Anshun Fish Soup is as old-school as you can get, the kind of Teochew-style soup you’d imagine being served along the streets of Swatow to men spotting Manchurian hair styles squatting on wooden benches. It’s a taste of a time when fish were abundant and food was simple and unadorned. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the most stripped-down version of fish soup I’ve encountered in all my years of blogging. The broth is brewed purely from fresh batang fish bones and blue ginger — no pork bones, no dried sole fish, no soy beans, and emphatically, no MSG or stock powder. It just gets a dash of fish sauce for seasoning at the end. Even the fish slices are not marinated or velveted with corn starch. It’s fish soup in its most basic and unembellished form which I made the mistake of adding evaporated milk when given the option when ordering.

The hawker behind the stall, Mr Sng Hoo Boon, 65, is every bit the typical Teochew Ah Hia—which really shouldn’t come as a surprise given his purist approach to fish soup. His wife hails from Anson, a town in Perak, Malaysia, which is how the stall got its name. The couple first started serving their no-frills fish soup back in 2002 at Zion Road Blk 91 (in the same coffee shop as Siang Hee), where they stayed for nine years before moving to Toa Payoh Blk 206 for the next decade. Three years ago, they relocated again to their current spot in Hougang and has been gaining quite a following on social media.

The secret to this stall’s popularity lies in the quality—and quantity—of the fish they use every day. They source