Delicate Handmade ‘Ribbon’ Chee Cheong Fun By Tim Ho Wan Chef-Turned-Hawker

“I’ve always had this great love for food — ever since I started helping out at my grandparent's wanton mee stall when I was 12 years old,” says Andy in Mandarin. “I decided from then on that when I grew up, I wanted to open my own shop selling food that I like.”

After graduating from secondary school, Andy decided to jump straight into F&B — joining Taiwanese restaurant franchise Ding Tai Fung as a fresh-faced 19-year-old. “I chose Ding Tai Fung as it had just achieved one Michelin star [back in 2010], and I hoped to pick up some skills there.” He had no prior kitchen experience, and decided to work hard at learning as much as he could from the more experienced chefs.

In 2013, during his third year at Ding Tai Fung as a trainee chef, Andy took a holiday to Hong Kong, where he promptly fell in love with the cuisine — dim sum and Catonese-style chee cheong fun, in particular. “I paid a visit to Tim Ho Wan, and I thought the quality of their fare was excellent.”

Just as fate would have it, shortly after returning to Singapore, Andy heard the news that Tim Ho Wan would be opening its first international branch in Singapore. He applied for a position straight away, and was soon accepted into the team.

Andy spent the next seven years improving his culinary skills at Tim Ho Wan, eventually climbing the kitchen ranks from trainee to chef. “I did my best to make the most out of my time at Tim Ho Wan. During whatever free time I had, I’d work on my own culinary experiments and come up with ideas for my own dishes. And of course, I tried as much of their food as I could,” quips Andy with a laugh.

At the end of 2020, Andy decided that it was finally time to leave Tim Ho Wan and start his own biz. Hong Kong-style chee cheong fun remained one of his most beloved dishes, so he decided to try his hand at making his own, from scratch.

“It’s very different from how you would handle it in most restaurants, as you have the help of machinery and technology there. The technique and skills for making this kind of handmade chee cheong fun are different.”

Andy’s wife, Veronica, a former sales executive, describes how they would scour the internet for ideas on the different methods that could be used to make chee cheong fun. “Eventually, we saw some videos on these “ribbon-like” rice roll dishes from China, where the sheets of steamed rice are scraped together into a flat wavy shape rather than being rolled up. That’s when Andy decided to try it out for himself.” She adds that they realised that this style of rice rolls had a more delicate texture compared to their rolled up counterparts, and decided to implement it.

Eventually, Andy managed to develop dishes that he felt were good enough to sell, and finally opened Fei Chang Hao in March 2021, at Upper Boon Keng Market. “‘Fei chang’ stands for extraordinary [in mandarin], as I want to make the best food for my customers. I’m hoping that when they eat our food, they will always think ‘fei chang hao’ (extraordinarily good in Mandrin)!”

“‘Chang’ is also a pun on ‘chang fen’ (rice rolls in mandarin),” he adds with a wink.

On why he decided to open a hawker stall rather than a restaurant, Andy explains, “I wanted to add my chee cheong fun to the variety of food that’s found in a hawker centre. We felt that opening a hawker stall was a good place to start.”

Veronica left her corporate job to help her husband out at Fei Chang Hao as she was “afraid that the work would be too much for him to handle alone — and even with two people, it’s already quite hectic!” The couple arrives at the stall at 5am every day to start prep work.

During operations, Andy does the bulk of the cooking, while Veronica adds finishing touches to the dishes before serving, along with handling payments. The pair work swiftly together, with Andy at full concentration behind the giant steamer and Veronica dishing up the garnished plates, always with a smile.

“When Fei Chang Hao opened in March, we had a pretty decent response,” says Veronica. During their opening month, daily COVID-19 cases in the community were few and far between, and dine-in for F&B was ongoing. “We would often close the stall around 1pm or so as we were sold out for the day.”

However, business took a big hit in May when Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) was announced, halting dine-in for F&B establishments. With Phase 2 (HA) being implemented once again in July till mid August, Veronica describes the toll that the pandemic has taken on their stall’s business. “Even though we managed to get quite a few regulars during the first months we were open, our business is still currently at around 30 percent of what it used to be.”

The streamlined menu at Fei Chang Hao comprises three categories: eight kinds of rice rolls, five types of congee and three varieties of dim sum. Andy makes everything — from the rice roll batter to the dim sum items — from scratch. The menu is indeed a tribute to his time at Tim Ho Wan and his love for Hong Kong cuisine.

An interesting thing to note is that you can add an egg to any rice roll order, for $0.50. We’ve only encountered egg in cheong fun once at YinJi Singapore, a chain eatery that also specialises in cheong fun. “I wasn’t inspired by any place in particular [when it came to adding egg],” says Andy. “I just really love eggs — so I experimented till I was happy with the final result.”

“We originally wanted to have more items, but with just the two of us and no extra manpower, it would be quite difficult,” says Veronica. Before the stall opens at 7am, Andy mixes up the batter for the rice rolls and prepares the congee base. After the stall closes, he makes the dim sum and marinates the meat for the next day — ensuring that everything is fresh.

What of Tim Ho Wan’s famous barbecue pork buns — any chance of a version of that making an appearance here in future? Andy says: “Hopefully, I will be able to move to a bigger shop in future and offer more dishes. If I have the chance I’d definitely sell the char siew bao, but using my own recipe”.

As we wait for our orders, the years of experience Andy has under his ladle shows. From swiftly swishing a thin layer of rice batter evenly across the hot metal sheets to deftly scraping each roll off into a bunched up wavy pile, every step is precise.

“From start to finish, I’d say each order of cheong fun takes about three minutes or so,” says Veronica as she watches her husband at work. As the CCF is steaming, Andy quickly starts the congee in a separate pot and steams the dim sum items. Soon, it’s all done.

Before we get to the rice rolls, we need to talk about the sauce. Most people might assume that the sauce drizzled over Hong Kong-style chee cheong fun is just light soy sauce, but they’d be wrong.

“We specially select soya sauce that’s made in Guangdong, and then we add in lots of different spices during the cooking process. No MSG is added. ” says Andy. “It took us many, many tries to get this recipe to where it is now. But I still feel that we can, and will continue to improve the sauce.”

Note that there’s also an option for a sweeter, thicker Singapore-style sauce in the plain chee cheong fun — it comes drizzled with sesame and sweet sauces as well as their special light sauce. These come together rather overpoweringly, so request for them to go light on the additional sauces if you’re ordering that.

“If it’s someone’s first time and they can’t decide what they want to get, then we’ll recommend the Ying Yong as it has a bit of everything.” In between the paper-thin sheets of rice roll, the Ying Yong Rice Roll has bits of fresh prawn, char siew, cabbage and strips of egg.

Fei Chang Hao’s “ribbon” chee cheong fun does indeed have a more unique mouthfeel, with the ingredients layered such that you can get a bit of everything in one bite. The rice roll itself is super thin, and the prawns are delightfully bouncy and fresh. The thin sheets of egg provide a sturdier mouthfeel and makes the dish more hearty.

The sauce plays an indispensable role — fragrant and savoury with a hint of sweetness, all in the right balance to round off the dish. An interesting take on cheong fun that makes for a very satisfying meal, even without any accompanying sides.

The You Tiao Rice Roll is a classic, and Fei Chang Hao’s rendition hits all the right notes. Andy fries each stick of you tiao to order while steaming the chee cheong fun. Here though, the cheong fun is rolled up traditionally as the you tiao wouldn’t stay put otherwise.

You get crunchy, flaky pieces of you tiao wrapped in delicate sheets of chee cheong fun, for a collision of textures. Best eaten on the spot (if possible), but even when we tapow-ed it back and ate it 20 minutes later, the dough fritter remained acceptably crisp.

Topped with stewed peanuts, spring onions and thin slices of fried you tiao, the Pork Congee looks unassuming at first glance. However, we were surprised by the punch it packed.

The congee itself is well-seasoned - not too salty or watery. Texture-wise, it’s not the silkiest we’ve had, but the balance between the smooth-enough congee, tender minced pork pieces and accompanying garnish make it comfortingly moreish. For $3, it’s worth every cent.

Fei Chang Hao has only three dim sum items to choose from, to accompany the mains. This ain’t your basic siew mai. The thin wrapper gives way to a juicy minced pork and prawn filling, with an added piece of plump whole shrimp for extra crunch. Unlike most standard kopitiam siew mai that’s a little too dry and salty (and sometimes a bit gristly), this was fresh to the last bite. Restaurant standard, for sure.

Another classic Hong Kong dim sum item, the Beancurd Skin Roll is made with a filling of five-spice seasoned prawn and pork filling and diced water chestnuts, then deep-fried before being dipped in a viscous sauce and steamed. Tastewise, nothing to complain about. But the siew mai overshadows it.

Compared to the usual rolled up chee cheong fun (yes, even those from this hawker’s former workplace Tim Ho Wan), we’re leaning towards Fei Chang Hao’s wavy ribbon-like rolls. They’re thinner than usual, silky, yet springy. Overall delicious Hong Kong-style cheong fun and dim sum at decent prices.

Fei Chang Hao is at 17 Upp Boon Keng Rd, #01-73 Upper Boon Keng Market, S380017. Open daily except Fri 7:30am-3pm (or till sold out). More info on Facebook.

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Photos: Kelvin Chia