There are a few kinds of local Hong Kong food that are the ultimate comfort foods for me. Beef brisket noodles are one. I have previously written about Sister Wah’s noodles in Tin Hau. Victory Beef Balls （Shing Lee Beef Balls) in Yuen Long is another famous beef brisket noodle shop. In fact, it stands on the same street as the other famous beef noodle shop, Ka Lai Yuen.

A Dedication to Flavors Since 1982

“What you do well today affects the business tomorrow,” said the owner of Shing Lee Beef Balls in an interview. This is the spirit of dedication that Mr. Wu of Shing Lee Beef Balls has held close to his heart for more than four decades. Since 1982, when he started the restaurant, he has been making the famous beef balls daily with freshly slaughtered beef.

Work begins at 4:30am for Mr. Wu and his son. Together they visit Yuen Long’s two wet markets to collect the ingredients for their beef balls daily. The beef tables at the wet markets open early to serve the owners of the beef noodle businesses, as they must source the beef, then go through a pounding process before the beef balls are ready for the table.

Each morning, they make their rounds in the wet market to source 150-200 catties of beef at five beef tables to make the day’s lot. They do not always manage to source so much, depending on how much the beef suppliers have in stock. They have a quantity in mind because they know that customers often come a very far way to Yuen Long to try their beef noodles. If the beef balls are out of stock, it would be a huge disappointment to his fans.

The Nitty Gritty of the Best Beef Balls in Town

Diners know it when a beef ball is top notch. But the maker of beef balls has to break it all down to maintain his culinary legacy. The usual criteria for assessing a beef ball start with the texture. Mr. Wu’s chief concern is whether the ingredients and the pounding process result in bouncy beef balls.

Next, by choosing the right parts of the beef and removing the excess fats, tendons and membranes, he locks in the flavors and the mouth-watering fragrance in these heavenly morsels.

After sourcing the beef, Mr. Wu and his son returns to their beef ball making shop. They fire up more than ten old-fashioned beef pounding machines. After 1.5 hours of continuous motion against the beef, they have the “beef paste” that will be squeezed into ball shapes by another machine. Then the beef balls are cooked in 80-degree Celsius water to solidify. This same soup becomes the soup base for their noodles.

Despite the ever-rising prices of beef, Mr. Wu insists on using the most suitable parts of a cow to make his beef balls. In his daily selection, he knows what parts and raw textures of the beef he wants when he sees them. He uses only lean parts. He also wants beef that has been just slaughtered, when the meat still shows softness and tenderness. The beef balls are beef only, with seasoning and just a pinch of preserved cabbage to taste.

A Family Legacy

Victory Bee Balls has been a family-run, family-owned company since its inception forty some years ago. Mr. Wu has marked his territory in Yuen Long and he has never considered moving shop to other (perhaps more) upscale neighborhoods. His son Ian made the leap to open a takeout-only shop in Tsuen Wan. At that shop, more menu items are available, including beef tendon balls.

It is often said in Cantonese that “it is hard to found a business, and yet harder to keep the legacy.” Ian Wu is doing all that he can to carry on with the family’s exceptional legacy in beef balls.

Let’s Eat!

When I sat down at Victory Beef Balls, the lady sees that I was clueless and so she recommended the “beef-three-way.” This bowl of noodles comes with beef briskets, tendon and beef balls. The price is $47, and I think it is quite reasonable.

Unlike Sister Wah, which serves beef brisket in clear broth, Victory Beef Balls cooks the beef in five-spice flavor. It is significantly heavier in taste but each bite is explosive in its meaty, distinctive richness. The beef balls are certainly the stars of the show.

I added a whole scoop of house-special chili oil, and cleared up the whole bowl, its soup base included.

Sources

TalkFood, 40 Year Old Shop in Beef Balls, Father and Son Starts Work at 5am (Chin, video interview).