Ng Soon Kee Fish And Duck Porridge Review: $3 Teochew Fish Soup And Braised Duck In Geylang

Ng Soon Kee Fish And Duck Porridge sells old-school Teochew fish soup in Geylang

It’s hard to find a comforting bowl of fresh Teochew fish soup that’s priced under $5 these days, but Ng Soon Kee Fish & Duck Porridge offers exactly that and more. Specifically, the stall has been selling the unusual combo of traditional Teochew fish porridge and braised duck since 1958. 

When you arrive at the stall, the first thing you see is the slow-moving and extremely long queue snaking its way out of the hawker centre—even outside of lunch hours. The second thing you notice is the constant chatter in Teochew between the hawkers and customers over the noise of the hawker centre.

As I waited in the queue, it became clear to me that Ng Soon Kee and its hawkers are a much beloved and familiar presence in Geylang East Market & Food Centre. The friendly elderly couple in charge are the second-generation owners of the stall, with the uncle having worked at the stall under his father from the age of 18, before later taking over with his wife. 

Keeping to the standards set by his father, Ng Soon Kee still uses fresh ingredients and cooks everything from scratch the moment you place your order, rewarding your patience with the homely taste of true blue Teochew comfort food at extremely affordable prices.  

Food at Ng Soon Kee Fish And Duck Porridge

There are just four dishes on the menu, and pricing is determined by the portion you want. Other than $3 for a small portion, $5, $8, $10, and $15 options are also available, with the aunty helpfully showing the plates used for each price point upon asking. 

The most popular item is their Sliced Fish Soup, which you can also enjoy in porridge form. If fish head is your preferred cut, that’s on the menu too. Alas, it was already sold out by the time we got there, and the uncle told us that fish usually sells out first. The store tends to close up by 5pm, which is when they also run out of food every day. 

Thankfully, their famous sliced fish soup was still available, so we opted for a $5 portion to share with rice ($0.50) on the side. For $5, the colourful soup came in a large orange bowl, big enough for two.

To prepare the fish soup, the uncle slides open a metal box, taking out white slices of fresh horse mackerel to poach in clear fish broth. Red tomatoes and green Chinese lettuce are chopped and added too, along with pickled mustard slices and a touch of ginger. 

Everything is as fresh as can be—despite their advanced age, the hawkers arrive as early as 5am every day to prepare the ingredients and broth before opening the stall at 11am.

Mackerel is fickle in that it develops a fishy taste very quickly, which risks overpowering everything else in the typically mild-tasting Teochew soups. Having heard of the stall’s reputation for using extremely fresh mackerel beforehand, I was happy to find that as promised; the fish was soft, sweet, and not fishy at all. Sliced to a thickness that wasn’t too thin or too thick, these fish slices were easily picked up with our chopsticks.  

As for the clear soup, I felt that its clean and light taste allowed the ingredients to truly shine, with a light tang from the pickled mustard slices and fresh tomato balancing out the sweet and salty broth. I thought that the base soup needed a bit more pepper in it, but there was a small self-service condiment station with pepper, chilli, and a crunchy house-made fried garlic-shallot mix that allowed us to tailor the soup to our heart’s content. 

In fact, the fried garlic-shallot mix was so good, we went back for more. When we asked for the secret behind its delicious taste, the uncle proudly told us that it required real skill to give it that crunch and aromatic flavour without burning the vegetables. We also found that adding it to our rice brought an amazing texture that had us polishing off nearly the whole bowl with just this condiment alone.

Ng Soon Kee also has a selection of braised duck offerings, which you can have as a side dish or with porridge. While the stall originally started out only selling braised duck meat, they later expanded their small menu later to include Duck Wing and even Innards from $0.70 apiece. 

If you happen to pop by on a Wednesday, try the elusive Duck Tongue (price TBC)! For anyone curious, braised duck tongues are savoury and rich from the fat, though it’s not for those who find picking out fine bones from meat a chore. Be warned: it’s a popular choice with older folks and tends to sell out by lunchtime. 

We ordered a $3 portion of Braised Duck Meat, which amounts to a plate of bite-sized chunks swimming in dark braising sauce, enough for one person. 

The duck meat was soaked through with the braising zhup, making it moist and tender. It’s not exactly fall-off-the-bone delicate━and if you dislike picking meat from the bone, this isn’t for you━but soft enough that it was easy to chew and swallow. 

While it was above average compared to other braised duck meat I’ve had, I felt it wasn’t especially something to write home about. The braise did its job in keeping the duck moist, but on its own, I didn’t get much herbal or savoury flavour from it. It’s something I wouldn’t mind eating again, but unlike the fish soup, I wouldn’t specifically travel to Geylang for it.

Ambience at Ng Soon Kee Fish And Duck Porridge

The stall is located in a corner at the very back of Geylang East Market & Food Centre, also known as Aljunied Avenue 2 Market & Food Centre, allowing you to get some fresh air in a normally stuffy hawker centre if you choose to sit nearby. It’s an 11-minute walk from Aljunied or Paya Lebar MRT Station. 

Queues can get long even outside of mealtimes and extend out to the covered passageway leading out of the hawker centre, so manoeuvring around the line, and back to your seat, can be slightly awkward when you’re balancing bowls of soup. 

Do arrive before lunch if you want any hope of finding a seat in under five minutes as their meat tends to sell out around noon. If you are concerned about the wait time, you can call ahead to order a takeaway via the phone number below. 

When you da bao soup or porridge, they double bag the container and knot it tightly to prevent spills. The aunty also makes sure to add a generous amount of condiments before packing, which is a win in my book.

Geylang East Market and Food Centre is undergoing a four-month renovation starting from March 2023, so be sure to head down before the stall’s last day of operation on 28 February before the renovation begins! 

The verdict

Ng Soon Kee is absolutely a place I would bring my Teochew grandmother to have breakfast at. The uncle humbly attributes the stall’s success to their loyal customers, but there is no denying the skill and quality ingredients that go into making every simple bowl of fish soup and braised duck a cut above the rest. Plus, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything of similar quality at the same price point. I just hope that next time, I’m early enough to try the duck tongue. 

Check out our guide to famous fish soup stalls in Singapore for more dishes like this. Else, read our review of First Street Teochew Fish Soup, which has been selling old-school fresh fish soup since the 1980s.

Address: 117 Aljunied Avenue 2, #01-11, Geylang East Market & Food Centre, Singapore 380117
Opening hours: Wed-Sat 11pm to 6pm (or sold out)
Tel: 9819 9822
Ng Soon Kee is not a halal-certified eatery, but they do not serve nor use pork or lard.

Photos taken by Tan Jia Hui
This was an independent review by Eatbook.sg