Jian Kang Noodles 建康麵食

Blk 119 Commonwealth Drive

Commonwealth Crescent Food & Hawker Centre, #02-77

A sudden craving, one early afternoon, I have. To this wonton mee place I go. A very popular dish in Singapore wonton noodle 云吞麵 is . My favorite noodle dish it too is.

Back to normal "speak", Jian Kang Noodles sells the typical local Cantonese styled wonton noodle consisting of BBQ pork slices (叉烧 - char-siew) and bite-sized wontons 云吞 (pork dumplings) accompanying the noodles. This is unlike the Hong Kong wonton noodle which does not have the BBQ pork slices. BTW, Hong Kong wonton noodle seldom has the dry version that we've with chili sauce. Also, typical Cantonese wonton noodle does not include the dark sauce that many wonton noodle stalls are putting in nowadays. This a typical Malaysian Chinese influence.

A plate of Jian Kang's wonton noodle costs $2.50. However, I ordered the $3.00 plate for more noodles, and a generous serving of char-siew covering the plate of noodles and plenty of green vegetables, Cai Xin (菜心). However, there was only a serving of 3 wontons that came in the bowl of soup.

Jian Kang's noodle is just springy enough, and all the rest of the accompanying meat and wontons made by the owner, Mr. Chen and his people, were tasty. I find the wontons the best of them, alas I've only 3. Must remember to up the wonton supply on the next visit. I ordered the dry version but I requested for a bigger bowl of soup. I am a "soup" person and the soup tasted just great. I reckon the soup version will also be very tasty, if one feels like up to it. We all like good chili sauce don't we?

The stall's opening hours are from 7.30am to 4.30pm daily (except Wednesday) with the lunch hour peaking in sales. This stall has received many good reviews and accolades in the past.

Other than wonton noodles, they also sell shredded chicken noodle 

(鸡絲麵), pork ribs noodle (排骨麵) , wonton soup and shrimp dumplings (水餃).

The noodle goes at $2.50 a plate minimum.

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.