Hock Seng Choon Fish Ball 
From Singapore Hotels & Singapore Lifestyle
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Hock Seng Choon Fish Ball has been around for 40 years serving some of the best Fishball Noodles in Singapore.
The stall is owned by 70-year-old Mr Hon Pin, who has made fishballs for the last 41 years. Nonetheless, the man himself admits that it is a challenging task.
"It takes a long time to make them. We work from 6.00am to about midnight or 1.00am," he says in Mandarin. "If I don't continue to make them by hand, the customers will be unhappy."
Mr Hon, who started his noodles stall, Hock Seng Choon Fish Ball, in Frankel Avenue in 1965, now has customers who span three generations.
To cater to all these hungry folks, he opened a factory in Jalan Ishak in 1992 to make fishballs with the help of his two daughters. Although production has been semi-automated since 1970, much of the work is still done by hand - all for the stall's own use.
Mr Hon shuttles between factory and stall, where another daughter helps man it, each day.
It's a busy life, and Mr Hon is constantly devising ways to improve the quality of his fishballs. Although factories use artificial means to keep the ingredients together but which make the fishballs hard and unappetising, Mr Hon's hand-made creations are nonetheless springy. Mr Hon says he is unsure that his success is due solely to his fishballs, saying that he does not know why it's so popular.
But Mr Hon, being the perfectionist that he is, says, "I want to keep working as long as I can, and continue to make my own fishballs."
Visitors' Information
- Location: Block 16, Bedok South Road, #01-211, Singapore
- Opening Hours: noon to 11.00pm, except Wednesdays
References
- "Fishballs made by hand", L25, Taste, The Sunday Times, August 13 2006
