Lunch at Orchard. Fried fish noodles + prawn balls pao fan, $18.80 total ($8.90 + $9.90). 😋👍🏼

What was on the table:

Bowl of fried fish noodles: thick bee hoon submerged in the golden, creamy seafood broth, topped with crisp-fried fish chunks and scallion
Bowl of prawn balls pao fan: the same golden broth over rice with bouncy prawn balls, chives scattered
Side box of crispy rice puffs: for pouring into the pao fan
Twin dips: dark soy with cut chilli + the orange garlic-chilli

The golden broth is the signature of the modern paofan school: a fish-bone and prawn-shell stock blended with pumpkin (some shops use salted egg or more prawn roe) until it turns opaque, golden and faintly sweet. It eats like a lighter lobster bisque. The colour in the photo is the broth working as designed, not chilli.

Fried fish in soup is the trick the Cantonese fish soup stalls perfected: deep-fry the fish (usually batang / Spanish mackerel) first so it brings toasty flavour into the broth, and the batter’s edges go custardy while the centres stay crisp for the first minutes. Always order fried over sliced when the broth is rich; sliced fish suits clear broths.

The prawn balls were the bouncy hand-paste type, springy the way only hand-beaten paste gets, their sweetness amplified by the prawn-shell base of the broth.

Pao fan vs noodles, settled at this table: the rice version wins with this broth (the crispy rice puffs are half the experience, crackling then softening), while the thick bee hoon was the better vehicle for the fried fish. Ordering one of each is the correct play for two.

At $18.80 total in an Orchard basement, this is mid-tier paofan pricing: above hawker fish soup, below the $25+ lobster paofan flagships.

Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 The golden broth was the standout, rich without being heavy. The crispy rice pour-and-crackle never gets old. Would re-order.

Original IG post