When winter starts setting in and the days get colder, what dish do you crave?
A bowl of fish head bee hoon with succulent fish head, rice vermicelli, a little bit of vegetables, in a steaming hot bowl of milky fish broth, and a side of cut chilli pieces in soya sauce will surely lift the spirits.
Fish head bee hoon is one of my favourite soup noodle dishes, and when my cravings hit, the eatery that keeps bringing me back is Sri Mahkota in Epsom.
Although it has built up some loyal followers over the years, recent reviews about the dish have ranged from being lacking in taste and the broth not being milky enough. That is not my view, though.
Fish been hoon is a dish with roots in Southern China, and is known for its rich, milky broth - and going back to a time when fish was abundant, the creaminess in the broth is derived from the vigorous boiling of fish bones for many hours.
These days, many restaurants serving this dish use fish-flavouring stock powder for the soup and add evaporated milk to get the creamy flavour.
Sri Mahkota, however, still uses the old-school method with the broth still being brewed from fresh ling fish bones and ginger - I have seen it with my own eyes, and I was told that no MSG or stock powder is used.
What is used to flavour up the soup is just fish sauce and pepper at the end. Yes, a little evaporated milk is used, but it is kept to a minimum.
So, that perhaps explains the “lack of flavour” comments - but I am happy in having my fish head bee hoon in this basic, unembellished form. It’s healthier too.
There are a few Sri Mahkota outlets across Auckland, and I am aware that at least one of them is a franchise, so I can’t say for sure if the above is true at all the branches. But from what I know, it’s certainly the case at the Epsom one.
Sri Mahkota was started by a Malaysian restaurateur, but was taken over many years back by the owners of the Han San Restaurant group.
The founder, Lenh Phong Chin, 80, was a refugee from Cambodia. Although retired, you still occasionally see him at the restaurant.
When he fled Cambodia with his wife and young children in 1979, Chin escaped to Thailand. Before arriving in New Zealand with his wife and four children in 1990, Chin and his family spent 11 years in a Vietnamese refugee camp.
One of his sons, Han Chin, is now the person actively running the family’s restaurant businesses.
Maybe Sri Mahkota’s fish head bee hoon isn’t for everyone, but I like mine made with the original flavours of the fish bones, so I’m happy with this old-school, honest-to-goodness one.
SRI MAHKOTA EPSOM, 164A Great South Road, Epsom. (Ph: 09 5202998)
Business hours: 11am-2.30pm, 5-9pm (Closed on Mondays)
