I’ve been to this stall many times for their roast chicken, but I have never ventured into the right side of their menu, the herbal soups. Today was a surprisingly cool day by Singapore standards, 25 degrees, a soup kind of day.

I’ve never tried salted vegetable and duck soup before, nevertheless I thought I knew what to expect by the descriptive title of the dish. The soup seems like one of those dishes that would be served up more at home than sold at a hawker stall. The soup arrived in this cool old school style porcelain bowl. Just the sort of thing that I like (tableware, glassware, and cutlery are important to me). So visually, the dish was already a winner.

First of all, the broth is delicious. While the dominate taste of the soup is sour, there is a refreshing underlying saltiness from the mustard greens to it that makes you keep going back for more. The tomato provides a residual sweetness to the dish as well that balanced out the chinese herbal flavours. Two large portions of duck were inside the soup, the duck must have been soaked in the soup judging by how flavoursome the meat was. For what visually appeared to be a small dish it was remarkably filling.

This soup really feels like a tonic for the soul.

Price: $5.00

Coffee shop: Soy eu tua
Address: 15 Upper East Coast Rd, Siglap
Hours: 9am - 5pm (closed mondays)