Entree Kibbles: King of Pao Fan (泡饭王) - Too Rich for Me @ Bugis [Singapore]

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

King of Pao Fan (泡饭王) - Too Rich for Me @ Bugis [Singapore]

Just in case you think I am getting forgetful, I am fully aware that I had blogged about the Vegetarian Thunder Tea Rice from Temple Street Lei Cha earlier this month. Today, the focus is on the neighbor; the King of Pao Fan!

I intended to try it the last time but the queue was simply too long and I didn't have the luxury of time. I came prepared this time yet didn't expect a wait of about 50 minutes as some customers ahead of me were like ordering 10 portions or more for takeaways.

What's pao fan? It means cooked rice soaked in broth and boy was the broth from the wok smelling delicious! There were seven options for pao fan (fried fish, sliced fish, fried and slice fish, fresh prawn, lobster, seafood and clams) and I had such a hard time deciding which one!

It's a tense competition between sliced fish or seafood and I eventually decided on the latter with an additional serving of fried fish to have the best of both worlds.

Once it's my turn to collect, I observed that the service staff would pour the broth first before releasing the rest of the ingredients into the bowl; not sure if there's any culinary purpose to it, except for visual.

Topped with crispy rice, I couldn't wait to dig into this bowl of simmering pao fan!

Taking a sip of the milky broth - mmmmmmmm, rich and delicious, this was just so full of seafood and pork goodness that the it turned out to be comforting and hearty on the nice, cool day we were blessed with that afternoon!

I was expecting the soaked rice to be full of flavour but they were strangely not. It's like a disconnect between rice and broth which was good for me as it means I can reduce my carbohydrates for the day.

Ingredients like clams and prawns were fresh and special mention to the nice egg floss which is always a good-to-have in soups. I was glad I asked for additional fried fish as they were chunky with a firm, nice texture, totally worth the S$3.50 top-up.

Leaving most of the rice untouched. I professed to be quite a big eater but I honestly couldn't stomach anymore of the paofan. I mentioned earlier how flavourful the broth was but the taste got excessively rich towards the end of my meal; to the extent my taste buds were on the verge of protesting! And it was my first meal for the day.