Dong Fang Hong Sotong Ball Seafood Soup – Three Types of Delicious Balls!

You might have heard of the famous Singapore musical cabaret group Dim Sum Dollies, but have you heard of the Yang sisters? The three sisters currently run Dong Fang Hong Sotong Ball Seafood Soup, a hawker stall located at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre.

Besides sotong (squid) balls, the stall also has meatballs and fish balls up for grabs. If you are wondering what’s so special about the balls here, you’ll be glad to know that each and every ball is painstakingly handmade by the three of them!

The sisters shared that they picked up their culinary skills from their father, who was a very good cook. The brand first started out as a roadside stall along High Street. The oldest of the three sisters, who is now in her 60s, started helping her father since she was 13. That’s a whopping 50 years of experience!

We arrived at around 3pm on a Monday afternoon but to our dismay, the stall was already closed! However, we managed to catch the sisters preparing their sotong, meat and fish balls for the next day. It has been such a long time since I’ve seen (and eaten) fish balls that were handmade.

Not wanting to miss it a second time, we arrived at around 11am the next day, bright and early to get a taste of the delicious sotong balls that had been highly raved about by netizens. The affable sisters remembered me from the previous day, and were very happy to cook up a bowl of seafood soup for me.

They have only one item on the menu, which is the Sotong Ball Seafood Soup. This comes in three different sizes ($4.50, $5.50, $6.50). You can add noodles, such as ee mian, mi tai mak, kway teow, mee sua or bee hoon for $0.50, or have it with a bowl of white rice at $0.50.

A $4.50 bowl of seafood soup comes chockfull with ingredients. There are about 5 balls in the bowl (a mixture of squid, fish and meatballs), together with herh kiao (fish dumplings), seaweed and then fried garlic chips as garnish. For $4.50, I do think that it’s an extremely generous portion!

When I sank my teeth into the sotong ball, I finally understood what the rave was all about. The sotong ball was very springy, well-seasoned, and definitely addictive. The fish balls were slightly different from the usual factory made ones. It had little chunks of fish meat studded throughout the ball instead of being just smooth and springy. This uniqueness was a testament to it being handmade. The meatballs were great as well. Although they looked like they were made from minced meat, the balls were still chewy instead of just crumbly. 

The broth itself was tasty too! Although not as heavily flavoured as the balls, its delicate and subtle savouriness complemented the sotong, fish and meatballs perfectly.

The queue at Dong Fang Hong Sotong Seafood Soup is never-ending. Although we didn’t witness a long line at the stall, there were always customers waiting for their bowl of tantalising seafood soup. In fact, I even saw an uncle placing a bulk order (he had a notepad filled with orders)!

Do reach there early, because the stall closes once they sell out! (And they usually sell out quite fast, so I’ve heard). Do note that there isn’t a stipulated rest day for the sisters, as it is dependent on whether they are able to get enough produce for the day.

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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