IN THE melting pot that is Singapore Chinese cuisine, it might eventually be impossible to tell Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew cooking apart.
At some eateries, Hainanese chicken rice is now served with a dressing that contains oyster sauce and tastes somewhat Cantonese.
At other restaurants, Cantonese congee is so grainy, it could be passed off as Teochew porridge.
And now, get ready for a Teochew take on Hainanese dry beef noodles.
As aficionados know, the dish is traditionally served in soup by the Teochew and in sauce by the Hainanese.
But at Changi Village hawker centre, Changi Beef Kway Teow Mee stall has been dishing up dry beef noodles in a different style.
The surprise is in the gravy hawker Koh Sek Lah concocted six years ago, which is unusually - and delectably - thick with shreds of stewed beef. Think starchy sauce that gives extremely good value.
The Teochew touch is in the toppings, which include a distinctive mix of sliced beef that is boiled on the spot and stewed beef ('raw meat' and 'cooked meat' respectively, in hawker lingo).
Well, Teochew, Hainanese or whatever, it is just delicious.
When a friend and I went to the stall last week, she started with dry beef kway teow ($4 or $5) and I, beef kway teow soup ($3, $4 or $5).
I ended up eating most of the dry kway teow though, when I tasted the sweet beef-rich gravy and had to have more.
But the kway teow soup was not bad too. The broth was full-bodied but not overwhelming. It was also oil-free, as the grease had been spooned out.
What attention to detail. You shouldn't have any beef with the food here.
Changi Beef Kway Teow Mee
Block 2 Changi Village Road, 01-19
(S) 500002
Open: Noon - 9pm, closed on Wednesdays
