Benjamin Franklin famously remarked that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. But if the American inventor and statesman had ever come to Singapore, he’d probably have added sun, rain — and, possibly, queues —‚ to that list.
For sun and rain are indeed mainstays of the tropical city-state all year round, though the latter especially makes its presence felt in one of two yearly monsoon seasons — the Southwest monsoon happening June to September, and the comparatively wetter Northeast monsoon that runs all the way through December to early March.
Though that might sound like a downer for outdoor activities and travel in general, every cloud has a silver lining. For most, the brisk chill of a rainy afternoon is a welcome reprieve from the ever-present tropical heat — along with a chance to come out of the rain and indulge in comforting soups favoured by local communities.
We’re talking everything — from warming broths made hearty and nourishing in humble hawker stalls, to double-boiled Cantonese soups in swanky Chinese restaurants, all tasted and recognised for culinary excellence by our MICHELIN Guide Inspectors.
Read on for a list of the comforting soups by MICHELIN establishments in Singapore you’d best save for a rainy day.
One MICHELIN Star: High quality cooking, worth a stop!
Succour from the chilly rain doesn’t only have to come in the form of bracing soups. Sometimes, it can also take on the form of treasured food memories. Enter MICHELIN-Starred Peranakan fine diner Candlenut, where chef-owner Malcolm Lee expresses the Straits Chinese cuisine of his childhood. Available for dine-in, there is his take on Bakwan Kepiting, a comforting and traditional soup dish that pairs a delicately flavoured chicken stock with bamboo shoots, tofu puffs, and meatballs hewn from blue swimmer crab and chicken.
One MICHELIN Star: High quality cooking, worth a stop!
Cantonese double-boiled soups are elevated into an art form at Summer Palace, where Chinese executive chef Liu Ching Hai paints a masterstroke by turning the philosophy of Qi into two signature soups (pictured in the header image) — the cooling Chen Yu Luo Han, which embodies yin with bird’s nest, fish maw, sea whelk, garoupa, ginseng, conpoy, red dates, dried longan, and wolfberries; and, a fit choice for the rainy season in its yang counterpart, the warming Qi Yu Xuan Ang, featuring abalone, An Xin chicken, sea cucumber, venison tendon, maca (Peruvian ginseng), cistanche herb, fuzi (aconite), dang shen (codonopsis), poria root, and wolfberries. Also of note at the one-MICHELIN-Starred restaurant is the luxurious Braised Superior Bird’s Nest with Fish Maw and Conpoy, a comforting and indulgent broth brimming with collagen served bubbling away in a hot stone bowl.
Bib Gourmand • Inspectors’ favourites for good value
When it comes to comforting broths, mutton soup — or sup kambing as it is known within the Indian Muslim community in Singapore — is hard to beat, and no one does it better here than MICHELIN Bib Gourmand recipient Bahrakath Mutton Soup. The longstanding hawker stall offers a variety of familiar mutton cuts like bone-in mutton leg, ribs and chunks — along with more unconventional bits like the tongue, tripe and even brains — in a richly spiced broth heady with coriander, fennel, cumin, and more. It is best taken piping hot with a hunk or three of crusty bread to sop up all that delicious soup.
Bib Gourmand • Inspectors’ favourites for good value
Every morning, the third-generation proprietor behind Koh Brother Pig’s Organ Soup spends several hours meticulously scrubbing the offal that goes into his stall’s signature dish. This, together with an arduous process of skimming the impurities off the soup as it boils, yields a broth that’s almost perfectly clear and utterly clean tasting, with a hint of briny edge from the salted mustard greens. Remember to schlep down to the hawker centre bright and early if you’d like to get a taste of another house specialty — pig’s large intestines stuffed with glutinous rice, chestnuts, and pork belly chunks.
Bib Gourmand • Inspectors’ favourites for good value
Back when it was known as One Prawn & Co, Zhup Zhup struck liquid gold with its uber-rich prawn soup recipe anchored on a whopping 18kg of prawn heads and 30kg of pork bones, boiled painstakingly for almost an entire day. That same comforting broth now forms the base of several dishes aside from prawn noodles, including claypot fried Hokkien noodles and an indulgent lobster pao fan (steamed rice drenched with broth).
For over thirty years, Fu He Turtle Soup has been drawing crowds to Berseh Food Centre for its signature offering of turtle soup, a fast-disappearing delicacy once said to be enjoyed by royalty.
Chinese medicinal herbs give the broth a bittersweet tinge, working well with the mix of lean and gelatinous turtle meat — which, if you’re wondering, boasts a texture similar to beef or alligator — in service of a soup both warming and nourishing. According to its proponents, turtle soup can enrich the blood, feed our vital organs, and even boost longevity. Of course, if noshing on a turtle’s too much for you, you can always spring for its repertoire of double-boiled Cantonese soups.
MICHELIN-Selected Hua Xing Bak Kut Teh specialises in the Singapore version of bak kut teh — that is, a clear pork rib broth brimming with pepper and garlic. Compared to the swarthy, herbal Malaysia version, it packs a fiery punch that’s sure to clear the sinuses and warm the body inside and out.
In other words, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a dark, stormy morning, seeing as how it sells out quickly on most days by early afternoon. It’s best enjoyed with a bowl of steamed rice, along with a side of soy braised pork trotters, if you’ve got the stomach for it.
Elevated French food both soulful and seasonal is the name of the game at Maison Boulud, whose very name hints at the star power behind it. The restaurant’s patron is no other than celebrated chef Daniel Boulud, who channels his culinary flair through the expertise of executive chef Remy Carmignani in creating French mainstays like sole meunière, côte de boeuf, and of course, the humble French onion soup.
Slide your spoon through the crown of baked aged Gruyère and crispy croutons, and you’ll be duly rewarded with a soul-warming stock made sweet with beef and caramelised onions.
The hulking carcass of a Spanish mackerel (better known in Singapore by its Malay name, batang) hanging on the storefront of Song Kee Teochew Fish Porridge is a confident declaration of the freshness of the fish it uses to create a sweet, light-tasting broth deserving of a place in the MICHELIN Guide Singapore. Get the comforting fish soup with noodles like thick bee hoon, or as a porridge to further warm the stomach.
