The Dead Cockroach: New Market Seafood Soup @ Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre

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I woke up this morning, craving for a bowl of fish soup. This is rather out of the norm for me as fish soup is not something that I usually have cravings for as compared to wanton mee or chicken rice.

Yes, I do have an occasional bowl of fish soup from time to time (I am talking about years in between bowls) but it is not something that I would look forward to.

I guess I will have the fish soup stall near my place to blame for my lack of enthusiasm towards this dish because frankly, it serves one of the saddest and most boring fish soup around (although the stall does have its loyal fan base).

Admittedly, I have barely tried any fish soup from beyond the perimeter of my neighborhood, hence it would be unfair of me to judge all fish soups based on one single stall.

Maybe it is a sign from above, telling me it is high time I give fish soup hawkers a chance to prove their worth and to let me know that not all fish soups are created equal?

I decided to head to Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre for my fix because where else can you get the freshest supply of fish with the wet market just two floors down?

But, fish soup stalls are aplenty here at the food centre. Which one do I go to? After some googling, the beacon of light pointed towards New Market Seafood Soup.

The stall serves quite a number of items on the menu.

From fish soup with options of minced pork and/or prawns which you can have on its own as a soup or with rice or bee hoon, there is also sliced fish/seafood hor fun, fried fish head with bitter gourd, and the odd fried rice among others.

I know I started out craving for fish soup in the morning but after looking at the photos on the signboard, I decided upon the seafood soup ($4) instead with a bowl of rice (50¢).

With no one in the queue, I was able to place my order with the stall helper immediately. As I waited, one bowl after another were brought out from the kitchen however, I could only watch in despair as the helper carried them off elsewhere.

Despite it being self-service here, I realized the helper is serving their elderly regulars at the table. The interesting reason for the lack of queue is because, the regulars only had to give a little wave from where they are seated and the helper will know what they wanted.

After a little more than ten minutes or so, my order was finally ready. At first glance, my bowl of seafood soup included three prawns, knobs of minced pork, and sliced fish with ample amount of vegetable and seaweed.

While stirring, I spotted slices of bitter gourd surfacing to the top and a lone lala spinning at the bottom of the bowl.

The one from my hood is literally sliced fish and soup with nothing else. As for taste, it tastes of just evaporated milk and msg. Now you see why I have no love for this dish and why I called it "sad" and "boring"?

So, how does New Market Seafood Soup fare, compared to the one from my hood?

I scooped a spoon of rice, filled it with some soup, dabbed on some soya sauce and ate with the chili padi.

I have never felt so refreshed and heartened by a bowl of fish soup before. It is exactly what I needed to nourish my soul after a difficult week.

The first sip of the soup was mildly sweet with flavors from the seafood which is light but addictive enough to keep me wanting more.

The prawns and sliced fish are reasonably fresh. I suspected the minced pork were mixed with fish paste, due to its tender and springy texture.

This is a walkover for New Market Seafood Soup because there is really nothing to compare.

New Market Seafood Soup totally changed my mind about fish soups. My only gripe is that my seafood soup came with only three tiny slices of fish which could hardly satiate my crave for sliced fish.

Up to this point, I realized that I should not have compared fish soup to seafood soup. Next time, I should order only the fish soup to see how it compares.