Yummy $4.50 Clam Pao Fan By Ex-Raffles Hotel Chef At New Hawker Stall

King Of Pao Fan is a joint venture between four partners — all from the F&B industry. Keith Chua (second from left in pic), 46, worked in the grocery wholesale biz selling produce to restaurants and hotels. That was where he met his three partners — Lee Hock Pin, 29 (extreme left in pic), Fu Bin, 37 (third from left), and Cheng Hon Yong, 25 (extreme right) — who were all professional chefs.

Hock Pin last cooked at contemporary Chinese fine-diner Yi by Jereme Leung in Raffles Hotel for two years (prior to that, he worked at Chui Huay Lim Teochew Cuisine), Fu Bin started as a chef back in China when he was 15 and had been cooking ever since, while Hou Yong has over five years of experience at famous Chinese seafood chains that also offers pao fan (he declines to publish the restaurant names).

“We decided to call ourselves “King of Pao Fan”, because our idea is that our customers don’t have to pay a premium to feast like a King,” says Keith in a mix of Mandarin and English. “Even though our prices are affordable, the ingredients are all restaurant and hotel quality.”

According to them, all the seafood is delivered fresh daily, from the prawns to the Boston lobster. True enough, we spot a crate of shiny lobsters in the kitchen, still wriggling.

“The pandemic and circuit breaker was really tough on the F&B industry,” says Keith. He describes how after the circuit breaker, they saw that quite a few hawker stalls shuttered, but that from there, they also saw an opportunity. “Due to the impact of COVID, not everyone might be as willing to splurge on dining out now. Hence, we decided to partner up and strike out on our own, to bring good food at more affordable prices to the neighborhood.”

All the partners left their previous jobs around June, and spent the next few months working on their joint venture. Their current space at Waterloo Centre was previously occupied by a stall selling Vietnamese cuisine, and was left empty after the owners had to return to Vietnam due to the pandemic.

“Not many places serve pao fan in Singapore, and if they do, it’s usually not this cheap,” says Keith. “Since there are already so many places offering fried rice and porridge, we decided to do a rice-based dish that would differentiate us.”

After securing their space, the four of them spent the next few months working on the recipe. “We tried all different kinds of seafood dishes — not just pao fan, but seafood soups as well — to figure out what elements we should incorporate into our dishes.”

All four partners take an equal share of the work — from cooking to cleaning shellfish. A typical day starts around 7.30am, with at least two of the chefs coming down to do the morning prep and ensure the stall is ready for business by 10.30am. After dinner service ends around 8pm, another two will stay back to prep the stock for the next day and clean up.

Since opening in October, business has been brisk. “We’ve had customers who’ve come to dine in, and then decide that they want to ta pow another portion home for later,” recalls Keith. Peak hours for lunch are from 11am to 2pm, and 6pm to 7.30pm for dinner.

They don’t plan to stop at just one concept. “Frankly speaking, one stall isn’t going to be enough for the four of us,” shares Keith. He adds that they intend to open stalls all over the island — mainly in the heartland areas — selling different dishes beyond pao fan. No plans have been set yet as they intend to focus on getting King Of Pao Fan off the ground.

From the looks of their storefront, King of Pao Fan is a little more hip than your typical hawker stall. This is the work of their “marketing consultant” Annie Low.

The limber 44-year-old had been an advertising and promotions executive managing The Oaks Company’s restaurant, as well as their wine and cigar cellars, several years back (she used to be a professional dancer-turned-instructor, and currently still teaches pilates and piloxing). She was approached by Keith, her brother-in-law, to help out with King of Pao Fan’s branding and marketing.

“We wanted King Of Pao Fan to appeal to people from different walks of life, hence the different options and price points,” says Annie “People eat with their eyes first, so the dishes have to look good, as much as they taste good,” she adds with a laugh.

There are seven different pao fan bowls to choose from, ranging from their economical $4.50 Clam Pao Fan to their more luxe $18 Lobster Pao Fan. Each bowl comes with broth, fried egg floss and a generous sprinkle of golden-brown crispy fried rice.

One order can be prepared in 40 seconds due to the use of an induction stove, which gets each pot to a roiling boil much faster (the usual gas stove takes at least a few minutes). After the individual portion of broth comes to a boil, the steamed rice is poured in and left to boil for 10-15 seconds — not longer than that, or the rice grains will get too puffy.

What makes a bowl of pao fan is the broth. Made from pork bones, fish bones, pork meat, prawn heads and some other “secret ingredients”, King Of Pao Fan’s seafood broth is prepared the night before, and is simmered for at least 10 hours.

On first look, the broth is milky from all the pork and fish bones, with a tinge of red from all the umami goodness extracted from the prawn heads. A sip confirms it — hearty and just sweet enough, with a great balance of seafood and pork flavours. Shiok.

If you love variety, the Seafood Pao Fan is the one to pick. Our order came with three medium-sized prawns, four nuggets of fried dory fish, and four to five flower clams. Plump, sweet and super fresh, the prawns are the star here. The fried fish is flavourful and well-seasoned if a little on the oily side, though they do a good job in soaking up the yummy broth. For $7, we’ll gladly have this again.

Besides the delicious soup, we love all the textures in the pao fan bowls. The deep-fried golden brown rice grains scattered on top remain crunchy till the last spoonful. Their egg floss tastes a little different as well — there’s a hint of seafood savouriness in the airy, crispy threads. According to the chefs, about 40 eggs are beaten together at once (along with some other ingredients), before being streamed slowly into a vat of hot oil to get the piles of fluffy egg floss. When mixed into the pao fan, the egg floss absorbs the broth like a sponge. It’s a tad oily, but still worth the calories.

In line with the stall’s name, the Lobster Pao Fan is crowned with the “king of shellfish” — each order has half a Boston lobster, with each portion of lobster ranging from 200g to 300g (depending on the size of the catch). The chefs chose Boston lobster for their meaty claws, which are included in the pao fan as well.

The lobster meat slips easily out of the shell with just a tug of the chopsticks, and is delightfully bouncy and sweet. Perhaps something to order if you’re craving lobster and wanna enjoy it on a budget.

Possibly the cheapest pao fan we’ve come across. “The neighborhood has many elderly folk, so we wanted to have an item on the menu that they can afford and enjoy,” says Keith. For $4.50, you get a generous scattering of flower clams along with all the trimmings. The small but sweet shellfish tastes fresh and add a welcome brininess to soup. Certainly a satisfying, economical option.

The batang fish slices are bouncy and fresh-tasting, with no trace of “fishiness”. Pretty good, though the seafood pao fan seems to taste a little sweeter and more intense than this cleaner version. More decadent than your typical fish soup, due to the rich broth and fried egg floss.

Affordable and delicious seafood pao fan that’s big on flavour and texture, all cooked by pro chefs. We’d return for round two.

King Of Pao Fan is at #01-237 Cheng Yan Court, Stall 4, 269B Queen St, S180269. Open Mon to Sun 11am – 8pm. Find them on Facebook or call them at 8800 2694.

Photos: Kelvin Chia/ 8 Days

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