Two promising new hawker stalls have opened, side by side, at an Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 kopitiam recently. There’s the three-month-old pork chop fried rice joint Hong Style Fried Rice by two former Din Tai Fung chefs, and Chao Zhou Teochew Fish Soup, which opened just last week on Oct 1 serving the beloved Chinese dish in traditional claypots.

The young hawker behind Chao Zhou is Edwin Kang (right in pic), 26, a recent SIM University of Buffalo graduate who studied business and marketing. “I couldn’t find a job I liked [after graduating], so I thought why not try to open a hawker stall,” he tells 8days.sg. “It’s the best place for me to learn as it’s the lowest cost option.”

He decided to become a hawker as he had learnt how to cook fish soup during the Circuit Breaker last year from his friend Dee Chan (left in pic), 32, the former head chef at Marina Bay Sands’ Chinese fine diner Mott 32. “I apprenticed for half a year with him. During CB, everyone had nothing to do lah,” laughs Edwin. “Fish soup has been my favourite dish since I was young. I created my own recipes and Dee guided me and told me how to make them better.”

The Hong Kong-born chef Dee has since left Mott 32 to helm new Chinese restaurant Clan7 as its executive chef, and regularly cooks for stars like Zoe Tay, Xiang Yun and Vivian Lai (he has also appeared on Ch 8’s food variety shows like Silver Carnival as a guest chef). While he’s not a co-owner of the Chao Zhou hawker stall, he shares that he decided to help Edwin as a friend and taught him how to cook.

Despite branding itself as a Teochew fish soup stall, we reckon the fish soup here is more Cantonese-style; the broth is boiled for 16 hours with a master stock simmered with old Nanyang chicken, Spanish pork ribs, plus fish head and bones till it’s slightly cloudy. “Our soup doesn’t have any milk but it’s still very [creamy],” says Edwin.

As Teochew fish soup hawker stalls are common in Singapore, Edwin decided to serve his dish in Chaozhou-sourced claypots with wooden ladles to stand out from his competition. “There must be a USP,” he notes.

There are five types of fish soup on the menu here, like Sliced Fish ($5.90) with boiled fresh batang, Double Fish ($6.90) with batang and fried dory, Seafood ($7.90) with fish and prawns, and Pumpkin/Taro Fish ($6.90) with your choice of pumpkin or taro purée mixed with the broth. You can either order steamed white rice to dunk into the soup for fish porridge, or thick bee hoon. For variety, Edwin also offers Wok-Fried Beef Rice with Scallions ($6.90) with angus ribeye beef cubes.

We enjoy the clean-tasting, refreshing fish soup porridge here. The sweet, cloudy broth is slightly creamy with collagen from boiling fish, pork and chicken bones, and its thick, rotund claypot vessel keeps the soup warm for longer. But it’s easy to finish slurping the delish porridge in no time at all, along with the springy batang slices and succulent chunks of fried dory.

The most basic fish soup on the menu is this fresh sliced fish pick. You get the same tasty broth, batang and your choice of rice or vermicelli noodles, but we say it’s worth adding a dollar more to your bill to try the unique options here. Be sure to ask for the complimentary house-made Putien chilli, a zesty lime-spiked concoction that perks up the delicate soup.

We opted for bee hoon for our pumpkin fish soup, which has an appetising golden hue from the pumpkin purée added to it. Not super rich, but still wonderfully sweet and flavourful.

We find the earthy taro cubes and broth too starchy and heavy for fish soup, but this might appeal to folks who like soups with a thicker consistency.

Ironically, one of the stall’s best dishes is this wok-fried beef rice. The homely, comforting bowl is loaded with ribeye beef cubes wok-fried with scallions and shiitake mushrooms, and topped with a wobbly-yolked sunny side up egg. It would cost you twice as much to savour it at a restaurant, but for $6.90, this is value-for-money.

If you don’t fancy fish, Chao Zhou also has trendy Taiwanese-style flame-grilled beef cubes drizzled with your choice of an XO or mala sauce.

Address: 332 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, S560332

Opening hours: Open daily 11am-8pm.

Photos: Yip Jieying