The Herbal Bar, Tanjong Pagar MRT Xchange, Singapore
As I've done many times before, I ordered the Herbal Bar's Signature Ginseng Chicken Soup set (with fluffy mixed rice and green Chinese vegetables). This time however, reaching mid-tide line in my bowl, I discovered hidden treasure just below the broth's surface. I carefully moved aside the enoki net and red date floats to take a closer look. The object, organic, was thicker than my thumb, and criss-crossed with teeth marks like a chainsaw-bitten tree stump. Hmmm...kinda like something you'd expect to find in your soup if you'd ordered the mixed bean and lotus root soup; kinda like a pig's knuckle.
I marched to the counter with my food tray in front of me, lungs puffed, ready to make noise. I made it very clear that if there is pork in the Ginseng Chicken Soup, it should be listed with the other the ingredients. The girl serving strongly responded to my peeve, stating "there is no pork in chicken soup, only chicken". I asked her to look at the bone. "Yes", she said "it is chicken thigh bone". "No", I replied, "it is a pork bone." I held up the knuckle with my chopsticks, and asked her to take a closer look at it. "Yes, chicken thigh" she said, satisfied the knuckle I was waving in her face was indeed from a bird (albeit the size of an emu).
I narrowed my eyes and asked, "can you *honestly* say that this bone looks like it came from a chicken? You know it is pork!" Stifling a smile - possibly a giggle, the girl finally conceded, "Okay, so what you want? You want another soup?"
I'm sad about this experience, as there are few Chinese restaurants that serve such healthy variations of traditional soups, and without pork in the broth...I guess the Herbal Bar is no exception :-(
