Ding Xin Seafood Jurong West Fishmonger: Open 5 am, Deboned

Ding Xin Seafood is a family fish stall inside Jurong West Market, at 505 Jurong West Street 52, #01-140, Singapore 640505. It keeps market hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 5 am to 12 pm, and closed on Monday and Tuesday. If you live in the west and want fish that has been scaled, filleted and fully deboned by people who do it all morning, this is the stall regulars queue at before work.

The family describes itself as third-generation fishmongers. Doris is the third-generation stall owner, Mike, the dad, works the stall with her, and their children Xavier and Krystal are part of the business. The stall is registered as a sole proprietorship from March 2016, but the name everyone knows today comes from what happened in May 2020, when wet markets were hit by the circuit breaker and regulars could no longer drop by.

Xavier photographed every fish, taught himself web design and launched dingxinseafood.com within a month. Mothership featured him in 2020 as a 19-year-old fishmonger, and TheSmartLocal and Channel U's Neighbourhood Fixer followed. The online shop has now been running for six years, but the heart of the business is still a market stall with wet floors, steel tables and a family who knows most customers by face.

Boneless fillets are what sets the stall apart. Its own line is that it fillets and debones fish when other stalls will not, which matters if you cook for children or older parents. You can choose a standard cut, child chunks, slices, steak cut, butterfly cut, or fully filleted and deboned. Fillets above 1kg can be split into four separate packets, and vacuum sealing costs S$0.10 per fillet, handy if half is going straight into the freezer.

Sea bass, or barramundi, fillet starts from S$5.00 for a small 150g to 200g portion, the easiest weeknight fish for pan frying with a little salt. Salmon trout fillet starts from S$8.00, and cod fish fillet from S$22.00, with cod steak from S$18.00 for 200g. Cod is the indulgence here; steam it with soy, ginger and spring onion and resist the urge to add anything else.

For whole fish, the local favourites are all here. Whole black pomfret of 400g to 700g starts from S$7.50, cheap and very good deep fried until the fins crackle. Chinese pomfret of 400g to 800g starts from S$18.00, the classic choice for Teochew-style steaming with salted vegetable and tomato. Whole red snapper of about 500g to 600g starts from S$13.50 and makes a fine assam or curry fish for a family.

Two less obvious buys are worth knowing. Threadfin bones, a 500g pack for S$12.50, make a sweet, milky fish soup base for very little money; simmer them hard with ginger and strain. Atlantic salmon belly of 300g to 400g is S$14.00 and limited to two per order, which tells you how quickly it goes. For a mixed freezer stock-up, the Whole Fish Pack sells at S$50.00.

The stall also handles shellfish. Tiger prawns start from S$11.50 and Grade A ang kar prawns, the red-shelled local favourite for prawn noodle soup and sambal, start from S$16.50. If you are hosting a steamboat, buy prawns here on Saturday or Sunday morning together with fish slices, and ask the family to slice a firm white fish thinly so it cooks in seconds in the broth.

This is an early-morning stall, and the best choice is at dawn when the ice is freshly stacked. Arrive in the first couple of hours after the 5 am opening if you want a particular whole fish, and say what you are cooking so the cut suits the dish. Because the counter closes at noon, a late-morning visit risks thin pickings, and there is no point turning up on a Monday or Tuesday.

Online ordering is the other route, and the rules are clear. Order by 10 pm for the next delivery day; deliveries run Wednesday to Sunday between 11 am and 4 pm, depending on your area. Orders of S$75 and above get free delivery, and smaller orders pay S$10. Self collection is free before 12 pm with no minimum. Because fish is weighed after cutting, you pay the final total over WhatsApp by PayNow, PayLah, bank transfer or CDC vouchers.

Delivery days depend on where you live. The West, Central and North East areas get drops from Wednesday to Sunday, the South, South Central and East get Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and the North gets Thursday and Saturday. If you are in the East and want fish for a Saturday dinner, order by Thursday night for a Friday drop, then keep it in the coldest part of the fridge.

The market sits on the ground floor of the Blk 505 market and hawker centre, so breakfast is a staircase away from your fish. Grab kopi and a plate of something fried, then do your fish order last so it travels home cold. Lakeside MRT on the East-West Line, at 201 Boon Lay Way, is about ten minutes on foot, and Boon Lay Shopping Centre at 221 Boon Lay Place is close by for groceries.

With a little more time, Jurong Lake Gardens at 100 Yuan Ching Road is the obvious detour, with lakeside boardwalks, a large nature playground and shaded paths. Go before the heat builds, then pick up your fish on the way back so it never sits in a hot car. On weekends the gardens fill with families by mid-morning, which is one more reason to start the day at the stall at 5 am.

Ding Xin Seafood is at 505 Jurong West Street 52, Market #01-140, Singapore 640505, open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 am to 12 pm and closed on Monday and Tuesday. Free delivery applies from S$75. New customers can use the code FIRSTORDER for S$5 off orders of S$65 or more. Prices here are from dingxinseafood.com.