Fish soup bee hoon, also known as fish head bee hoon, is a

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, Ind ...

soup-based seafood dish served hot usually with

bee hoon Rice vermicelli is a thin form of noodle. It is sometimes referred to as 'rice noodles' or 'rice sticks', but should not be confused with cellophane noodles, a different Asian type of vermicelli made from mung bean starch or rice starch rather ...

. The dish is viewed as a healthy food by

Singaporeans Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, Indi ...

. Catherine Ling of ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

'' listed fish soup bee hoon as one of the "40 Singapore foods we can't live without".

History

Fish soup bee hoon has been available since at least the 1920s; one source credits Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House with creating the "definitive version" of the dish in the 1970s.

Ingredients

Snakeheads are most commonly used for fish soup bee hoon. Other stalls may offer

pomfret Pomfrets are perciform fishes belonging to the family Bramidae. The family currently includes 20 species across seven genera. Several species are important food sources for humans, especially ''Brama brama'' in South Asia. The earlier form of ...

, batang. or garoupa. While fish heads or the whole fish may be used, some diners prefer having just fish slices. The fish soup is made out of either fish stock or actual bones, water, oil, yam, and milk, with vegetables and select fruits. The noodle in the soup is often

, although a healthier alternative except for

irritable bowel syndrome Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a "disorder of gut-brain interaction" characterized by a group of symptoms that commonly include abdominal pain and or abdominal bloating and changes in the consistency of bowel movements. These symptoms may ...

sufferers would be spaghetti made from

brown rice Brown rice is a whole grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed. This kind of rice sheds its outer hull or husk but the bran and germ layer remain on, constituting the brown or tan colour of rice. White rice is the same grain without the h ...

. Another noodle variant would be fried noodles. Additional ingredients include eggs, anchovies, pepper, salt, and alcoholic products such as brandy, Chinese wine, or

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...

, chilli slices, fried

shallot The shallot is a botanical variety (a cultivar) of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the ...

s, and fish roe. For the

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

version of the dish, fish meat is substituted with tofu.

Preparation

The fish is boiled and added to a bowl of fish soup. The fish may also be fried. The soup is boiled for about twenty minutes, though a broth made from fish or pork bones boiled for several hours is sometimes used as a base. The dish is served hot.

Culture

Grace Chen of '' The Star'' writes that fish soup bee hoon is "to Singaporeans what the

char kway teow ''Char kway teow'' () is a stir-fried rice noodle dish from Maritime Southeast Asia and is of southern Chinese origin. In Hokkien and Teochew, ''char'' means 'stir-fried' and ''kway teow'' refers to flat rice noodles. It is made from flat r ...

is to Penangites". Catherine Ling of ''

'' describes fish soup bee hoon as one of the "40 Singapore foods we can't live without". Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon was named the best fish soup bee hoon store in Singapore by '' Time Out Singapore'' in 2012.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Singaporean cuisine, state=collapsed Fish and seafood soups Singaporean cuisine