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2009-07-26
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You don't have to be a beef lover to love this place, but you do, however, have to be willing to stand the heat of settling here for a meal. That, is the prerequisite for coming to 德發 in Tsim Sha Tsui. In the midst of shops and arcades is this 'temporary market' that has reached permanent status for longer than I anticipated it has stood here. Walking through the empty stalls and a few lone vendors selling halal frozen meats and passing a few empty carts will get you to the other side, where all
Famous for its beef meatballs, of course thats the thing to order. An order of beef meatballs with noodles will get you 5 meatballs. If you skip your noodles you'll get 3 more. I'm leaning towards the noodles one. I have found that the thick noodles (粗麵) are relatively better as they don't absorb the soup faster than you can eat them. Rice noodles (河粉), however, is of nice texture but fails as they absorb the broth real fast. Beef meatballs are as good as they can be, with a decided bite into the meat. I think the Chinese word for it would be close to it being "elastic", though I have not experimented bouncing it on the table....it'd be such a waste, wouldn't it?
Cow Offal (牛雜) is another favorite I have come to appreciate here at 德發. An order of that costs the same as one of those beef meatballs, which is relatively cheap considering that most of the joints out there charge more with not as good quality. Here beef stomachs, intestines, and spleen are simmered over a long period of time and when ordered, quickly cut into slices and piled up on a bowl followed by a ladleful of hot broth to top. Each piece, even if different cuts, has no chewy stringy texture, it's certainly something worth trying should you want to take a break from the meatballs..
Do make sure you can stand the heat here, there is no air conditioning, and in the hottest wettest days of summer, the heat from outside and from the kitchen stoves can be pretty difficult to bear -- in a sense that no electric fan or iced lemon tea may relieve. It is, truly worth the visit though, should you feel like a noodle fix in TST.
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