Man Born In Tekong Opens Stall Called Tekong Island Fish Soup At Orchard Food Court

The_King · October 27, 2020

There’s a new month-old hawker stall at Takashimaya’s basement food court, and it’s called Tekong Island Fish Soup. But according to its boss Irwin Ng, 48, it has nothing to do with the army camp where NSmen undergo their basic military training.

Irwin and his family were all born in Tekong and lived there till 1985, when they moved out at the government’s request to make way for the Basic Military Training Centre. “There were people online saying my stall was opened by a SAF regular or an ex-Tekong cookhouse cook. But it’s not. My family and I called ourselves Tekongnians, so why not use this name for my stall?” laughs Irwin.

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Old-school cool: Irwin’s uncle as a Tekong fisherman

Residents at the old-timey Tekong kampongs mainly worked as fishermen, like Irwin’s father, grandfather and uncles. “They would go out in their sampans every day to catch fish. We ate fish all the time — we’d have it steamed, fried or in soup,” Irwin recalls.

The family’s fish soup recipe was passed down from generation to generation. After moving to mainland Singapore as a 12-year-old boy, Irwin went on to study business management in university, and eventually became an F&B boss after working in a few corporate jobs. He proclaims: “I love food!”

In 2007, he started his own cafe, Careshop de Cafe, which is currently located in Jalan Besar. “We mainly serve Western food, but my customers said, ‘Give me something soupy leh’. I decided on fish soup ’cos I’ve been a kampong boy my whole life. It’s a very common dish for us. So I asked my mum if we could make the fish soup we used to have in Tekong.”
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From cafe to hawker stall

Three years ago, he opened his first hawker stall at Takashimaya’s food court, a Korean joint called Togi that’s an offshoot of the same-named defunct restaurant at Chinatown. Irwin had bought over the biz after its owners decided to retire. He also later opened a Western stall at the same food court. Then Takashimaya’s management approached him to open a fish soup stall, in a corner unit where Hong Kong bakery Tai Cheong used to serve its hot food menu.

Irwin recalls, “The management came to my cafe to try my fish soup. My grandparents’ recipe was different from the usual fish soup, as they put hae bee in their soup. Back then in Tekong we would have a lot of dried shrimps. There was no blender, so my grandfather chopped up the hae bee by hand.”
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Tekong-style fish soup

While Irwin and his family are Teochew, he reckons his fish soup is not Teochew-style, which usually boasts a clear, light broth that’s cooked with ti poh (dried sole fish powder).

Instead, Irwin’s “Tekong-style” fish soup is boiled with chicken and fish bones, goji berries and hae bee. There are two choices of fish here, sliced Indonesian batang cooked in broth, and deep-fried Taiwanese tilapia coated — unusually enough — in a turmeric-spiked batter.

To keep up with the times, Irwin also adds flavourless codfish collagen powder to his soup. “Collagen is added to everything these days. I thought if I add it to fish soup, it would give everyone good skin and make them look younger (laughs),” he explains. At 48, Irwin himself can also pass off as someone 10 years younger. “That’s because I eat a lot of fish,” he jokes.

Instead of the usual topping of salted vegetables for Teochew fish soup, or fried egg floss, Tekong Island Fish Soup’s bowls come with a small heaping of hae bee and ribbons of omelette. “It’s how my mum makes fish soup, as this is healthier than fried egg floss,” says Irwin.
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From kampong to urban life

After leaving Tekong in the late-eighties, Irwin’s family (pictured, with a young Irwin in longs at the front) settled down in Bedok and Chai Chee. “The government gave us housing there, and till today we’re staying there,” he says. As fishing was no longer viable, his family started looking for different jobs. Irwin recounts, “My dad went into the construction business; one of my uncles drove a taxi and my youngest uncle became an engineer. Only my oldest uncle is still in fishery, as a wholesaler importing mainly prawns and salmon.”

While the family came to have modern amenities like a “little black-and-white television”, their kampong spirit still remained strong. “Everyone who moved over from Tekong would gather every week to make sure we were all settling down fine. We had a Teochew Association back in Tekong, which continued to meet up to talk about the old days,” says Irwin. “Even up till when my dad passed away a few years ago, he always liked to talk about Tekong and being a fisherman. We didn’t make a lot of money, but that was what he enjoyed doing.”
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This is Irwin’s former house

Before the island became a restricted military training facility, Irwin remembers leading an idyllic life in a compound only 30 metres away from the sea. “My kampong, Batu Koyok, only had four households — two Chinese and two Malay. Most of us were fishermen, unless you lived by the main road and owned a provision shop. We’d sell the bigger fish we had caught, and eat the smaller ones ourselves. Other than fishing, we grew veggies for subsistence,” he shares.

His journey to school is also pretty hardcore. “We lived half an hour away from the jetty. I studied in Singapore, so I’d walk to the jetty and take a bumboat to [the mainland] every day for school,” he says.

Irwin, who has an older sister and two younger brothers, didn’t have the luxury of entertainment like TV and computer games. “We were kampong boys running around, waiting for durians to drop,” he reminisces. “Last time, we didn’t even have to close our door at night. After dinner, we’d sit outside and chit-chat about things like what happened to the fish that day, or about bats that were biting the durians. We had to hit drums to make the bats go away. It was always the same routine.”
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Double Fish Soup Noodles, $8 regular, $10 large (8 Days Pick!)

Tekong Island Fish Soup has a succinct menu. There are two types of soup — a fish soup and tom yum soup — plus sliced and fried fish. You can get a range of combinations for the aforementioned items, like Fried Fish Soup Noodles ($6/$8) or Tom Yum Sliced Fish Soup ($6/$8) with rice.

We usually prefer our fish soup heady and milky, so we weren’t expecting to like the clear soup served by default here (you can request to add evaporated milk, if you want). But the light, refreshing broth, in which floats crunchy hae bee bits, is delicious. There’s a peppery hint from the fried fish’s turmeric coat that had stained the broth yellow. We slurp it up with the tasty fried tilapia and springy slices of batang, along with thick bee hoon. Very comforting nosh.
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Tom Yum Double Fish Soup Noodles, $8 regular, $10 large

The tom yum option sounds promising, but turns out a tad insipid. We’d prefer the soup to have less of a sour kick, and more complex flavours. It’s not the best accompaniment for the fresh fish, which are delivered to Takashimaya every day and sliced on-site. Go for the yummier fish soup, we say.
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Hand Made Fish Bites, $6 regular, $8 large

It sounds like fish bait, but the ‘fish bites’ here are really dory fish fingers coated in turmeric batter and deep-fried. It makes for a pretty tasty snack when dipped in the accompanying tartar sauce.
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Tempura Prawn, $6 regular, $8 large

Fairly standard, crunchy enough ebi fry that has been coated with panko crumbs and deep-fried. Splurge your calories and cash on the other worthier dishes here.
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Ex-Tekongnian goes for BMT at Tekong

Like every Singaporean man, Irwin had to go through his BMT at Tekong. He says: “I know every single spot on Tekong. I was like, ‘Hey, I used to go there!’ But as a recruit, I couldn’t visit my old neighbourhood. I only remember that the smell of Tekong was still there. It smelled like fish (laughs). As for the cookhouse food, I just got used to it. I don’t compare it to my family’s cooking (guffaws).”

But he has not been back to Tekong, which has restricted access, since his NS days three decades ago. He confesses, “My family just miss the good old days there. We wish we could visit Tekong again, even just once. That would be good.”

Tekong Island Fish Soup is at Takashimaya Food Village, Takashimaya Basement 2, 391 Orchard Rd, S238873. Open daily 11am-9.30pm. www.facebook.com/Careshop-De-Cafe-Holdings-Pte-Ltd-144981522359843.