31 Sungei Road Laksa  结霜桥叻沙

Address:
Blk 31 Kelantan Lane
#01-12 Seng Chuan Eating House

A $2.50 bowl of Sungei Road Laksa at Kelantan Lane

When I started eating laksa as a kid, it was only done with a spoon. No chopsticks, period! Sungei Road Laksa at the coffee shop at Blk 31 Kelantan Lane is exactly just that.

I think there were a few stalls selling Sungei Road laksa when Sungei Road was still in its prime. One such laksa was sold at the ground floor of a small shop house in the Sungei Road area which was just a few streets behind this coffee shop some 20 plus years ago. This was before the old 2-storey houses, selling mainly military and camping gears, were demolished. What was popularly attractive to the laksa connoisseurs than was a small bowl of this delicious laksa cost only a dollar. At most time, the seats in the shop were taken up, and customers didn't mind eating the laksa standing at the roadside (yeah, & that was a can-do then, legal or not, not too sure). Now Sungei Road and the surrounding streets are packed with many street peddlars selling their wares (usually used and old) by the roadside - popularly known to us locals as the Thieves' Market and where the old houses used to stand are left only empty green grasses all fenced up for the obvious reason.

Currently, this laksa is sold at 3 prices - $2, $2.50 and $3, for S, M, L sizes. What you get in a bowl are slices of fishcake, cockles and the standard thick beehoon and bean sprouts. The chili paste and the laksa leaves are added by the customers (now you see why my bowl in the pic has a generous amount of laksa leaves).

This laksa is really worth every bit of things served in the bowl, yes, even to the very last drop of the laksa gravy because of the amount of dried shrimps used in the making of the gravy.

Opening hours: 9am to 6pm and closed on first Wednesday of the month.

Hong Heng Beef Noodle Soup & Laksa 
宏兴  牛肉粉 叻沙

Kebun Baru Food Centre, Stall no. 01-16,
Blk 266H Ang Mo Kio St 22

My favourite at this stall is the mixed beef noodles and usually I’ll ask for the thick beehoon (the laksa type).

Priced at $4, the bowl comes in the dry or soup version. It has lean beef slices (牛肉), beef brisket (牛腩), slices of tendon (牛肉筋), stomach (牛肚), tripe (牛柏叶) and a meatball (牛肉圆). The dry version has a scooping of thick gravy and generous toppings of preserved vegetable (咸菜) and chopped green spring onions.

Prior to eating, a dash of juice from 1 or 2 fresh limes into the bowl will greatly enhance the taste. Even then, every spoon of noodle and meat will go much better with their chili sauce mixed with "cencaluk" (a paste of fermented dried shrimps from Malacca). I always ask for another $1 of addition tendons. 

Their beef tendons are one of the smoothest and softest tendons around. Some other folks also like their beef tripe. So don't be surprised if you hear an order for a bowl of only tendon and tripe. 

Since their relocation from a coffeshop at Blk 223, the long queue has shortened, or at times, non-visible at the current location. This could be possibly due to a bigger sitting area at the food centre as compared to the smaller coffeeshop. Although some other folks may attribute it to the passing away of the previous owner who has a reputation of being the "Beef Noodle King" Mr. Lim prior to their relocation in 2011. 

The current stall is operated by Mrs. Lim, the wife who does the cooking, even during the times of Mr. Lim's presence. I still like this bowl of beef noodle now and then. 

As to the laksa, I have to be upfront here. If you really want laksa, there are better places. The only Laksa bowl that could be unique here is their Beef Laksa, where all the ordinary Laksa accompaniments are replaced with beef offerings, something that you don't easily get elsewhere as far as I know.

You could also order rice with beef soup or single, double selection of the beef offal that they are selling. If you don't mind cencaluk, remember to add more of them to the chili.