Fei Lao Seafood Opeh Leaf Hor Fun $10

History has us believe that the best hor funs are those that can be created with plenty of wok hei bathed in delicious gravy with premium seafood thrown in as evident with some of the legendary hor funs that still exist somewhere in the kopitiams today. Of course these ‘premium’ hor funs are usually done using family recipes passed through generations and the really really authentic ones are purportedly those that are served to you on a piece of opeh leaf.

Leaf Sheath

So, just what is an opeh leaf anyway? Opeh or ‘upih’ in Malay language is actually the leaf-sheath of the pinang tree or what is widely known as the species of palm that produces the betel nut and it’s scientific name is called Areca catechu.

Pinang Tree

This opeh leaf can instil a sour cum woody smell into whatever food that is packed with it and is believed to be able to transform the flavour of the food into something more shiok. Common sense tell us that in the past before plastic bags were invented, this was the common packaging method for takeaway food so like all other things that is derived from the past, people will term food served on opeh leaf to be more authentic.

I have blogged about my favourite Fei Lao opeh leaf hor fun which is the only one I have eaten. I thought it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of them around the island(which is not many) measure up, therefore here comes this Opeh Leaf Hor Fun Challenge whereby I will eat at all the stalls(dabao for some) to see whether have I been missing out on something.

The things that are synonymous with an opeh leaf hor fun are the wok hei flavour in the hor fun, the gravy which is somewhat more tasty and also generous amount of special ingredients like big prawns, sea cucumbers, big mushrooms and other vegetables. A pack of it usually will cost you $10 though some can go slightly cheaper and even a $5 pack can be found somewhere too. Of course we can’t expect a $5 pack to compete with a $10 pack interms of ‘ingredients value’ so the ingredients should be judged commensurately with the price.

Fei Siong Seafood

Fei Siong Seafood is a new player in the cze char business branching out from fishball noodles business which they have several stalls in the western part of Singapore. So apparently they’ve come up with this opeh hor fun item in their cze char menu and I am here on a fine shine day to find out how good this opeh hor fun really is.

The noticeable difference compared to Fei Lao Seafood is that they’re using something that seems to look like a piece of “opeh leaf mat” instead of the raw opeh leaf. This should be a reusable piece so I am guessing that this don’t have that woody opeh leaf smell.

Fei Siong Seafood Opeh Leaf Hor Fun $10

For $10, it looked a miniature plate compared to what I’m conditioned to know of a opeh leaf hor fun. This is not going to be enough for two mouths so the value goes down a bit there. Hor fun had wok hei though the wok hei flavour didn’t exactly lingers in my mouth like how Fei Lao’s version can. There were 2 pieces of medium size prawns and other seafoods like clams, sea cucumbers and scallops. Ingredients were definitely quite generous but unfortunately, the hor fun was barely enough to fill me up. Where it excel here is in the hor fun gravy which I thought was very very tasty. Well it tasted very much like the kind of gravy you will find in a ’seafood tofu in a claypot’ or something along that line. Definitely beats Fei Lao’s gravy by a few yards at the very least.

Prawns(which were deep fried) are definitely disappointing which had flavours that didn’t tasted fresh and there were as much as 5 pieces of pak choy no less. Overall I guess it’s a case of ‘win some, lose some’ here compared to Fei Lao.

Though this scores lesser in the overall value, it does have it’s attractiveness in other areas. Not good enough for me to rate it better than Fei Lao but good enough for me to think about it again so I will definitely come back to Fei Siong to have this again. Somehow it is still quite special in it’s own way.

Price: $10

Conclusion: Definitely quite a delicious plate of hor fun. This will be better if you are ordering some other items to go with it. More like a ‘eat for fun staple’ more than anything. Won’t be enough to fill you up though the ingredients are aplenty and the gravy is undoubtedly the most tasty hor fun gravy I’ve eaten.

Likes: The gravy.

Dislikes: Prawns are not big and not very fresh. Wok hei no enough(only 50%). Hor fun no enough.

Address		Overall Rating
Fei Siong Seafood 肥雄美食.火锅.海鲜 17 Lorong Kilat #01-01/03 11am – 2.30pm 5pm – 12am		Ingredients: 7/10   Gravy: 9/10   Wok Hei: 7/10   Authenticity: 8/10   Value: 7.5/10   Overall: 7.75/10