Singapore Midtown Lunch - Oodles of Noodles

My entire family has been stricken by the mycoplasma bacterium (factoid: this sucker has no cell wall so penicillin doesn't work on it).  We are all on antibiotics of one kind or another (dictated by age group and allergies).  At 7 days into living here, I can give you better reviews of the Raffles Hospital Walk-In Clinic (good) and Children's Centre (fantastic) than the midtown lunch places...

My new boss continues to tease me about the weather and my commitment to learn to live with it.  He is originally from Malaysia, but only eats at air-conditioned venues or brings back food to the office, which is nicely A/C'd.  Thus, as an act of stubbornness on my part (and also because the rest of my colleagues eat there, and because Connie is home sick and not here to accompany me for lunch, AND because takeaway is 20-30 cents extra!, and because I think my sweat glands WILL adjust imminently) I went back to LauPaSat Festival Market to sample some more exotica sans A/C.  Today was a bit rainy and cool and I was not nearly as hot and sweaty as Monday so I opted for soup.  My teammates headed straight back to their usual Indian food stall and left me to wander with instructions to only eat where there is already a line formed and waiting...
Xin Xiong Ji (stall #74) lists about 5 items on the menu - Fish ball Noodle Soup, Prawn Noodle Soup, Minced Meat Noodle Soup, Laksa (spicy Malaysian noodle soup), and Mini Wok Noodle/Rice.  I am not sure what that last one is (picture showed 3 bowls - soup, noodles, rice), but at $4.50 just seemed too out-of-budget - hey, if I am going to sweat, at least I shouldn't be paying much for it.
I am pretty sure the rest of the people in front of me ordered something completely off-menu and much better-tasting than the standard selection - I think this because the head chef (old guy standing in front of 4 boiling pots tossing noodles and broth and other ingredients like some crazed juggler) seemed to take longer on their dishes and did more flashy things with his ladle.  I went for Prawn Noodle Soup at SGD$3.50.  I discovered too late that I had not followed the assembly line correctly and neglected to collect utensils (chop sticks and plastic spoon), and a small plastic container which you can then fill up with all sorts of condiments from the counter.  By that point I had a heavy bowl of hot soup to carry and I was just lucky that another person in line was good enough to supply me with utensils - the line was now too thick to penetrate for the condiments.  With heavy feelings of loss over condiments not to be tried and reviewed (possibly the lost highlight of the meal) I sulked away to find a free table to sit with my colleagues: chicken biriyani again - I now assume I will see them with this very meal every single time I follow them to LauPaSat).
The broth was reminiscent of Cantonese noodle soups in NYC, the noodles slightly thicker and bouncier than the ones I'm used to (handmade fresh on premises, supposedly).  The soup had two boiled prawns.  Not sure what made it a prawn soup, as there were two of many other ingredients - fish cake slices, pork, etc.  Without the imagined extraordinary condiments, the soup felt bland - and yet still mildly satisfying.  At least I didn't need a napkin/tissue to wipe rivulets of sweat today.  In order to properly investigate the foodstuffs in this madhouse of a food court, I need to bring Connie with me so we can sample more dishes per visit.  Today I discovered that there are even more stalls than I thought, as the outer walls also offer pockets of food-serving locations; this food court is like an inside-out sushi roll.
A least I can look forward to dinner - I plan to try the Pig Organ Soup counter at the Kopitiam food court (A/C included) near our temporary apartment... and sample whatever the rest of my family is having too!