Ex-Canton Paradise Head Chef Opens Premium Pao Fan Hawker Stall With Giant Grouper & Abalone
The Cantonese chef behind Yu Huang Premium Seafood Soup has worked in Chinese restaurants for almost twenty years.
Tucked away in an airy Taman Jurong kopitiam is hawker stall Yu Huang Premium Seafood Soup, which is manned by yet another long-time chef who has decided to hang up his chef’s whites and start his own hawker business.
Johor-born Hoong Boon Foo, 37, has worked at various popular Chinese restaurants for close to two decades. This includes a two-year stint at Putien – where he got to work at their one-Michelin-starred Kitchener Road outlet – and a further four years at Canton Paradise (which is under the popular Chinese restaurant chain Paradise Group), where he ended up as the head chef at their Star Vista outlet.
The Singapore PR left his chef post to open his own pao fan stall in early March this year. He now hawks fancy seafood-laden bowls with slices of giant grouper (a fish typically found only in more upscale eateries), slipper lobster and batang fish (Spanish mackerel), all steeped in a rich Cantonese-style master stock.
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Seafood specialist
Boon Foo, who’s Cantonese, has been specialising in cooking seafood for a long time. He first came to Singapore at 17 to work as an entry-level chef at Long Beach Seafood Restaurant. Calling seafood his “strong point”, the avid fisher left his last restaurant job in 2020 as an executive chef at a Qian Xi Restaurant outlet. “I thought I had gained all the experience I could get there, so I left,” he says.
“And I wanted to run my own show. [Working at a restaurant] is a job. No matter how high the pay or rank, it’s still a job,” he reasons. He went into business with some friends, opening a “small restaurant” that also sold seafood soup, but that partnership eventually ended due to business disagreements (he declines to go into detail about it).
Pricey seafood soup in a kopitiam
So Boon Foo decided to strike it out alone with his month-old Yu Huang Premium Seafood Soup stall. He sells around 120 to 150 bowls of soup a day, which is no mean feat considering the stall’s higher-than-average prices. His prices are high, Boon Foo explains, because customers are paying for “quality ingredients and expertise”, as well as the extra steps he has taken to infuse more flavour in his seafood soup.
Forked out $10K for a combi oven
For example, $10k out of the $50k he invested in his stall went into getting a second-hand combi oven, which he uses to steam-roast slabs of minced pork and ti poh (dried sole fish). This cooking method retains some moisture in the pork as it roasts. The meat is then cut into batonnets and added to Boon Foo’s signature bowl of seafood soup for additional “smoky fragrance”, on top of the already punchy soup base (which is simmered with pig bones, old hens and dried scallops for five hours).
Farmed giant grouper from Indonesia
The stall’s batang is delivered fresh daily. The prized long dan (the Chinese name for giant grouper), which comes on alternate days, is sourced from a farm in Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia. “I went through many different suppliers for our long dan. We went with [the Tanjung Pinang one] as the farm owner feeds the groupers with small fishes that he can’t sell, which makes them especially fatty. The water there is also very clean,” Boon Foo adds.
Not an everyday dish
According to Boon Foo, most folks wouldn’t go for his pao fan every day even if they’re a fan of it. “Firstly, it’s very rich. At most, you’d probably eat this once or twice a week. And secondly, the quality is different from regular kopitiam fare. So naturally, the prices are higher.”
But he acknowledges that having a hawker stall means “there’s an expectation for kopitiam prices”, so he “created a cheaper bowl [of seafood soup] to cater to nearby office and factory workers.” His most basic bowl, which starts from $5, doesn’t come with ti poh-loaded minced meat.
While business has been steadily growing despite his far-flung location in Taman Jurong – “Singaporeans are always willing to travel for food,” he says with a chuckle – he says that crowds have thinned once land borders reopened. “There are a lot of Malaysians working and living around here, so they probably went home for a while,” he says. Boon Foo had considered returning to Malaysia for a visit, but reckons it’s “too early” since he had just opened his stall. “My wife and two kids are here with me, so there’s no hurry,” he says.
The menu
The way Boon Foo runs his stall speaks of his years in restaurant kitchens. Everything is immaculately organised, down to the saucers of seafood and toppings, portioned out prior to service to cut down on waiting times. Each bowl takes around ten minutes to prepare as he boils the soup after adding in minced meat to intensify the flavour. He has only one assistant helping him now, so be prepared to wait a little if you come during peak hours.
There are three variations of seafood soup. The signature soup bolstered with minced meat ranges from $6.90 to $14, depending on the type of seafood you order (like giant grouper and abalone). There’s a premium version which comes with lala and prawns, which costs $11 to $38. The more wallet-friendly version, which has cabbage instead of minced meat, is priced at $5 to $10.
The soup comes with rice, porridge or pao fan-style with egg floss and puffed rice. You can also get your bowl with thick bee hoon or pumpkin rice.
Giant Grouper Sliced Fish Minced Meat Soup, $11.90 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Apart from roast meat and master stock, Boon Foo also adds minced pork and ti poh to his signature bowl for “richness and saltiness”, plus a bit of pumpkin paste for colour.
His broth, cloudy and yellow-hued, is robust and umami, with a rich, savoury meatiness that doesn’t overpower the pleasant sweetness of the giant grouper (we counted around eight generous slices in our bowl). Each thick slice yields fine delicate flesh with springy, gelatinous skin. The roasted ti poh-laden meat sticks are tender, though we don’t detect much of the promised smokiness in them.
We ordered our soup as pao fan. The fragrant Thai steamed rice doesn’t become overly soggy even after luxuriating in the soup for a while. The standard egg floss and puffed rice don’t disappoint either.
In lieu of the tau cheo (fermented bean paste) chilli dip that the Teochews prefer, the Cantonese hawker offers three condiments including a fiery chilli crisp with sesame seeds and dried shrimps and a tangy ginger, cincalok and chilli padi sauce.
Batang Sliced Fish Minced Meat Soup, $9.90
The porridge version of his minced meat seafood soup is heady with the scent of ginger and dong cai (preserved cabbage). Comforting with succulent batang slices – though we prefer the soup’s meatier flavour without ginger and dong cai. Naturally, the cheaper batang’s flesh isn’t as refined as the premium giant grouper option, so you get what you pay for.
Premium Seafood Soup, $38
This is the luxe bowl you’d order when you’re dining with the in-laws. It comes with two pieces of canned abalones, scallops, fresh Vannamei prawns, fish maw, lala and giant grouper. Boon Foo usually offers customers ordering the pricey bowl a choice between giant grouper slices or head – we opt for the head this time.
With this much premium seafood in a bowl of soup, it doesn’t surprise us that this dish has the most concentrated seafood flavour. Each mouthful of soup even has a slight stickiness from the collagen-rich fish head chunks. Note that the $38 option is meant for two pax; the individual-sized version costs $22.
Pumpkin Rice, $2 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Out of all the carb options this is our favourite. Rice is stir-fried with pumpkin chunks and hae bee (dried shrimp), topped off with sesame seeds, crispy ikan bilis and spring onions. It’s moreish, flavourful and fragrant all at once. Must order.
Bottom line
Yu Huang Premium Seafood Soup lives up to its name, serving delish bowls of punchy, flavourful broth complemented by premium ingredients, including hard-to-find giant grouper (at least in a hawker setting lah). It’s worth a trip down if you’re willing to fork out the dough for pricier-than-usual fish soup – which resembles the popular Yan Ji Seafood Soup chain’s, down to ti poh-laden minced meat sticks – and get a bowl of the rib-sticking pumpkin rice while you’re there too.
