A SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS WEBSITE
Singapore, April 9, 2012 Click on thumbnails below to see bigger and more pictures: That's where I saw red and wanted it - gleaming fresh, chopped pieces of red grouper head alongside fleshy red-skinned pieces in the chiller. Fans, who are so addicted to the taste, go there weekly or a few times a week. One of them told me he goes there almost every day. Some proclaimed it as the best fish soup in Singapore. While many fish soups I've had tasted quite light, Benson's version was flavourful with an overrding taste of aromatic, dried fish. So you can imagine the gratifying melange of aromas and tastes that got their fans hooked. One big fan, who visits the stall on "1, 3, 5", said: "I always book the jaws as I enjoy the fleshy lips. This fish soup is much better than I the ones at Amoy Street. I think it's the Number fish soup in Singapore." Although I enjoyed my fish head soup ($6 to $8 depending on size), I liked the sliced grouper better. The flesh was sweet, soft, and the thicker cuts were especially succulent. Yu Mei Mei Shi Click on thumbnails below to see bigger and more pictures: Read also: - Luxurious river fish costs nearly S200
Yu Mei Mei Shi
01-15, Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre
It was a rainy day and the best food to have for lunch would be a bowl of steaming hot fish soup.
So I visited a fish soup stall I chanced upon recently at Havelock Road food centre.
It's probably one of the few fish soup stalls that also offer red grouper, a gorgeous fish that you usually see at Chinese restaurants.
But the hawker, Benson Tan, told me that the head was already sold out, so I ordered the sliced fish version.
I was puzzled - my eyes couldn't have played tricks on me. Later I saw him delivering a bowl of fish head soup to a customer seated nearby.
Ah so, that guy probably placed his order before I came.
Then I visited the stall again, twice, and again and again I had no luck with the fish head soup.
When I complained to Benson, he told me that I should have called him to book it earlier in the morning - that's what his regulars do. Ah so!
And that's what I did, and finally got to try the elusive grouper fish head in one of the most delicious fish soups I've had.
Whether you order a sliced grouper or grouper head soup, sliced Batang mackerel soup, mixed seafood soup or fish ee meen noodle soup, the same broth is used for making all of them.
His wife Susan made the broth with fish bones and ikan bilis. She cooked the fish in the broth and seasoned it with slices of ginger, Chinese wine and sesame oil, which enhanced the overall taste and aroma further.
Capping it off was a sprinkling of dried plaice powder (commonly known as dried sole or Ti Por) crispy, fried shallots, and chopped Chinese coriander leaves.
We were comparing it with other 'clear' and no-milk version. I must say most of the soups I had there were very satisfying except for the porridge which had weaker dried plaice taste.
The sliced version, which costs $6, outshone the humbler and cheaper Batang fish, which I also had in a rice porridge ($4).
I also had red grouper slices in ee meen, which was quite ordinary. What stood out was still the fish and the delicious soup, that most customers would slurp to the last drop.
Said Benson: "There is probably about 10 stalls of red grouper fish soup in Singapore. Because of the demand, we need to have five different suppliers to ensure that we have a constant supply."
However, the strange anomaly of uncooked sambal belachan has caught up here. It is served together with the red-cut chilli in soy sauce.
The sambal was a knock-out, but with fish soup? The cult-following there seemed to love it.
Rating for sliced red grouper soup: 8.5/10
Rating for red grouper head: 8.5/10
Rating for Batang fish porridge: 7.5/10
01-15, Havelock Road Cooked Food Centre
Block 22-A, Havelock Road
Singapore 161022
Tel: 98165913
Open Monday to Saturday: 9am to around 1pm. Closed on Sunday and Public Holiday
- 8 popular fish soup stalls in Singapore
