Hawker Eats × Steamed Fish 🐟

Value for money Cantonese-style steamed dishes in a hawker centre.

Fresh prawns are butterflied and steamed on a bed of glass noodles in HK-style sauce of Shaoxing wine, light soy and minced garlic, topped with fried garlic and coriander. I like to leave the vermicelli till the last to let it soak up the sauce for more flavour.

The sliced fish steamed egg was a dish I noticed many people order while waiting in the queue. The custard turned out silky smooth and the fish slices were fresh. I was also recommended the salted egg pork patties steamed rice to go along with my order. It came with a juicy and tender 80:20 meat-to-fat ratio pork patty, salted egg and leafy greens on a bed of fluffy rice drizzled with dark soya sauce. Simple and flavourful.

Steamed Garlic Prawn with Vermicelli 》$9
Sliced Fish Steamed Egg 》$6.50
Salted Egg Pork Patties Steamed Rice 》$3.50

While some places half their seabass head and tail, the ones here were halved sideways along the backbone where you get both the head to tail on one side.

The sea bass was moist and delicate, with soft textured flesh. The sea bass retains the best natural taste of the fish, seasoned with soy sauce dressing and minced garlic. It taste simple and incredible.

Prawns were seasoned and steamed Hong Kong style with light soy sauce and minced garlic. The prawns were fresh and sweet, accompanied with garlic fragrance and sauce that pairs well with rice.

Seabass 》$8
Prawns 》$8

📍 Hee Hee Hee Steamed Fish & Fish Soup | #01-12

吃了吗 offers simple and value-for-money steamed fish set meals. The menu is simple with just 5 items - Steamed Sea Bass, Golden Pomfret, Garoupa, Salted Black Beans Steamed Fish and Chopped Chilli Steamed Fish Set Meal.

Do expect long queues and waiting time because the uncle is doing everything from taking orders to serving on his own. I was there at about 1PM and everything on the menu was sold out except for the steamed sea bass set 😲

Each set meal is served with steamed fish doused in light soy sauce, steamed egg and rice. The fish was served fresh and warm with firm, tender soft and juicy flesh. It was a rather clean tasting with just light soy sauce flavours. The rice was a little hard and dry side but it could be saved by drizzling some soy sauce from the fish. Other than that, this is definitely worth the money for something healthy and delicious 》$5

Fresh, healthy and economical steamed seafood set with no sugar, less salt, less oil and low in calories is the reason why there are so many old folks ordering from this stall.

They specialise in steamed fishes and prawns. I ordered the big steamed golden pomfret and fragrant spicy prawn set (signature dish) to try. The soy-based seasoning used here is milder compared to a Hong Kong soy dressing which feels healthier yet brings out the natural sweetness from the seafood. Simply homely and comforting.

Each set comes with free-flow rice and soup. The steamed pomfret is fresh, moist and delicate with natural sweetness while the butterflied prawns comes with fried garlic and chilli padi in soy sauce on a bed of glass noodles. I like how the glass noodles soak up the sauce so well.

Other set dishes available over here are steamed sea bass, steamed red grouper and spicy lala. The best thing is the price of set meals tagged so affordably between $5.00 to $6.50. They also have side dishes like preserved radish omelette, chicken mid wings and bitter gourds for add-ons to go along with their set meals.

Fresh Steamed Golden Pomfret Set 》$6.50 / Big
Fragrant Spicy Prawn Set 》$6.50

📍 Hanjiang Seafood Square 韩江海鲜坊
79A Circuit Rd, #01-63, Singapore 371079

This stall is managed by 2 young fishmongers during the day and hawkers at the night. This was also a plus point where they can get seafood at wholesale prices and consumers get to have seafood priced affordably and competitively.

The seafood served here is all steamed Hong Kong-style with light soy sauce dressing, Shaoxing wine and minced garlic. I love Cantonese-style steamed seafood which uses very few ingredients to showcase the freshness and bring out the great flavour in a dish.

There are dishes such as grouper, red grouper, red snapper, white snapper, Chinese pomfret, golden pomfret, Spanish mackerel batang, seabass, white snapper head, tiger prawn, crayfish and lala on the menu during my visit but not everything is sold daily and subject to availability.

Here I got myself the twin grouper and lala served on metal plates. They also had the option of having a single fish in a larger size for the same price. The fishes were of decent size, fresh, tender and moist while the lala was chewy and not sandy. The garlicky soy sauce also makes me want to get more rice to go along with it.

Be prepared to wait during peak hours and I would advise going earlier for more choices of seafood that starts getting sold out as early as 7pm.

Twin Grouper 》$8
Lala 》$6

📍 Hee Hee Hee Steamed Fish & Fish Soup | #01-12

The steamed threadfin belly is a homely and traditional Cantonese dish steamed to perfection with light soya sauce, garlic, spring onion and coriander. It was fresh, succulent and robust with flavours. The sauce was well balanced and had a depth of savoury flavours in subtle layers and made perfect with a bowl of white rice. The minced garlic also gave a good burst of garlicky flavour to the dish. This is seasonally priced and threadfin usually costs more than the average fish but this did not deter us from ordering it.

The salted fish meat patty was equally good. It has a soft and firm bite with the saltiness of salted fish. I just had to mix it for a more balanced flavour and it is perfect to go with rice to neutralise the saltiness.

With the first two dishes ‘heavier’ on flavours, the oyster sauce vegetables was a little bland but crunchy. It is still good to add some greens for a healthy balanced diet.

This is not a typical lunch budget but it is definitely worth the restaurant quality and delicious food served in a hawker centre. Do expect a long queue and wait as this is a two man operation where Chef Chik does the preparation and cooking while his wife takes the order and serve to customers. It will be worth the wait when the food is served.

Steamed Threadfin Belly (Seasonal Price)
Salted Fish Meat Patty 》$4
Oyster Sauce Vegetables 》$4