Fried fish soup + prawn roll ($22)!
Bugis hawker fried fish soup for two: milky fish broth with fried fish chunks, spinach and bee hoon, plus a plate of fried prawn rolls (hei zho) with sweet dip. $6 each + $10.
Lunch with BB at Bugis. Fried fish soup x2 + prawn roll, $22 total ($6 each + $10). πππΌ
What was on the table:
- Two bowls of fried fish soup: the milky white broth, battered fried fish chunks, spinach, mushroom slices, thick bee hoon underneath, fried shallot scatter
- Plate of prawn rolls (hei zho, θΎζ£): fat cubes of the fried roll, the beancurd skin wrapper gone deep brown and crackly
- Sweet flour sauce dip: for the prawn rolls
- Chilli + garlic-lime dips: for the soup fish
The milky fish broth is the tell of a serious fish soup stall: the cloudiness comes from fish bones (and often a splash of evaporated milk, the open hawker secret) boiled hard until the fat emulsifies. Clear broth is the lighter school; milky is the rich school. This one was the proper rich version, sweet from bones rather than seasoning.
Fried fish in the soup beats sliced for this style: the batter brings toasted depth into the broth and holds texture longer. The fish stayed meaty inside the crust even after sitting in the soup.
The prawn roll (hei zho) is the Teochew celebration dish: minced prawn and pork, water chestnut for crunch, five-spice through it, rolled in beancurd skin and deep-fried. The hawker version arrives as chopped cubes with the sweet pink-ish flour sauce. Good hei zho is juicy inside with audible wrapper crunch; this plate qualified.
The $10 prawn roll order turned a standard fish soup lunch into a two-course Teochew meal, which is exactly how to eat at the older Bugis hawker stalls: one soup each, one fried thing shared.
At $22 total for two, this is fair pricing given the prawn rollβs prep work.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. πππΌ The milky broth depth was the standout, the hei zhoβs wrapper crunch a close second. Would re-order both.
