stomach/tendon)

- beef tendon soup

- beef tendon soup
- braised beef meal (jerky meat, braised meat & stomach with rice)

5) Decide the noodle style you want soup / dry

6) Decide on size / price

- beef noodles, fresh beef soup & beef ball noodles                     $3.50 / $4.50

- beef noodle mixed, mixed beef soup & jerky beef noodles       $4.50 / $5.50

- beef tendon noodles & beef tendon soup                                               $5.50

- braised beef meal                                                                                    $5.00

- beef ball soup                                                                              $1.00 / 3 pieces

7) Make payment

8) Get your utensils and chili sauce. Don't forget to put the preserved little shrimp paste into your chili. 

9) Wait for you noodles and once you get it, take it and enjoy. 

Seremban Beef Noodles is slightly different than the Singapore version. Both comes in a starchy yummy brown sauce. This sauce is usually infused with all the bones and meat flavour from the meat. The difference is that this sauce is slightly sweeter than the Singapore version while the Singapore version is more savory. Another major difference is the condiments. The Seremban version will have perserved veg and the crunch texture of peanuts.  I ordered the $3.50 dry mixed beef noodles. I like the mix of different parts of the cow. If they are cooked well, long and with with much herbs and soy sauce, it is very good.

  

This chili sauce goes well with the beef. It is spicy but ot too spicy and also sour. So do dip your meat into the sauce. It adds the spiciness you need in the noodles. The sliced meat was cooked well and the spare parts (stomach) was tender.


After I mixed the noodles well and started eating it, I felt that there is something lacking. I think it maybe the flavour from the sauce. Either not enough sauce or the sauce does not have enough meaty flavour or maybe it should be thicker. I am not very sure exactly what is missing. But i like the sourness you get from the preserved veg and the off and on crunch you get from the peanuts. It balances out the flavour of the noodles. 
  
 Overall, there is alot of meat for my $3.50 bowl. It would have been a damn good bowl of noodles, except I felt something missing in the braising sauce. The meat was cooked well and the spare parts was tender. Rating 3/6 Tasty  

Dim sum at a hawker centre? And you would usually be correct. You usually get factory made dim sum at most hawker or food courts. But you are mistaken with this one. The dim sum is hand made and freshly made daily. Once you bite into it, you can tell. Welcome to Neptune Dim Sum. Such places are getting rarer to find in busy Singapore.

Address :

Marine Parade Central FC #01- 176

Timing :

Mon - Sun         8am to 9.30pm

How to order :
1) Find a seat nearby the stall
2) The menu is all the pictures overhead. Decide what you want by pointing or saying the name of the dish.
3) Go back to your seat and wait for them to deliver the items.
4) Once all the items arrive, make payment for the items. Price from $2.80 onwards to $4.00
5) Eat and enjoy.

Prawn Cheong Fun (if you are in Hong Kong) or more commonly know here in Singapore & Malaysia, prawn chee cheong fun. It is basically rice roll with ingredients. This one is prawn. You can also order it with char siew (barbaque pork) and other items. This item was recommended by the stall owner and so I decided to try. This item is freshly made when you order it. It comes with a salty soy sauce. Other places, will serve it with a sweeten soy sauce. So this sauce threw me off abit. I did not know what to expect. The rice roll was also a little thick as compared to what I am used to. But surprisingly, this salty soy sauce goes well with the steam rice roll. It goes extremely well and the prawns were fresh. Really fresh.  Rating 4/6 Damn Good

Siew Mai or steamed pork dumplings. This was another good choice. The siew mai was filled with meat. You can actually feel the meat as you bite into the dumpling. It taste fantastic and I really enjoyed it. You get a real satisfying bite feel when you eat this. Maybe the rating is alittle high for this item but recently, I have been eating many examples of this item at other places that is terrible. There is one place, where they put on top of the siew mai, florescent pink fish roe. Florescent pink. I am not kidding. so you do not need to ask me how that tasted. I get shivers just remembering it. So when i get a good one, I am extremely happy. Rating 5/6 Excellent

Har Gow or steamed prawn dumpling. Like the prawn rice roll, the prawn here is super fresh. It taste good and has the bite texture of fresh seafood. The dumpling skin was not thick and when eaten with the sweet chili sauce, it is yummy. This item has very few ingredients and so as long as you ingredients are fresh and the dumpling skin is made with skill and not overcooked, it is a good barometer of the skill of the cook.  Rating 4/6 Damn Good

Char Siew Pau or Steamed Barbaque Pork Bun. Their version of the char siew pau was slightly saltier than the ones you usually get other place and there is slightly more bun than filling ratio. And I did not understand it until after. The filling was more condensed in flavour but abit salty. I think, at least for me, you need to take a huge bite out of the bun, then chew it for a longer time. You let your saliva mixed with the carbohydrate of the bun to add sweetness to the bite and you chew until you get the necessary sweetness in your bite. Rating 3/6 Tasty

My favourite desert and it has always been that way since I was young. A good egg tart can bring you back to the old days when you were young. But in Singapore, we do not have a tradition of celebrating this dish. Unlike Hong Kong where there are whole shops that made their fortune by just perfecting this dish. 

Their egg tart is good. The egg tart's crust is flaky and crumbly. The egg custard filling is sweet and melts in your mouth. It is a very good egg tart.  Rating 4/6 Damn Good

Overall this place is very good. Better than some of the "restaurants" you go to to eat Dim Sum. So go give it a try Rating 4/6 Damn Good








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Heng Kee Curry Chicken Mee VS Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee

    Heng Kee
         VS
    Ah Heng

I have tried both places and I really like both places. Both make a really really good bowl of Curry Chicken Noodles. And if you refer to my previous posts, you will see that I have given both of the a Rating = 5/6 Excellent. And it is both well deserved. But just because they have the same rating, don't mean that we can not have some fun, picking the better one. So lets go....

Lets start with, : -

Location
Heng Kee - Address : Hong Lim Food Centre #01-58
Ah Heng -  Address : Hong Lim Food Centre #02-58

Their units are directly on top of each other. How is that for competition. So unless you have extreme phobia of heights or can not walk up a flight of stairs, then Heng Kee will win for location.

Availability
Heng Kee - Operating hours :   Mon - Sat         :     11am - 2pm

                                                  Sun & Public Holiday Closed

Ah Heng  - Operating hours :   Mon - Fri         : 10am - 9pm

                                                  Sat, Sun & PH : 8am - 9pm

Heng Kee only opens for lunch hours while Ah Heng opens for longer operating hours( both lunch and dinner.... maybe even late breakfast) So if you have a craving for curry chicken noodles at any other timing other than lunch, you will most likely find Ah Heng more available. (supper time excluded since you should not be eating this before you sleep. You either get heartburn, upset stomach or nightmares from it)

The actual food itself
Yes, now for the reason you read until now. The comparison of the food. The meat of the hamburger. The sausage of the hot dog. The crab in the chilli crab. The.... errrr...... some food porn before more words.....

Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee

Heng Kee Curry Chicken Mee

The curry soup or gravy. (i call it soup since, i would slurp down every last drop of the soup from the bowl)
Ah Heng's curry soup/gravy, has a smooth finish. The spices and ingredients meld together well and creates a very enjoyable finish.  The curry soup from Heng Kee is more red. More chilli oil on top. But taste-wise, Heng Kee taste better. You get the hit of flavour when it first touches your tongue. It gives you a nice kick and maintains it there. The Ah Heng soup is milder but you need to add the chilli sauce into the soup and you can get an equal kick you get from the Heng Kee soup. For the Heng Kee soup, you do not need to add the chilli sauce, since the soup has already been flavoured enough in the big pot, and also, i feel that it does add some more spice to the noodle but also saltiness. Since the soup does not need it, then don't add it.

The Noodles. 
Both stalls offer the same type of noodles. The one I like to order for the dish is thick bee hoon. I feel that Heng Kee cooks the noodles better. Even when you look at the pictures, you can see that it looks abit firmer and more bouncy. 

The Chicken
For Ah Heng, I remember only getting breast meat and from Heng Kee, I got different parts of the chicken. The parts I got from Heng Kee was more tasty. 

Other Ingredients
The fish cake and tau pok (fried bean curd), I felt that it went well with the soup and noodles. I can not remember enough to compare the both since I ate them at different days. 

Consistency
Heng Kee standard is mostly consistent. As in, they have never disappoint me in the bowl they gave me. As for Ah Heng, maybe owing to operating for so many hours, and the baton being passed to afew different hands, the standard does vary. Still good but not as good as it can be. 

Presentation
Ah Heng bowl looks more presentable. It looks like some one came and tune the colours or put in filters on the picture. Heng Kee on the other hand, put all the goodness on the bowl and that is why it is there for. No prettying up. you get what you see. Bones and all. 

Chilli Sauce

 Ah Heng's Chilli Sauce, you need to put it into your soup. Trust me. It will boost the flavour of the dish to another level.

Heng Kee's chilli sauce is slightly darker than their competitors, and has a dried shrimp taste. It is also abit salty. If you put it into your soup, it will make it spicier, but also saltier at the same time. In my opinion, you do not need to pour it in.

Overall
If you have Ah Heng's standard at the top, and you add in the chilli sauce to the soup, and compare it with Heng Kee directly. It is very close to each other. Very very close. Ah Heng version, the presentation of the noodles is more polish, the soup is more smooth, the finish is more refine, all the spices and ingredients, all wrapped up nicely in a box with a bow. Whereas, Heng Kee's version is more robust, the spices less fine, more kick you in the taste buds and with a homemade feel. It is by no means uncivilised but just that you can tell the story from looking at the noodles. 
Both very very good bowls of noodles, but worthy of their long queue.  

They both rate almost as close to each other than as possible but one does beat the other. And only slightly, the smallest of margins. And that is... Heng Kee Curry Chicken Mee. Somehow, they let the ingredients shine abit better than their competitor. But good job to both and I would happily eat both of noodles.

If you enjoyed the blog, please visit my Youtube Channel to see the videos of the food. Subscribe and comment for more videos.

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Tuck Kee Sah Hor Fun & Heng Kee Curry Mee at Hong Lim Food Centre

I am back. Back to Hong Lim Food Centre to try more food. You could not keep me away. I am here to beat the lunch crowd and some of the stalls I plan to go to today is not open yet. But lets start with those that are. 

How to get here : -
Address : 
Blk 531A, Upper Cross St
Hong Lim Food Centre

Getting there is abit complicated. The nearest landmark is Chinatown Point. Hong Lim FC is behind this shopping centre. For detailed instruction, please click on my YouTube link below to watch the video on how to get there.

If you are at the Chinatown MRT station, please head towards Exit E. Along the way to the Exit, there is an underground connection to the downtown line MRT station. Do not go thru the MRT gantry, but there is an underground passage that connects to Chinatown Point. Keep going and take the escalator up until you reached the 2nd floor. From the 2nd floor of Chinatown Point, there is an overhead connection to Hong Lim FC.

The first stall I went to was Ji Ji Wanton Noodles. They serve a style of wanton noodle that is commonly found in Malaysia, were they use dark soy sauce. The sauce is abit sweet with a salty soy sauce taste. What you look for in this dish is of course the noodles, which has to be springy n have a nice chewing texture. The char siew or barbecue pork, which is sweet and abit caramelised on the edges. The wanton or dumpling, depending on their recipe it is either made of minced pork or prawn or both. 

Address

Hong Lim Food Centre #02-48/49/50

Timing

Mon - Sat         :     6.30am - 8.30pm

Sun                   :     6.30am - 6.30pm

How to Order :-

1) Join the queue.
2) Look at the display to decide what type of noodles you want. For me, I ordered the Char Siew Wanton Noodles
3) Decide on price/size : $4 / $5 / $6 / $7 / $8
4) Take a tray and chilli with light soy sauce, disposable chopstick and spoon.
5) Wait for your noodles to be prepared
6) Make payment after you receive your dish
7) Find a table, sit down n enjoy

The noodles here are prepared well. The noodles are springy and has a good chewing texture. The sauce coats the noodles well and it was sweet and savory. I actually ordered the smallest size of $4 and they gave me quite alot of ingredients for what I paid. There was some blanched veg, char siew (Barbecue pork) and mushrooms. There was also 2 types of dumplings, wanton in soup and deep fried wanton. The deep fried wanton gives a nice crunch to the noodles. 

 The wanton in soup was abit disappointing. The wanton (pork dumpling) was like 75% wanton skin and once you bit into it, was all squishy and mushy. Not very enjoyable. 

Overall, the noodles is good, nice chewing texture and goes well with the sweet dark soy sauce. The char siew was like the Malaysian or Hong Kong type, moist and sweet with dark caramalised edge. The rating for the noodles 4/6 Damn Good. But the wanton in the soup was a total disappointment. The rating for the wanton in soup 1/6 Don't Try. Combined rating of 2.5/6 Tasty

Next we are at a Curry Chicken Noodle stall. You can review the previous Hong Lim Food Centre blog and you will find their direct competitor. That store location is direct above this store. And both stall are famous for this dish. I was here just before they opened and as you can see, there is already afew people waiting .

Address

Hong Lim Food Centre #01-58

Timing

Mon - Sat         :     11am - 2pm

Sun & Public Holiday Closed

How to Order :-
1) Join the queue. If you come during the lunch hour peak period, be prepared to wait. I have heard of people waiting up to 50mins.
2) Once at the front of the queue, decide on price/size : $5 / $6 / $7
3) Choose type of noodle : bee hoon (thin rice vermicelli noodles),
                                            thick bee hoon (Thick rice noodles),
                                            yellow noodles (Egg Noodles) 
                                            or a combination of 2 noodles.
4) Make payment.
5) Step to the left and wait for them to prepare your noodles.
6) Take a tray, chilli sauce, chopstick and spoon, together with your noodles to your table and enjoy

Here is the Heng Kee Curry Chicken Noodles. On the initial looks of the dish, You can see that the chicken pieces, have bones. There is even a whole chicken wing together with bone in this dish. On the first taste of the soup, you are hit with a strong burst of flavour. And I felt it was spicier that their counterpart above. The noodles was okay. The chicken has a nice texture to it and was more flavourful, since it was the connected with the bone. It is quite enjoyable bowl of noodles.

Now the chili sauce, it is just as darker than the one upstairs and when you added it to your soup, it does make it oiler and spicier. But for me, there was more of a dried prawn taste and also abit saltier.

Overall, a very very good example of curry chicken noodles. It was spicy enough, the curry soup was full of flavour and good to the last drop. The chicken had a nice texture and was still connected to the bone. All the ingredients goes well together to make an outstanding dish. I felt that it was not necessary to put in the chilli sauce. The curry soup had all the flavour notes that it needed without adding it. The chilli sauce in my opinion, made it slightly too salty for me. Rating 5/6 Excellent

The last food review of the day is from Tuck Kee Sah Hor Fun. This is the first time I got to eat this dish. Previously, there was always a long line and I did not arrive in time to eat here. So today, I made sure I came early to get my chance. 

Address

Hong Lim Food Centre #02-4000

Timing

Mon - Sat         :     11am - 2.45pm

Sun                   :     Closed

How to Order :-

1) Head to the end of the queue and join the queue

2) Decide on what to order :- Crayfish Hor Fun                 $8

                                               Chicken/Prawn Hor Fun      $5 
3) Once at the front of the queue, you place your order.
4) Decide Eating in / Takeaway (additional $0.50)
5) Stand to your left and wait for them to prepare your dish
6) Take your chili sauce, utensils and your finished dish and look for a table

I decided to go for the Crayfish Hor Fun. Crayfish is not a normal ingredients you usually get at hawker centres.

The noodles, it is slightly different than your usual flat rice noodles. This version of noodles is called Ipoh Hor Fun, which is not as wide as the usual flat white noodles you get. The noodles here, was smooth and the noodles does not stick together. So it goes down your throat nice and smooth. Especially after you mix it together with the starchy sauce. There is also deep fried shallots that adds a fragrance and a sweet onion taste to the noodles. 

The crayfish is cooked perfectly and it is very fresh. It is moist and bouncy to chew. Unfortunately, there was only one of them, Eventough I tried to trick my self that the 2 halves were different crayfishes. The prawn was also fresh. 

The only issue I had with the dish was that the sauce, that is suppose to pull everything together, was abit bland. Maybe it is me, where I prefer strong flavours, but there was just not enough there. It was not that it was diluted or anything like that, it was just it had the flavour of seafood and maybe chicken bones, but when you mixed it to the noodles, it does not bring the dish together. Like a short person, trying to reach for a book on the highest shelf.

Overall, don't expect a burst of flavour, but for those who are not looking for that, and like fresh crayfish. You can give it a try. Rating 3/6 Tasty



Also I will be comparing the 2 curry chicken noodles in a later blog. so look out for that.





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