Ichiban Seafood Sliced Fish Soup
#01-18
Seah Im Food Centre
2 Seah Im Road
S(099114)
-fish soup (obviously)
Fish soup used to my staple for a while, from 2010 to start 2011. I wasn't too particular about foods back then, as I was trying to lose weight. Hence, I opted for the "healthier" version; soup, no rice, and fish. Fish is beneficial!
I guess, the turning point came when my friend and I, after a basketball session, went to a fish soup near my house for dinner. I frequented that stall a lot, not that I love it, but it was indeed the "healthier" option. My friend wasn't too kind though. He said the soup was really bad, and contained a lot of MSG. He even suggested another fish soup stall. Now, I have doubts about this particular friend's taste. He is even more biased than me, and to the extent that there are times he would bring me to this "wonderful" place, that will turn out to be one of the worst foods I've ever tried. But then again, he has recommended some good foods before, like the char siew rice at Keong Saik Street and Marutama Ramen. Nevertheless, I did try his recommendation, and boy, it became my favourite fish soup!
I brought my mom there to eat, and she loved it too! Alas, that stall doesn't open on weekends, hence I was unable to get my dad to try. Regardless, my dad also said he never really like fish soup, so I didn't really push him to.
One day, he came back and told me that he just had the best fish soup ever. Which came as a surprise, given that he didn't really like fish soup. But since he likes it, I thought I should give it a try.
Unfortunately, the location wasn't a place where I went frequently, hence it took awhile before I went.
*On a side note, I did a search for Seah Im's address and found that a famous blogger wrote about this place last year. Well, i have to admit I am unlike him, where I can taste the difference in fish used and stuff...so my comments probably be different from him. Well, I'm biased anyways.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I ordered the mixed fish soup - mixed fish being both fried and boiled (is boiled even the correct term?) fish pieces.
First thought was that the soup tasted ok, nothing nice or spectacular. One thing for sure, it wasn't msg-ish. I was able to taste the fish bones and ginger that was used to cook the soup, making me feel that it was those home-made type of soup, as compared to other hawker fish soups.
The fried fish, though not too big in size, was surprisingly meaty, which I felt was not bad! The fish slices were normal though. I'm biased, so despite it being not bad, I still felt that the fish meat couldn't match up to my favourite fish soup stall. (The red/dark part in the photo is the shadow. I know, I can't take nice photos...)
The chilli came as a surprise though. It was good, being heavy on the lime taste and was adequately spicy. Now, I can take chilli, but I'm not a fan of adding chilli unnecessarily, but this chilli, I'd recommend people who can take spicy stuff to try it.
It was hard to determine why my dad love this stall that much. Overall, it was good, probably slightly better than most of the fish soup stalls out there, especially without the msg-ish taste, and that you could taste the effort put into making the soup. But it just did not stand out to me that much. Then I suddenly recalled how my dad eats his fish soup. He was sharing with me that he usually eats like fish porridge, where they add soup to the cooked rice.
And so I tried it. I have never been a fan, and I hardly enjoy my fish soup this way, but by adding the soup to the bowl of rice, the taste changed! The soup became tastier and sweeter. It felt even more traditional, even more home-made style.
No added milk, no extra gimmicks. Just plain, simple, sweet, fish porridge.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd give this a nice. Normally I'd say it's just not bad, but I think the mixture of the rice and the soup just makes this stall stand out.
Perhaps you, who usually eat fish soup the same way as I do - soup, and a bowl of rice, can try it different when you come to Ichiban Seafood Sliced Fish Soup.
.JPG)
