Customer Finds Hook In Fish Soup From Amoy Street Food Centre, Stall Owner Apologises

Customer Notices Rusty Hook In Fish Soup After Almost Finishing Her Food

Fish soup is much loved by Singaporeans, but it apparently comes with a hidden danger if workers aren’t careful enough.

Fish hooks might go unnoticed during preparation, and end up in the bowls of customers.

This, unfortunately, happened to a woman who bought fish soup from a popular stall in Amoy Street Food Centre.

The stall’s owner has apologised for what happened.

Rusty hook found in fish soup bought from Amoy Street Food Centre on 9 May

On 9 May, the customer, named only as Ms Zhang (transliterated from Mandarin), heard to Amoy Street Food Centre for lunch, reported Shin Min Daily News.

At about 1pm, the 36-year-old accountant ordered fish soup for herself.

She intended to bring it back to her workplace to consume.

As Ms Zhang ate her lunch, she didn’t immediately find anything amiss. It was only when she’d swallowed up all the fish meat and reached the bottom of the bowl that she found an unknown black object.

At first, she thought it was fried shallots and didn’t give it much thought.

However, upon closer inspection, she realised it was a fish hook — and worse still, it was rusty.

“I couldn’t figure out why there was a fish hook in my soup, and why it was rusty,” she said.

Customer makes report to the authorities

Instead of going back to the stall to inform them, Ms Zhang decided to make a report to the authorities.

While the stall was not named, she said it’s quite a famous one, with long queues every day.

She has no intention of asking for compensation, she told Shin Min, but brought up the matter to raise awareness.

She hopes the stall operators will pay more attention to food safety as the consequences would be disastrous if somebody had swallowed the hook.

Stall owner apologises for hook in fish soup

When approached by Shin Min over this incident, the stall owner was shocked and apologised profusely.

He said they had occasionally found hooks hidden in the fish’s gills when preparing ingredients.

That’s why they’re usually extra careful when cleaning the fish heads.

So this is the first time that something like this has happened in their 40 years of business, he claimed.

Admitting their negligence, he apologised to the diner and said he would offer her another bowl or a refund as compensation.

Fortunately, she didn’t swallow the hook, he added.

He noted that the authorities also visited the stall for checks and promised to be more careful next time.

Other similar cases

This isn’t the first time a hook has been found in fish soup served in Singapore.

In December 2022, a customer found a large hook in her fish soup bought from a Bishan hawker stall.

In Malaysia, a woman found a hook in her fish head curry.

When we dine outside, there’s always a slight risk of strange objects in our food, so perhaps it’s wise to take a little care when we gulp it down.

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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News and Google Maps.