The Soup Restaurant

Strange, but this soup restaurant is known for a chicken dish! One of the Soup Restaurant's signatures is the can-die! (mild English translation - delicious) Samsui Chicken

It has very much to do with it's owner Mr Mok's family history. His grandmother was a Samsui woman. These legendary group of womenfolk labourers in their red and blue hats helped built modern Singapore and are an icon in their own right. Their frugality and dogged determination to work hard and fend for each gave birth to a brand of food that this restaurant is trying to rediscover and propagate.

For starters, those tough ol' ladies would largely exist daily on a high fibre vegetarian diet. Dried fish would be a bonus. They saved and ate thriftily in order to remit their monies back to their ancestral home in Samsui (the Three Gorges), Kwangtung in China. Come Chinese New Year, it would mean a feast for them, and steaming a plump chicken, marinated in ginger is de-rigeur. The shredded ginger would then be tossed in some stock and sesame oil and served as a dip. The cut up boneless pieces of chicken are dipped in the ginger sauce and (this is the best part), wrapped in lettuce and then chomped.

Today, that dish is served with some pizzaz. It comes fully deboned, placed around a huge round platter with a bowl of the ginger dip in the middle. A stack of nicely trimmed lettuce leaves accompanies it. You simply pick, dip, wrap and eat…..hwahhh!!

Once you escape from that gastronomic bliss, do attempt their other signatures.

Rice can either come plain or their highly recommended steamed rice with chicken/ sausage and mushrooms. These, especially the plain rice, partner nicely with the Beggar Tofu. Simple squares of tofu are stir fried with leeks and other vegetables in a light brown sauce. Of course you would need to wash these down with a choice of their classic double boiled soups that ranges from black chicken to American ginseng. Soups have always been a hallmark in Cantonese culinary fare.

There is yet another Samsui classic on the menu, Black Olive Rice. If you are used to having olives only in your martinis, then this may be a culture shock for you. Plain rice is lightly fried with generous bits of black olive. It has a pleasant earthy taste that I suspect not every palette can appreciate. I recommend this with their crunchy and succulent Garlic Prawns.

The Soup Restaurant opened in the early 90's and have spawned a few other outlets around the island today. But their original outlet in Smith St exudes a certain atmosphere not found in any of their other highly busy outlets like in Suntec City or Seah St. The little Chinatown restaurant reminds me of a teahouse or a guest hall of the middle class family you often see in a Taiwanese period TV drama weepie. Besides, because of the MRT construction nearby, it is not as crowded as it should be.

Where:	The Soup Restaurant 25 Smith St tel: 222 9923
When:	open 12 pm to 2.30 pm (Lunch) open 6 pm to 9.30pm (Dinner)
Rating:	Excellent

photos by kfseetoh