food centre gone but name lives on

after my morning walk with my balestier group at east coast park, we usually adjourn to bedok south blk 16 market and food centre. while some will head for the stall with the longest queue, i prefer to get my food from the stall with no queue. so, for that reason, you do not see me buying char kway teow.

the name of the very popular stall is hill street char kway teow. at chinatown complex, i have come across another stall with the same name. it is not uncommon to latch onto a name already known to people, especially if the stall had built up a reputation in its former centre. i am sure all of us have come across food stalls and shops having the same name or bearing the name of some defunct food or hawker centres.

is this a case of stallholders trying to cash in on a well-known name, like the case of the sungei road laksa? i did not know of the existence of two sungei road laksa stalls in the same area until some friends mentioned it. one is at kelantan lane and the other at jalan berseh.

on the other hand, it does not mean that all stalls which bear the name 'hill street' started at this food centre. i do not remember ever seeing the famous hill street tai hwa bah chor mee at the food centre.

however, in the case of hill street char kway teow, when i thought of those days when i used to eat at hill street food centre, i could recall two stalls selling char kway teow. the two stalls were located on the ground level. so, the two stalls, with the same name, could have really originated from hill street centre.

those days, in the 80s and 90s, i used to frequent hill street centre not for the char kway teow. it was to visit another popular food stall located on the second level. it was the heng gi duck and goose meat stall. today, this stall can be found at tekka food centre.

hill street food centre had a car-park on levels 3 and 4. the centre was built in the 80s and by the year 2000, it was closed and subsequently demolished. there was an overhead pedestrian bridge that connected it to funan centre.

many food stalls which have made a name for themselves still live on even after the food centres where they were once located had been cleared or demolished. you can still find waterloo street indian rojak, whitley big prawn noodles, taman serasi roti john and satay club's satay.

some have even upgraded from a stall to a shop like the hock lam street's beef noodle.