Hill Street Fried Kway Teow (Chinatown Complex)

Read a lot about this CKT stall in Smith Street Chinatown Food Center so I finally had to came and try it. Arriving at 2pm, the queue in front of me was about 10 patrons. Took about 30 mins to get to me as uncle fries each order separately and in between, he pre-fries a batch of noodles and kway teow with soya sauce.

Ordered the $4 portion. Not allowed to add anything like eggs or cockles. Sad.

The CKT is something in between wet and dry types. A little bit of wok heat and the taste is more savoury than sweet. You get about 6 cockles, 1 tail-on shrimp, a few pieces of Chinese sausage. No chives or fish cakes.

All in, it’s just an above average plate of CKT.

Back here at this stall 😋. Ordered the S$4 portion. There's always a queue and the wait time might be a bit long, as uncle fries the noodles one plate at a time.

🔥Freshly fried with a nice smokey flavour and savoury-sweet taste. Lup cheong, cockles, bean sprouts and spring onions are fried with egg and kway teow. Serving size is good for the price.

Ate this a few times already. Recommended 👍 The stall is located right at the corner, in the Yellow zone of this hawker centre.

📍Location:
Hill Street Fried Kway Teow (02-32)
Chinatown Complex Food Centre
335 Smith Street
Singapore 050335

Founded by Tan Chiang Boo in 1969 and still operated together with his wife, this is one of 2 stalls bearing the name 'Hill Street Fried Kway Teow'; no relation aside from hailing from the same defunct hawker centre - the Tan's stall was on the 2nd floor, while their competitor was on the 1st floor.
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Queues for their rendition stretch up to 30 minutes during peak periods, especially as their opening hours are limited.
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They've struck a balance in frying the wide flat rice noodles and long cyclindrical yellow wheat noodles with pork lard, light soy sauce, and dark sweet soy sauce, evenly cooked and tending towards the wet sweet version.
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Classic ingredients with crisp bean sprouts, crisp garlic chives, chewy lup cheong / dried cured pork sausage, tender fish cake, wispy egg, and juicy blood cockles. The premium version also has added deshelled prawns, fresh and juicy.
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This carries robust savoury salty sweet eggy flavour throughout, with a good smoky wok hei / breath of the wok. Yum.
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Char Kway Teow
Hill Street Fried Kway Teow (Chinatown)
@ Chinatown Complex Food Centre, 335 Smith Street #02-32
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2022/06/best-of-singapore-hawkers-char-kway-teow.html

Millenials would probably not heard of Hill St Food Centre which was located in the empty plot of land beside Central Fire Station and behind Funan Mall, and demolished in 2000.

Most will however have heard of Hill Street CKT in Bedok which was much loved by the late Anthony Bourdain and located on the ground floor of the demolished food centre. However, few will know that there is actually another Hill Street FC which was located on the 2nd floor and which can now be found at an obscure corner of Chinatown Complex FC.

This stall has 50 years of history and is run by a friendly elderly couple. They serve the old school dry version of CKT with a nice hint of wok hey. Each plate is served with nice thick slices of Chinese sausage, prawns and sea hum. For those who like sea hum, they were decent sized, juicy and cooked nicely to remove the metallic aftertaste.

This is a good plate of CKT which I will gladly get in line for!

I didn’t know there was another hill street fried kway teow in Chinatown. Unlike the one at Bedok, this one was a bit low profile. I was attracted by the fragrant of the fried kway teow from a few hundred meters away. It’s not the best one I had but it had a gd amount of wok hei and old school taste. A pretty decent plate that’s worth the calories.

Not the best char kway teow (not in my top 5 at least) but certainly one of the better ones i’ve tried.

It was a joy watching the elderly couple in action, with the friendly aunty taking orders and the uncle frying each plate of char kway teow with gusto. Come support them before they are gone for good eventually.