Delish Guangzhou-style prawn chee cheong fun by Bedok hawkers who paid S$24K to learn from ‘masters’ in China

Stella Thng

Did you know Cantonese-style dim sum was purported to have had its beginnings in tea rooms in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in China? The cuisine then made its way to Hong Kong, and the rest is history. Looking to bring a taste of ‘original’ dim sum to Singapore, at least when it comes to chee cheong fun, is Guangzhou-born Chen Xinhui, 34, and his wife Gan Susxin, 31, who opened King Of Cheong Fun in a Bedok North kopitiam in September. The couple met as colleagues at an advertising production company in Bedok. Johor-born Susxin designed sign boards for clients; Xinhui installed them. “Because we fell in love in Bedok, we decided to start our food stall journey here,” says Susxin, a Singapore PR.

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King Of Cheong Fun is a rather lofty name for the first-time hawkers, who said it’s inspired by the spirit of the eight cheong fun shifus (masters) that they learned from in Guangzhou. Though the stall is tucked away in a corner, the bright red signage and cute yellow brick wall with a ‘To Guangdong’ sign are eye-catching.

The youthful-looking couple says their passion in life is food — they spent much of their courtship trying out recipes on weekends. “We’ve always wanted to have our own stall. The pandemic also made us rethink the life we want in future,” explains Xinhui, who has worked here since 2012 and is waiting for approval for his PR status.

Paid $24K to learn recipes from 8 Guangzhou CCF masters

Craving the more delicate and slippery Guangzhou-style cheong fun that he grew up eating, Xinhui contacted street food “masters” in Guangzhou that he found from Chinese social media platforms. Eight agreed to teach him their recipes. (They declined to name their masters or the shops.) The ‘school fees’ cost the couple $24,000 and training took three months. “We wanted to learn from as many masters as possible so that we could then develop our own recipe,” says Susxin. Of course, all chefs will keep a couple of tricks secret. Most of the chefs would host them for a week and demonstrate how they prepared their food but did not allow the couple to note down the exact measurements.

However, they were blessed that the last chef they met truly poured his heart into teaching them over the span of over two weeks. From letting them bring in their own weighing scale to measure the recipe, to showing them how to prepare the dish, he even let them make the rice rolls and serve customers independently. “His view was that we needed to know the whole process, not just learn the recipe, in order to run a business successfully. When we first started and faced some issues, he patiently shared his experience to troubleshoot them with us,” says a grateful Susxin.

They returned to Singapore and spent another three months “combining the skills of all the masters” to develop their own cheong fun recipe, perfecting their batter and sauce.

In total, they invested about $60,000 into the biz, which included a customised steamer that uses round bamboo-rimmed cloth trays instead of the more commonly found metal steamers. “This is lighter for my wife to handle,” says Xinhui. The bigger surface area also means their rice rolls are more generously sized.

The couple, who quit their jobs to chase their hawkerpreneur dream, says the hardest part of this career change is the sheer physical exhaustion. They were surviving on two hours of sleep when they first started. “We didn’t dare ride our motorbike to work because we were afraid we’d doze off,” recalls Susxin, who is thankful that they have since attracted a regular breakfast and lunch crowd.

Hong Kong-style vs Guangzhou-style cheong fun

According to Xinhui, the more commonly-found Hong Kong-style cheong fun has a thicker skin and a sweeter soy-based sauce. The fillings are usually char siew, prawns and mushroom.

Meanwhile, the Guangzhou-style skin is thinner and a little stretchy. He holds up a piece to show us and yes, you can see his blue gloves clearly through the translucence. Other than the usual prawns, char siew and mushroom, Guangzhou-style fillings include minced pork, egg and veggies, drizzled over with a sauce that is more savoury than sweet.

“We hope our cheong fun will make diners more aware of what Guangzhou-style cheong fun is,” says Xinhui, who sells 100 plates daily and up to 180 plates on weekends.

The menu

Their eight cheong fun options range from $3 for a plain one, to $8 for a ‘Family Combo’ that includes all six types of filling on the menu (except the crispy you tiao). The couple insists on using fresh (not frozen) pork and prawns and everything is made to order.

They also offer a small selection of dim sum, priced between $3 to $3.50. The hawker makes his own steamed pork rib with black bean sauce, steamed chicken feet and fried radish cake, supplemented by supplier-bought har kow, siew mai, char siew bao, salted egg custard bao and lor mai gai.

Prawn Cheong Fun, $5 (8 Days Pick!)

One of the best prawn cheong fun we’ve tried. The fresh medium-sized prawns are sweet, bouncy and steamed just right. We counted eight on our plate – one for every mouthful of rice roll.

The slippery, chewy cheong fun is generously doused in their proprietary sauce and topped with sesame seeds. They use a brand of soy sauce – they declined to name it – that a Guangzhou shifu recommended, which took them some effort to source locally. Every morning, Xinhui cooks up a batch of his “soul sauce”, as he calls it, with eight types of Chinese herbs and aromatics such as geranium leaves and small red onions imported from China. “I’ve tried with other locally available onions and shallots — it just lacks that special sweetness,” says the fastidious chef. Mix in some of their sambal to add some heat.

At first glance, we couldn’t tell the difference between this and Hong Kong-style cheong fun. But the mouthfeel of this Guangzhou-style roll is stretchier and less soggy, even when drenched in sauce. We find it yummier and more complex than the slighter sweeter HK ones.

Signature Pork Egg Cheong Fun, $4.50

This classic breakfast dish in Guangzhou comes with lettuce, egg and minced pork. We like the juicy and well-marinated fresh minced pork and crunch of the lettuce. The egg adds protein but it makes the rice roll slightly thicker in some parts. We don’t mind the contrasting textures, but we like the slippery, thin skin of the OG version better.

If you like the egg-pork-lettuce combo, you can also try the healthy Steamed Bee Hoon ($4.50) instead of cheong fun. A thick translucent beehoon that looks like cellophane noodles is steamed along with lettuce, a pork patty and egg, before being drizzled over with the same sauce. It offers more carbs if you need a more filling meal but still want to eat clean. But we prefer the cheong fun.

Family Combo, $8

This is a levelled up version of the signature pork egg cheong fun. The thicc Family Combo has additional char siew, mushroom plus three prawns, and rolls into a big pile good for one very hungry person or for sharing among two or three. Ideal for those who cannot decide on which filling to order, but we find the mix of flavours a bit distracting.

Golden Carrot Cake, $3 (8 Days Pick!)

This ‘carrot’ (more accurately, it’s radish) cake takes over 16 hours to prepare. Bits of Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and shreds of radish add sweet and umami notes. We like that it is pan-fried instead of deep-fried so that it’s less oily.

Steamed Chicken Feet, $3 (8 Days Pick!)

The slightly spicy marinated chicken feet are first fried, then steamed. Meatier than some we’ve tried, these ‘phoenix claws’ are fall-off-the-bone tender while still retaining some bite.

We prefer the bolder-flavoured chicken feet over their other house-made dim sum, the steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce, which we thought could have a stronger black bean flavour, though we appreciate how soft the fresh pork is.

Bottom line

Although we aren't fussy about whether our cheong fun hails from Hong Kong or Guangzhou, we enjoyed Xinhui’s version with its savoury, slightly more complex sauce and thin, chewier-than-usual rolls. His prawn cheong fun is one of the best we’ve tried from a hawker stall, especially since he uses fresh, not frozen seafood. The house-made steamed chicken feet and carrot cake here are also worth ordering.

The details

King of Cheong Fun is at #01-191 87 Food Street, 87 Bedok North St 4, S460087. Open daily 7am – 7pm. Tel: 8748 4622. More info via Tiktok, Xiaohongshu, FaceBook and Instagram.

Photos: Dillon Tan.

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