Fried fish thick bee hoon soup ($7)!
Hawker fried fish thick bee hoon soup: crispy fried batang in a milky broth with thick bee hoon, ikan bilis and greens, with chilli and soy dips. $7.
Lunch: fried fish thick bee hoon soup, $7. π
What was in the bowl:
- Milky white broth: the cloudy, rich fish soup
- Crispy fried fish: battered fish slices, the crust crisp at the edges
- Thick bee hoon (η²η±³η²): the plump round rice vermicelli
- Ikan bilis: a generous scatter of crispy anchovies
- Greens (xiao bai cai), with chilli and soy dips on the side
Fried fish is the right call when the broth is milky: where sliced fish suits a clean clear soup, the battered fried fish brings toasty depth that stands up to the richness, and its crust enriches the soup as it softens. This bowl ran the milky (evaporated-milk-and-fried-bone) style, the indulgent end of fish soup, where the fried fish and the creamy broth reinforce each other.
The milky broth is built by boiling fish bones hard, often fried first, frequently with a splash of evaporated milk, until the soup turns cloudy and almost creamy. The depth here was proper, not a thin stock whitened with milk but a genuinely concentrated, savoury-sweet broth.
The generous ikan bilis is the detail that lifts it: a heavy scatter of crispy fried anchovies adds a salty crunch and a second layer of seafood flavour, the kind of bonus a stingy stall skimps on. The thick bee hoon soaks all that milky soup, slippery and chewy.
The fried-fish texture test: the crust should stay crisp for the first minutes before the broth softens it, giving you both crunch and the soaked-soft transition. This one held its crisp.
At $7 for a fried fish thick bee hoon soup with generous ikan bilis, this is fair hawker value.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. πππΌ The crispy fried fish in the rich milky broth was the standout. Hawker reliable, would re-order.
