Monday, November 06, 2006

Hai Nan Xing Zhou Beef Noodles, Toa Payoh, Singapore

I wonder if any of you remembered the Cuppage Centre hawker centre? Not a foodcourt but an actual hot, greasy and hardcore hawker centre smacked in Cuppage Centre. Well, after the renovations, the hawker centre disappeared and along with it went my favorite Hainanese beef noodle stall. This stall was one of the pioneering stalls of Hainanese beef noodles, even before the mediocre ones started popping up in virtually every bogus food court.

I was almost jumping with joy when I saw this stall at at #01-06 Blk 22, Lorong 7, Toa Payoh claiming to be the one from Cuppage Centre. I could not remember how the owners looked like so I had to let my tastebuds decide if they were the real deal.

This is a bowl of their dried beef noodles. Dry Hainanese beef noodles aren't really dry per se but comes in a thick sauce. The beef slices were barely scalded leaving it very tender and still slightly pink. The tendon and tripe were generous in proportions and the tendon was stewed to a perfect texture. The toppings of spring onion and preserved vegetable finished off the taste I thought was lost forever. Since I was feeling rather warm I needed to order something to drink.

What better thing to drink than a bowl of hearty beef soup haha! Just as generous as the dry version, there was heaps of tender beef slices, tendon, tripe and beef balls. The soup didn't give me that MSG hit later on so it had to be made from some good stock. I'm still not sure if this stall is the one from Cuppage Centre but they must at least have the recipe to make this stuff taste so good. For all of you who miss the beef noodles from the Cuppage Centre of old, despair no more.

D

7 comments:

Unclenabe said...

Thank God!

I remember eating this after music lessons at specialist centre about a good 10 to 15 years ago at cuppage centre.

Will try it when i get back this December, for the sake of the Good ol' times!

Sammy said...

Hey D, theres a cuppage beef noodles at Amoy street food centre level 1. Not sure issit from the old cuppage anot but Gurmit and Michelle Chia has reviewed it during one of their programmes.

D said...

Unclenabe: Hell yeah!

YD: Really? I ought to give that one a go too. Thanks for the tip!

Lord Dianabol said...

Excellent post stud.

Gracio said...

D, U seems to be like a food explorer lei!! Ur posts make me super hungry boy! :)

D said...

lady dianabol: thanks haha

gracio: But you're in Dubai, gosh, the Middle-Eastern food there must be so kickass! You should do some reviews of the restaurants there!

Anonymous said...

ZOMG !! I remember this place too. Used to go there to eat this when i was young. If I didn't remember wrongly the carpark's entrance is spirally up one and the ground level is the wet market then upstairs is the food centre? Wah I want to go try this now.