GEORGE TOWN, Dec 28 — Simple and nourishing, a bowl of fish head bee hoon (vermicelli) soup served with slices of fish or fish head is a perfect meal for days when you want something clean, clear and refreshing.

The quintessential fish head bee hoon soup is as common as the economy fried bee hoon but less oily and yet, more flavourful due to the ingredients used in preparing the broth.

The clear soup may look bland and tasteless but a good bee hoon soup means a soup base that is tasty due to hours of boiling fish bones, fish head and pork bones for a rich fish broth with most of its pungent fishiness reduced by slices of ginger.

This base is then used to boil fresh fish slices before it is served with scalded rice vermicelli, some vegetables and garnished with spring onions and crunchy fried shallots.

Just like any hawker food, the fish head bee hoon soup is sold in many versions in different states and even different countries.

Over in Singapore, the soup base is slightly different as it is usually cooked with yam to produce a thicker and sweeter concoction that looks milky and also has the addition of tomatoes for another dimension to its flavours.

Here in Penang, the soup base is purely fish stock, some with just a tiny hint of pork, so the soup is usually clear, thin and easy on the palate.

Many stalls give the options of deep fried fish fillets, fish head or even additional ingredients such as fish balls, minced meat balls, prawns, cuttlefish, squid and even frog which add extra dimensions of flavours to the soup.

Usually, a bowl of bee hoon soup would only have slices of fish, either deep fried or fresh, some fish balls, some green vegetables to brighten the flavours and the requisite spring onion and crunchy fried shallots to garnish.

The fish fillets used for this dish are usually grouper or snapper and since not many can appreciate eating the fish head, most of these bee hoon stalls sell fish fillet bee hoon soup instead.

So, it is quite common to see stalls named “fish meat bee hoon” instead of fish head bee hoon due to a lack of demand for the fish head.

If you still find the dish a bit too bland, because it is only purely clear fish soup base, each bowl of bee hoon comes with cut cili padi soaked in soy sauce.

The fresh cili padi in soy sauce is the best accompaniment to add some excitement to the plain dish.

Here are some of the bee hoon soup stalls you could try out in Penang:

CF Food Court
corner of Weld Quay and Gat Lebuh Armenian
GPS: 5.413017,100.339379
Time: 5pm–11pm

Stall within the Pulau Tikus Tua Pek Kong temple compound
Jalan Burmah
GPS: 5.42969,100.313508
Time: 7pm–10pm

Delima Mas Cafe
Lorong Delima 6
GPS: 5.38193,100.304114
Time: 5pm–11pm

Joo Leong Café
Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah
GPS: 5.302326,100.27628
Time: 6pm–11pm

Hwa Lam Coffee Shop Jalan Raja Uda
GPS: 5.430868,100.384465
Time: 6pm–11pm