Char siew + roast pork hor fun ($5)!
Tai Seng hawker Cantonese roast meat hor fun: flat rice noodles in dark soy gravy with char siew and crispy roast pork belly, with kai lan. $5.
Lunch at Tai Seng: char siew + roast pork hor fun, $5. The two-roast hor fun version. ๐
What was on the plate:
- Flat hor fun: the wide white rice noodles in a dark soy gravy
- Char siew (ๅ็ง): the red-rimmed glazed roast pork slices, charred at the edges
- Roast pork belly (siu yuk): thick cubes with the crackling skin on top, the fat striping visible
- Kai lan: the blanched Chinese broccoli, the green counterweight
The two-roast hor fun is the Cantonese roast shopโs noodle play: rather than the usual rice, the char siew and siu yuk go over flat hor fun in a light dark-soy gravy. Char siew is the sweet, lacquered roast, pork glazed with maltose and soy and roasted until the edges blister dark; siu yuk (็ง่) is the savoury counterpart, pork belly with a salt-crusted skin roasted until the top puffs into shattering crackling while the layers below stay juicy.
The crackling test: good siu yuk knocks audibly when tapped and crunches when bitten. Putting it over a gravy noodle risks softening that crackling, so the trick is to eat the pork promptly before the gravy creeps up the skin.
The hor fun and gravy soak up the meat juices: the wide noodles drink the dark soy sauce, and the rendered fat from both roasts enriches the whole plate. It is Cantonese comfort, the roast-meat-rice idea reimagined as a noodle bowl.
At $5 for a two-roast hor fun at Tai Seng, this is honest Cantonese-hawker value.
Overall: 4.2 / 5. ๐๐๐ผ The crackling siu yuk and the sweet char siew over the gravy-soaked hor fun were the standout. Cantonese comfort, would re-order.
