Singapore’s sweaty stickiness is somehow soup weather. It’s a strange phenomenon, especially for those who consider soup the antidote for cold dark northern winters.
But when you’re hungry, thirsty and hot, soup can solve two of the three problems. Air-conditioning can solve the third. And so this CEO-approved version of Singapore’s Secret Soup is a winner on three fronts.
In my first few months in Singapore I discovered the CEO’s Hawker Guide, which lists the favourite street food of Singapore’s top executives. Eureka! I decided to eat everything in the guide. But as I scrolled through the 99-page document I changed my mind. There were just some things there I didn’t want to eat. Frog porridge for one.
So I decided to find the places closest to my office and work out from there, like a Pacman-like ripple in a pond. Sadly, the mission has fizzled out. But the first place I tried is a winner. I keep going back, especially on really hot days when I can’t face the 10-minute walk down to the open-air Maxwell Centre for the original Singapore Secret Soup, aka Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon.
Like the best street food, China Square Fried Fish Soup is prepared right in front of you. Even though you’re in the (blissfully cool) basement shopping area of the Tanjong Pagar MRT (or train) station, it’s still the traditional cooked-to-order hawker fare. The cook dumps a pre-measured serve of fried fish pieces into his pot, throws in some lettuce leaves, a pink pickley thing, a fried fish fin for extra flavour, a spoonful of fried shallots and within a few moments a steaming bowl of soup is before you.
My CEO street food guide tells me this stall invented the concept of adding shredded omelette to the soup. Without my trusty guide book I would never have guessed what the strange stringy brown lump in the soup was. The omelette doesn’t look very tasty but it is! A serve of this slurpalicious soup will get you ready for more sweaty adventures in steamy Singapore. And if your legs are sore, I recommend a post-soup visit to the nearby Thai Quick Massage place. (Tanjong Pagar Xchange, 120 Maxwell Rd, #B1-19, near the ATM machines)
China Square Fried Fish Soup
120 Maxwell Rd
#B1-28/48 Tajnong Pagar Xchange
Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday
(Details are on page 79 of the CEO Hawker’s Guide)
Eatlaughloveanon's Blog 
inka
January 7, 2011
Looks and sounds very good. Eating your way through a 99 page guide!?! Did you seriously contemplate doing that?
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 7, 2011
Well, not in one day. But I’m on a two-year contract, so we have 100 weekends here. It seemed possible in my new-in-town enthusiasm.
Laurel
January 7, 2011
I’ve never heard of an omelet in a soup before. It definitely looks….interesting. I’ll take your word for it that it was tasty!
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 7, 2011
Yep. It’s tasty. It looks a lot better when you get the noodles in the soup, but I get sick of getting splash marks all over my work shirts, so I go for the neater rice on the side option. 🙂
Migrationology
January 7, 2011
Yes! Even when it’s hot and sweaty, soup still sounds great…and a massage afterward, perfect!
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 7, 2011
And the massage place is really good. You walk away feeling bruised but two centimetres taller with no mouse-neck pain. (As in neck pain from using a computer mouse all day).
budgettravelsac
January 7, 2011
The soup looks really good. And it’s OK to eat it any time of year! But an omelette in soup? Very interesting!
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 7, 2011
If you didn’t know it was an omelette, you’d never guess that’s what it was. It would just remain one of those exotic Asian mysteries.
Kieron
January 7, 2011
Interesting! That soup looks tasty, will have to give it a go.
Thanks for sharing the link to the CEO’s Hawker Guide as well, my mouth is watering at seeing the pictures of chicken rice!
robingraham
January 7, 2011
I don’t understand why you would decide against the frog porridge – it sounds delicious!!
Jozef Maxted
January 8, 2011
Soup looks really nice, but I have to say I disagree with Robin above me haha Although saying, as is usually the case with this sort of thing, it probably just tastes like chicken!
eat-laugh-love-anon
January 9, 2011
There’s no probably about it Jozef. I tried frog a few months ago and it was ok. (Don’t read this at breakfast: http://eatlaughloveanon.com/2010/11/17/gruesome-garden-restaurant/)
But frog porridge sounds unappealing in so many ways. I had many bad porridge experiences as a child.
Dave
January 12, 2011
Singapore is indeed sweaty and sticky in the summer times. I just couldn’t imagine how hot it was.
Soup during in such intense temperature is…awesome. Especially with the invention of a/c, the temperature is nothing to worry about.