HK char siew chee cheong fun ($4)!
Golden Mile hawker Hong Kong-style char siew chee cheong fun: translucent rice noodle rolls filled with diced char siew in a sweet soy sauce, with a broccoli garnish. $4.
Breakfast at Golden Mile: HK-style char siew chee cheong fun, $4. ๐
What was on the plate:
- Two large char siew CCF rolls: translucent rice noodle wrappers filled with diced char siew (the pink visible through the thin skin)
- Sweet dark soy sauce pooled underneath
- Broccoli floret garnish
Chee cheong fun (็ช่ ็ฒ) splits into two schools in Singapore, and this is the Hong Kong dim sum version rather than the local sweet-sauce one. The HK style is a filled rice roll: a thin, silky rice-flour sheet steamed and wrapped around a filling (here char siew, also commonly prawn or beef), then served in a light sweet soy sauce. The Singapore street version, by contrast, is unfilled, cut up and doused in sweet sauce, sesame and chilli. The HK one is the yum cha standard, the kind you order at a dim sum trolley.
The wrapper is the craft: a good HK CCF skin is thin, smooth and translucent, slippery and tender, not thick or gummy. You should be able to see the filling through it, as you can here, and it should almost dissolve on the tongue. Getting the rice batter and the steaming right is harder than it looks.
The char siew filling is the SG-Cantonese touch: diced roast pork, sweet and tender, tucked into the roll so each bite has the silky noodle and the savoury-sweet meat together. The sweet soy sauce underneath is lighter and less sugary than the street-CCF sauce, letting the filling lead.
At $4 for two HK-style char siew CCF rolls at a Golden Mile hawker, this is excellent value for what is usually a dim sum restaurant dish.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. ๐๐๐ผ The thin silky wrapper around the tender char siew was the standout. HK CCF at hawker price, would re-order.
