With the monsoon season approaching, here are five stalls that dish up the soup that will warm you right up.
Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup
121 Pasir Panjang Road
Opening hours: 11am to 9pm, daily. Closed on Sundays.
Previously housed in Kim Keat Palm Market and Food Centre at Toa Payoh Lorong 7, Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup has relocated to Pasir Panjang Food Centre. Here, Australian lamb is marinated with fermented red yeast and browned in oil every morning, to ensure that the meat is fresh and tender. The meat is then braised with over 10 types of Chinese herbs such as dangui, which helps temper the "heaty" properties of the mutton as well as its gaminess.
Hong Wen Mutton Soup
Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #04-20
Opening hours: 11:30am to 7:30pm, daily. Closed on Mondays.
Helming the stall on the fourth floor of Beauty World Centre is this second-generation Teochew-style mutton soup hawker. The recipe has been passed down from the owner's father, who managed a stall by the same name at the long demolished 7 Mile food market, which was one of the country's earliest hawker centres. Key differences between the Teochew and Hainanese styles are the stronger herbal flavours as well as the absence of taupok (read: deep-fried bean curd). The soup is then garnished with a mound of fresh shredded ginger and cilantro to balance out the robust flavours of the game.
532 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
Opening hours: 10.30am to 6pm, daily. Closed on Tuesdays.
Ask a mutton soup fan and chances are 老吴記's mutton soup will come up. This humble stall dishes one of the more affordable bowls of the hearty soup with its prices starting at $4 per a standard bowl. This stall serves a variant closer to the Teochew style that's rich in herbal flavours and garnished with shredded fresh ginger and coriander.
New World Mutton Soup
Bedok Interchange Food Centre, 207 New Upper Changi Road, #01-55
Opening hours: 10am to 9pm, daily.
Here's another stall that specialises in the Teochew-style mutton soup. But what sets the soup at New World's apart is how clear and clean it tastes. The hawker shaves most of the fat off the meat prior to cooking it. The result is a surprisingly light soup that's rich in flavour.
Cai Chuan Tou Mutton Soup 柴船头羊肉汤
Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View, #01-51
Opening hours: 11am to 2.30pm, daily. Closed on Sundays.
This one's an institution. You'll find a line forming as the stall begins to set-up and a real snaking queue when it actually opens for service. Cai Chuan Tou Mutton Soup has been operating from Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre for over 30 years and has amassed quite a following during the only service it is opened for: lunch. It's prepared in the rich, herbal Teochew style but with a real peppery kick. And the best part is that the soup is refillable. So bottoms up!
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