Fish soup bee hoon has been available since at least the 1920s;^[2] one source credits Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House with creating the "definitive version" of the dish in the 1970s.^[3]

Snakeheads are most commonly used for fish soup bee hoon.^[4] Other stalls may offer pomfret, batang,^[1] or garoupa.^[5] While fish heads or the whole fish may be used, some diners prefer having just fish slices. The fish soup is made out of either fish stock^[4] or actual bones,^[6] water, oil, yam,^[7] and milk,^[8][a] with vegetables^[4] and select fruits.^[7]

The noodle in the soup is often bee hoon, although a healthier alternative except for irritable bowel syndrome sufferers would be spaghetti made from brown rice.^[10] Another noodle variant would be fried noodles.^[11] Additional ingredients include eggs,^[9] anchovies, pepper, salt,^[12] and alcoholic products such as brandy,^[4] Chinese wine,^[6] or cognac,^[13] chilli slices, fried shallots, and fish roe.^[5] For the vegetarian version of the dish, fish meat is substituted with tofu.^[14]

The fish is boiled and added to a bowl of fish soup.^[4] The fish may also be fried.^[4] The soup is boiled for about twenty minutes,^[7] though a broth made from fish or pork bones boiled for several hours is sometimes used as a base.^[1][12][6] The dish is served hot.^[15]

Grace Chen of The Star writes that fish soup bee hoon is "to Singaporeans what the char kway teow is to Penangites".^[16] Catherine Ling of CNN describes fish soup bee hoon as one of the "40 Singapore foods we can't live without".^[4] Jin Hua Fish Head Bee Hoon was named the best fish soup bee hoon store in Singapore by Time Out Singapore in 2012.^[17]

• List of soups

• MobileReference (2007). Travel Singapore: Illustrated Travel Guide, Phrasebook, and Maps. MobileReference. ISBN 9781605010151.^{[permanent dead link]}