Mr Fish - Traditional Cantonese Fish Dishes

Mr Fish is a family business that serves up traditional Cantonese fish soup. They are located at the bustling Chinatown Complex where loads of popular hawker stalls are found. One of the key highlights of this particular fish stall is that they do not use milk. Another trait synonymous with Cantonese businesses is the grumpy unfriendly stall owners whose attitude you suck it up because of their food.

I specially brought my mom down to try out their food because she loves simple hawker fare. The sliced fish beehoon I ordered came with really creamy broth. This is a standout point because they don't use milk. The soup is boiled for hours with fish bones to create this creamy texture that is rich in flavour. In fact, it beats many other fish soups with milk hands down.

Another point given to Mr Fish is their generosity in their fish slices. As I ordered this bowl to share, I'm impressed there was so many fish slices that my mom and I had to coax each other to take more fish.

Another popular dish of theirs is their black bean sliced fish horfun. In fact, it is this particular dish that brought my attention to this stall in the first place. Every single time I read online about 'wok hei' flavour in horfun, I never really understood what it meant because I haven't had the opportunity to taste a really good one before. This horfun has a distinct 'wok hei' taste that my mom described as "very long never eat horfun that got the real horfun taste". It's not salty and the balance of the flavours are executed excellently. I kinda regretted sharing this dish with my mom as it was really good and I really want the entire plate to myself. One plate takes an approximate waiting time of 30 mins so be mentally prepared to wait. 

Our total damage for the 2 dishes is $10. Very cheap and good! I'll certainly recommend Mr Fish to all my hawker food aficionados because this is tops among the fish soups I've tried. There's so much other popular food at this Smith Street Food Centre that it's an awesome place for group gatherings where you can order plenty of dishes to share. In fact, I see myself organising a group eat out with my friends pretty soon!

Mr Fish
335 Smith Street, #02-073, Chinatown Complex Food Centre, S050335

Tsukada Nojo

This week has been all about reunion dinners amidst the Chinese New Year fever. As always, I like to feature food I eat with Fussy Pot because I feel she shares my peculiar taste buds. My choice of reunion dinner has always been steamboat or dishes with rice because they give me a homely feeling. Wanting to soak in some festive atmosphere, we settled on Chinatown and Beauty Pot (what better way to get ready for Chinese New Year).

Documenting my Tsukada Nojo visits in numbers... This is my fourth visit, my first at Chinatown Point outlet, second visit with fussy pot and my first visit without having to queue for two hours. Tsukada Nojo is a Japanese beauty pot steamboat which is famous for their collagen soup and infamous for long queues especially at their Plaza Singapura outlet. One discovery I made was that the Chinatown outlet is more catered for bigger groups whilst the Plaza Singapura outlet is largely for two people. 

 The highlight of the place is their Nabe Bijin set ($50 for 2 pax) which offers golden collagen chicken soup accompanied with chicken, prawn, lettuce, red radish, sunflower sprout, enoki mushrooms, baby sweet potato leaves, baby corn, lady's finger, deep fried tofu, yellow zucchini, fresh black fungus and tori tsukune. Apart from this long list, you are also entitled to choose one type of noodles from a selection of three. We chose thin egg noodles. 

The soup broth has always been consistently good. Rich in chicken flavour, although very oily but take my word for it, it's good. Personally, I am not an outside steamboat person and all steamboat pretty much taste as expected after you cook the raw food inside the hot broth. That said, there's still the distinction between steamboats using frozen or processed ingredients and freshly produced ingredients. One reason I have been here four times is because they use fresh ingredients at affordable prices. A new addition is the heart shaped seaweed which they claim will change the taste of the soup after we add it in. I like it that their ingredient selection is tilted towards the healthier side and the tori tsukune particularly stood out for me. 

Another key highlight I really like is that the staff are all artistically talented. They all can draw numerous designs. Tsukada Nojo will provide jelly with a bit of chocolate sauce to sooth the tastebuds after each hearty meal. Their jelly is always delivered with an attractive art piece. I once have them write happy last day to one of my departing colleague and they so pleasantly obliged. 

Tsukada Nojo is definitely worth going to for a reasonably priced beauty pot experience. I've braved the two hour queues at Plaza Singapura to eat there three times attesting to my belief that their food is worth the wait. I also like the name card they gave me with a corporate rank attached to it as a way to reward returning customers. Currently I'm a manager with two chops on my card :)

Tsukada Nojo

#02-37 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road