JB Hawker Wakes Up At 3am Daily To Drive To His S’pore Stall Selling Shiok Sea Bass Soup From 6am
We’ve heard many stories about how tiring being a hawker can be. The job is tedious, hours gruelling, and getting proper rest is often a luxury. So, we can’t imagine the exhaustion Jimmy Koh, 40, who commutes daily from Johor Bahru to his Tai Seng kopitiam stall in Singapore called JB Old San Huan, where he sells Teochew kway teow pork soup and fish soup from 6am, must experience. Jimmy is also behind two stalls of the same name back home in Malaysia, which is popular with foodies in the know.
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
He starts his day at 3.20am
Jimmy, a work permit holder, lives 20 minutes from the JB customs checkpoint with his elderly mum, wife, and four-year-old son. He gets up at an ungodly 3.20am, spends about an hour driving to work, and by 5am he is at the stall.
“I prefer to take my time to prepare my ingredients as doing it hurriedly might affect the quality of my food,” the cheerful hawker tells 8days.sg. His older sister Irene Koh, a Singapore PR who helps out at the stall, joins him later at around 9am.
While Jimmy admits that the commute and early hours are tiring, he became accustomed to his new routine after two weeks. After all, he’s used to rising early as his JB stall, located in Taman Megah Ria area, begins operations at 6am too. His two JB stalls are run by his staff and his wife will occasionally oversee operations. Jimmy intends to continue helming the Singapore branch as he prefers to be more hands-on with his new businesses.
“I feel kway teow soup is best enjoyed in the early morning. The weather is cooler and the piping hot soup warms your stomach. Sometimes, before I open my JB stall at 6am, there are already people waiting outside the coffeeshop,” he says.
Goes to bed at 8.30pm nightly
If you’re wondering, Jimmy hits the sack at around 8.30pm, so he gets at least six hours of rest. The early opening hours work better for him as he can avoid getting stuck in traffic and paying ERP. This also allows him to end his day earlier — usually around 3pm — so he can head home and spend time with his family. “I was once caught in a jam at the Causeway for more than five hours ahead of a long weekend. I only got home after 8pm,” he laughs.
Though he has family in Singapore, relocating here is not on the cards. “My mum is in her 70s, so if anything happens to her at night, at least I’m around to take care of her. I don’t mind commuting to and from work, since I get to see my family every day,” he explains.
Started his first hawker biz aged 14
Jimmy has been in the hawker trade for more than 26 years. He started a wanton mee business with a friend in JB when he was just 14 and worked as a cook at Fei Fei Wanton Mee when he came to Singapore in 2000 at 17. Other stints include cook at a zi char stall and Kim Joo Guan bak kwa.
In 2012, he returned to JB in the hopes of starting his own hawker biz. When he learned that the founder of JB Old San Huan, which has been around since the ’80s, wanted to retire, Jimmy offered to continue the business and grow its legacy.
“I have been eating his kway teow soup for many years and I like it a lot, so I asked him to teach me to cook it,” says Jimmy, adding that he tweaked the recipe slightly. He opened his Taman Megah Ria stall in JB that same year, followed by his second outlet at Connoisseur Food Generation (FGJB) foodcourt, near the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex, in 2020.
In July 2023, he expanded across the Causeway. “I couldn’t find noodles that taste like our kway teow soup in Singapore, so I decided to bring my brand here. Many customers from Singapore like to eat kway teow soup and had asked me to open shop here too,” shares Jimmy.
Not everyone was supportive of his decision though.
“One of my sisters told me, ‘You’re not young anymore, you think you can take the long hours and commute?’ But I really wanted to introduce JB-style Teochew kway teow soup to Singaporeans. It’s not just about making money, I get a sense of satisfaction when I see people enjoying my food,” he says.
What is JB-style Teochew kway teow soup, anyway?
JB-style Teochew kway teow soup is kinda like our local soupy bak chor mee — noodles served with minced pork and a variety of pork cuts in robust cloudy broth. Jimmy’s version features rich pork bone soup, brimming with fresh ingredients like pork slices, liver, minced meat, fish ball and meatball. Customers can also pick from an assortment of ingredients like pork kidney, intestines, tendon, fish maw and oysters, to add to their noodles.
Though the kway teow soup in Singapore is made using the same recipe, it took Jimmy, who does all the cooking at his Tai Seng stall, about three weeks to perfect the taste.
“I found the shop space very quickly, so I didn’t have time to R&D with ingredients from local suppliers before opening," he says.
Coffeeshop in Tai Seng has Malaysia vibes
Home for JB Old San Huan’s first Singapore outpost is at a corner coffeeshop along Upper Paya Lebar Road, just five minutes’ walk from Tai Seng MRT station. Jimmy invested around S$20K to start his stall.
There is a rustic charm about the kopitiam. The open-air area, with its zinc roof and a few Malaysian cars parked by the side, gives off the kampong vibe of a Johor eatery. But the location, while rather charming – to us, at least – and apt for Jimmy’s offerings, doesn’t get very good footfall, according to the boss. Apart from the initial crowd of customers due to some media coverage when it first opened, business has been below expectations.
“As you can see, we don’t get many customers here in the morning. There’s only a crowd during lunch,” says Jimmy. “I should have done proper research on the location before opening here. I’ll just treat this as a chance to familiarise myself with the operations. I might consider relocating when my one-year lease is up.”
The menu
There are six soupy offerings, including the signature Teochew Kway Teow Soup ($4.50), Teochew Sliced Fish Soup ($7), and Teochew Fish Head Soup ($9). Each comes with your choice of rice or noodles (six types). There is also Teochew Dry Noodles ($4.50) and add-ons like fresh pork kidney, intestines, and fish maw are available from $1.
Teochew Kway Teow Soup, $4.50 (8 DAYS Pick!)
The Teochew kway teow soup reminds us of Bedok-style bak chor mee with its cloudy soup, thick with minced pork. Instead of pre-cooking the mince, Jimmy cooks raw meat by tossing it furiously in hot broth. According to Jimmy, this brings out the sweetness from the pork and enhances the soup.
Made by simmering pork bones and ikan bilis for at least six hours, the soup is robust and infused with pork flavour. It brims with perfectly-cooked ingredients like seasoned sliced pork, pork liver, fish cake, fishball, and meatballs. We especially enjoy the creamy liver and handmade fishballs. Though a little small, the orbs, made with yellowtail flesh, are springy with a subtle brininess.
At Jimmy’s recommendation, we tried the handmade fish maw (extra $2), which the towkay dried himself. Extracted from sea bass, the fish maw adds an umami layer to the soup. He also sells dried fish maw at the stall at $38 for a pack (around eight large pieces) if you prefer to cook it yourself.
Teochew Dry Noodles, $4.50
You can have your choice of ‘white’ (original) or ‘black’ (with dark soy sauce) noodles, which come with the same fixings and a larger-than-usual bowl of soup. We opt for the white version. Tossed with an umami blend of Jimmy’s hae bee-spiked chilli and fish sauce, amped up with aromatic fried lard, our mee pok is nicely springy and has a spicy kick. But we personally prefer your typical Singaporean-style dry bak chor mee with lots of vinegar, so this was a little underwhelming for us.
Teochew Sliced Fish Soup, $7 (8 DAYS Pick!)
Don’t be fooled by its name. This tastes nothing like the light and clear Teochew-style fish soup that is typically found in Singapore. Cooked with salted vegetables, salted plum bits, slivers of ginger, tomatoes and tofu, Jimmy's version is robust and slightly brownish in colour. It gets its brown hue from powdered dried sole fish that is added to pork bone broth.
We were pleasantly surprised by how flavourful the soup was. Reminiscent of the gravy found in Teochew-style steamed fish, it has the right balance of sour, savoury and sweet. Very comforting and appetising.
Teochew Fish Head Soup, $9
If you love fish head, go for this good-value bowl loaded with around 10 sizeable chunks of sea bass. Ours came with tail, cheek and even eye, which are gelatinous and meaty. And if you are lucky, you can score the hearty bowl for $7. “If we manage to get fish at a cheaper price, we will pass the savings to our customers by selling it at $7,” shares Jimmy. Our only gripe is biting into fish scales left on the sea bass, which can be annoying.
Bottom line
Although the tasty, comforting Teochew kway teow pork soup is the stall’s signature dish, the real gem here is the awesome sea bass soup. It tastes like a soupier, more slurpable version of the classic Teochew steamed fish dish. Fresh, piquant and appetite-whetting. Worth a trip, especially if you’re an early bird.
Listen Now
Related Stories
Shopping
