Cai Chuan Tou Mutton Soup 柴船头羊肉汤 (Bukit Merah View Food Centre)

Mutton Mixed Bowl

I have heard about this mutton soup stall for some time, but have not given a thought to give it a try. This is because of its location, short operating hours and the perpetual long queue at the stall. It was only after it got the Michelin Bib Gourmand award that I decided to give it a try.

I went at 12.30pm on a weekday and brave the queue with slightly more than 20 persons in front of me. Surprisingly, I queued for just 25 minutes as the service, including ordering, cooking and cutting the parts, was quick.

Menu

Using tongs instead of hand as it is hot

Cai Chuan Tou Mutton Soup as its name suggests specialises in mutton soup. They sell a whole range of mutton meat/parts ranging from meat, ribs, meatballs, tendon, stomach to even the most exotic part, the brain! Since I did not know what to order, wanted to try as many variety as I could without feeling brave enough to try the brains, I decided to go for the Mutton Mixed Bowl.

Mutton Mixed Bowl

Mutton Mixed Bowl

The Mutton Mixed Bowl consisted of meat, meatballs and stomach. The Mutton Soup was lightly flavoured and had a very very mild herbal taste. Interestingly, despite the mild flavours, there was no pungent gamey taste of mutton in the soup. As for the mutton meat, it was tender. In fact, I noticed that mutton ribs were also given and for the ribs, their meat were practically folk tender! As for the mutton meatballs and stomach, there was nothing much to shout about as I felt that there was not much taste in the meat. In fact, everything tasted so light and was so mildly flavoured. This is coming from a guy who does not like salty food or extremely sweet stuff.

If you are keen to try this, be there early as I heard that they can close as early as 1.30pm when they sell out all the parts.

(Read with a pinch of salt or two) Personally, I do not understand the hype and why the stall has gotten the Michelin Bib Gourmand award while others have not. The unique selling point I felt was more towards price. It is so cheap!  Mutton dishes are typically more expensive elsewhere. For mutton soup, I prefer Ivy's Hainanese Herbal MuttonSoup version.

Cai Chuan Tou Mutton Soup 柴船头羊肉汤 (Bukit Merah View Food Centre)

#01-51 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

115 Bukit Merah View

Singapore 151115

Opening Hours: Mon to Sat 11am – 2.30pm

                          Closed on Sun



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Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup 海南药材羊肉汤 (Pasir Panjang Food Centre)

I never though that I would set foot in Pasir Panjang Food Centre due to its ulu (i.e. out of the way) location. One day, when I had the opportunity to visit the food centre, I spent a consideration amount of time searching the internet and even walking around the stalls 3 times. All this so that I can make the most out of this trip and eat the best food. 

Herbal Mutton Soup with Mee Sua and Egg 

Since I was there during the day time, there were limited choices. In the end, I settled for Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup 海南药材羊肉汤. This was a risky choice and the type of dish which "you would either love it or hate it". Also, it is an extremely hard dish to execute as evident from the number of such stalls in hawker centres, food courts, coffeeshop or even restaurants. 

As its name suggests, the stall specializes in Chinese style Herbal Mutton Soup, to be more specific, Hainanese style. The owner of the stall, Max has been running the stall for 9 years and it was previously located at Kim Keat Palm Market and Food Centre at Toa Payoh Lorong 7. 

Menu

 There were other dishes available such as tendon, lamb shank and tulang soup.

Herbal Mutton Soup with Rice $10.50

I settled for the the Herbal Mutton Soup with a bowl of rice $10.50. The Herbal Mutton Soup was served in clay pot. This was a smart tactic as it ensured that the ingredients and the broth were kept warm for a longer period of time. You would not like to drink your soup cold do you? Soup lovers will understand this. 

The Herbal Mutton Soup very well executed. As you can see from the photo and video, many different types of ingredients such as wolfberries, red dates, dang gui, black fungus, tau pok and beancurd skin were added. I love the flavourful, rich and robust herbal broth. Moreover, the mutton meat and ribs were tender and more importantly, had no pungent gamey taste. This was because Max had marinated the mutton with fermented red yeast and seared them in oil during the preparation stage.

Herbal Mutton Soup with Mee Sua and Egg $11

I went back again on another occasion as this was just too good. This time, I tried the Herbal Mutton Soup with Mee Sua and an egg $11. The broth quality was the same as my first visit. The inclusion of the Mee Sua was a good idea as the silky mee sua had soaked up and was coated with the broth. May be on my next visit, I should just dump my whole rice into the broth! 

Oh boy, I had no regrets eating this! This is the best mutton soup ever! Definitely a must try! If you are someone hates the gaminess taste in mutton, you should give this a try!

Ivy's Hainanese Herbal Mutton Soup 海南药材羊肉汤 (Pasir Panjang Food Centre)

121 Pasir Panjang Road 

Stall 14, Pasir Panjang Food Centre 

Singapore 118543 

Tel: +65 8452 3094 

Opening Hours: Mon to Sat 11.30am to 9pm 

                          Closed on Sun

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