Packed with the goodness of Chinese herbs, the soup is as warming as it is nutritious for those seeking something to strengthen their immune system. A bowl of herbal duck soup noodle is a satisfying meal on a cold rainy day when you are craving something warm, fragrant and flavourful.

A bowl of this fragrant herbal soup usually consists of tender braised duck meat served with mee sua or noodles and garnished with spring onions.

The soup is known as a powerful pick-me-up due to the Chinese herbs such as tong sum, tong kui and ginseng is used in preparing the soup. Other than the herbs, the soup is sweetened with the addition of dried red dates and some wolfberries, also believed to strengthen the immune system and improve eyesight.

The duck meat is double boiled along with the herbs resulting in a flavourful soup with the herbs effectively cutting out the duck’s gamey aroma, thus resulting in a herbal soup with just the slightest hint of the duck.

Since some people are put off by duck meat, duck soup noodle hawker stalls in Penang often serve a variation of the herbal soup with chicken thigh noodles or pork noodles instead of duck.

The soup base is often the same – double boiled herbs – while the meat is different so it could be the milder chicken, the bolder duck  or the meatier pork.

Each bowl is served the same way, with pieces of the duck, chicken or pork, a generous serving of the silken soft noodles or rice noodle, some wolfberries and a sprinkle of chopped spring onions.

You can also order just the soup and some stalls offer the option of serving the soup with a bowl of rice, if you prefer.

Here are the stalls to try out in George Town.

Roadside Stall @ Jalan Sungai Pinang (7:30am-12noon)

Restaurant 77 Food Yard @ Jalan Burma (7:30am – 12noon)