In Singapore’s hawker landscapes, family feuds are quite common, with examples like the Tanglin Crispy Curry Puff saga instantly coming to mind. Recently, I learnt about another feud, one for the mantle of Singapore’s best beef noodles — Hwa Heng Beef Noodle versus Hwa Heng Beef Noodles. It’s time for a beef noodle showdown!
Your eyes don’t deceive you. Yes, they share almost the same name, the only thing distinguishing the two being a mere ‘s’ at the end. I first learnt of this generational feud when I discovered that our best-rated beef noodle stall was shifting from Bendemeer Market & Food Centre to Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre.
To cut a very long story short, this all started with a Hainanese woman named Mdm Lee opening a pushcart in 1948, which became known as Odeon Beef Noodles. Her first son later opened a stall under the same name in the now-defunct Scotts Picnic Food Court, while Mdm Lee moved her business to a coffee shop opposite Odeon Cinema, renaming it Hwa Heng Beef Noodle.
Mdm Lee’s granddaughter (daughter of her second son) then opened the Hwa Heng Beef Noodle hawker stall, formerly in Bendemeer and now in Boon Keng. While the Scotts Picnic branch and their successors franchised into Hwa Heng Beef Noodles, with the ‘s’. This whole drama is punctuated by a sign at the front of the hawker stall stating, “We don’t have any other branches.”
Whew, that was a mouthful. For this comparison, I’m pitting the hawker’s variation against the franchise, taking my sample from their relatively new branch in Velocity @ Novena Square‘s food court. Without further ado, let’s proceed with this beef noodle showdown!
Price
To keep this showdown fair, I ordered a Dry Mixed Beef Noodles with Tendons from both stalls. Both variants came with soup, which I’ll be comparing as well.
Firstly, the hawker variant. Their Dry Mixed Beef Noodle with Tendons was S$6.50, with noodle options of thick white bee hoon or kway teow. I naturally opted for the bee hoon.
As for the chain variant, their Dry Mixed Beef Noodles with Tendons came at a much pricier S$9.50 for Regular and S$12 for Large. I went for the regular, but that’s a pretty steep S$3 increase. The win is firmly in the hawker’s court for this one.
Noodles & Gravy
Both bowls had that signature dark and gooey gravy you’d expect from dry beef noodles, with tau geh and celery to complement it. The gravy from the chain variant was thick enough to cover the noodles, but it didn’t offer much in terms of ‘sippability’.
Contrast that to the hawker variant’s gravy, which was more starchy and fully masked the noodles, allowing me to sip ample amounts of it with the tiny amounts of minced beef that dotted the gravy. It evolved as I ate my meal too, taking on a more soupy texture at the bottom.
I was rather indecisive regarding the noodles, as both presented soft and tender thick bee hoon, which accompanied the gravy well. However, I will note that the chain variant was a little more slippery and splashed a bit of gravy on my shirt, whoops.
Overall, I’ll give the win to the hawker, as their evolving gravy added to the experience.
Toppings
This was where either competitor could score big points in this beef noodle showdown. I started with the beef slices; I found them to be more numerous with the chain variant, to the point where almost every mouthful had a bit of beef. Compare that to the hawker, which was more conservative in amount but more generous in size. There was a consistency with the hawker that I just didn’t find with the chain’s beef slices.
A similar story could be told for the tendon and shank, with the hawker’s shank being especially more tender.
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Although I feel like the chain had one-upped the hawker when it came to the tripe. I usually don’t like tripe, but the way the chain cooked it changed my opinion. Its flavour was maintained well beyond the first chew, squeezing out as much of that umami goodness as possible.
Unfortunately, the hawker variant’s tripe was both small and too chewy for my liking.
The beef balls were definitely a wild card in this competition. I got the feeling that both were factory-made, with the hawker’s beef balls being slightly bigger. A key difference was that the chain submerged their beef balls in the soup, while the hawker mixed them in with the other toppings. This resulted in beef balls that absorbed very different flavours.
When I bit into the chain’s beef balls, I tasted gentle herbal hints bursting from within, which likely came from the soup. I much preferred this over the traditional slightly savoury beef ball from the hawker.
Soup
This was a tale of two soups. As stated earlier, the chain’s soup had a strong herbal flavour with hints of umami, a perfect palate cleanser after I finished the starchy beef noodles. Each spoonful had the gentlest of brownish hues, which truly made it a comforting bowl.
As for the hawker’s soup, I had the sense that it was trying to be a sort of Chinese 5-spice soup with mild beefiness, but it didn’t taste like that. Instead, the soup tasted more like a generic beefy soup with MSG.
Verdict
In the end, Hwa Heng Beef Noodle (the hawker) edges out a close victory in this beef noodle showdown. The lower price tag plays a significant part in my decision, but that’s not to say Hwa Heng Beef Noodles (the chain) did horribly; there are places where they do better compared to the hawker.
Then again, I understand how prices are largely affected by rent, with food courts and coffee shops charging more per month than hawker centres. As always, taste is subjective, and I’d love to know your thoughts as well!
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