When a hawker food stall is named after their signature dish, I can’t help but think that nothing else on their menu would be good. However, my parents and I ended up ordering four other dishes because we needed to make the trip to faraway Geylang worthwhile – by stuffing ourselves to the max.
Judging simply by the pictures on the menu, we picked the essential Beef Kway Teow, Stir Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt, Thai Style Tofu, Stir Fried Sprout-lings, and Pork Ribs. It added up to $45, and for such a grand feast for three persons, that’s a pretty good price.
As we were there pretty early in the evening (about 5pm), orders were served within 10 minutes, even before I had taken in the sights fully. Sitting at a roadside table among narrow streets and rows of old shop houses reminds me of Bangkok, and this took my Geylang meal to a whole new eating experience, as if I was on a little holiday with my family.
Located at 237 (Lorong 9) Geylang, this hawker stall is open from 11am to 3am everyday except Mondays, when they open at 5pm. Unless you’re in Geylang for other activities, be sure to plan an early dinner at the Lorong 9’s Beef Kway Teow stall as it gets crowded and waiting hours are much longer later into the night.
Now lets chomp down to the finer details of what we ate:
Beef Kway Teow
It is said that you can taste the fire that touched the dish while being cooked. Famous for the charred taste in the Kway Teow, the smoky flavour is really wonderful. Not forgetting the thick gravy and the very tender pieces of beef, which are entirely chewable, and not one bit rubbery.
Stir Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Salt
After the first bite into it, I understood why it looks and tastes so good
- lots of oil and salt.
It’s fatty, greasy, crispy, and heavenly. If you’re already thinking Eeeeeew, just proceed to the tofu.
With its distinctive but not overpowering saltiness, this dish is a little more than the run-of-the-mill fired chicken wings.
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Thai Style Tofu
Those little cubes of tofu are really bundles of joys when munched. They burst open like grapes when you crunch on them, and then the juicy insides fill your mouth as you chew some more. Mixed with the typical Thai chili sauce and salad-like dressing, this dish was a less sinful, but just as yummy addition to our feast.
Pork Ribs
The moment it arrived at our table, I couldn’t keep my eyes off this sweet juicy tempting dish. The pork meat was as sweet and juicy as it looks, and nicely coated with the right amount of sauce, so that it didn’t end up with dry meat from the lack of sauce towards the end.
Stir Fried Sprout-lings
I’m not a fan of healthy, soupy, light-looking food, so this was the last dish on the table I picked to eat. I expected it to be totally bland and boring, but it was actually amazingly tasty. Although slightly on the salty side, this veggie serving was a nice light touch to the extremely heavy feast.
The entire meal left me extremely satisfied (but unsatisfied as well because I wanted to taste more of the scrumptious dishes, but my stomach wouldn’t let me). It was a pleasantly surprising experience because every dish matched up to this restaurant’s Beef Kway Teow standard, the food arrived quickly, and the staff was not grumpy (that’s the closest you can come to good hawker service)!
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