The Seafood Paradise Restaurant

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant
91 Defu Lane
10 Swee Hin Building
Tel: 6487-2429

I think I just discovered another weekend hideout for Singaporeans. Located deep in Defu industrial park is this 200+ seater restaurant called Seafood Paradise…the seafood phenomenon. The older sibling of Taste Paradise, this place has found success with its live seafood and its signature creamy butter crab, which sauce is best mopped up with deep fried man tous… in other words, it got Singaporeans excited about their rendition of bread and butter.


Creamy butter crab

This was my first visit to Seafood Paradise and it was introduced by my cousins. My brother on the other hand had been there with my cousins, and his first reaction upon his return visit was, “it was a lot crummier the last time we came here!” In fact, even the menus have had an upgrade from a laminated piece of paper to a proper full colour print menu.

There is an air-conditioned section of the restaurant, but most dine in the alfresco area under the stars along a wall lined with palmed trees. The waiting time for a table will be brisk, an estimate of 15 minutes, but once you are seated, brace yourself to wait for your food. We were prepared for a half hour wait, which the waitress confirmed with us when asked, but the actual wait was closer to 45 minutes, so be prepared to wait. During this time, you should either engage in conversations about politics, weather or whatever that will keep you occupied or you visit live fishes, frogs, crabs, prawns and lobster that are in the tank on death row. To have a good indication of when your food is coming, observe the tables next to you—especially if they had placed their orders before yours, once they have been served, your table should be served in the next 10 or so minutes.

As for the food, it was good value for money, but if you asked me about the whole experience, I don’t think the food was worth all that waiting and the anticipation skewed my judgment. The crab signature dishes such of creamy butter crab was too rich and sweet for me, but it comes with a sprinkling of deep fried crab roe that is wonderful to enjoy with the fried man tou, but I couldn’t stomach a lot of it without feeling je-lat. The crab in superior broth was good. Served with vermicelli, which does a doubly good job in absorbing flavours and giving royal appearance as if it were covered with shark’s fins. The broth was tasty and was initially met with glee but was a little overpowering after five spoonfuls. My favourite dish of that meal was its homemade beancurd in mini wok and pork floss, was soft and silky smooth and heightened by the pork floss on it. The other dishes that we had were ok, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was ok, I might come back, but I will first have to figure out how to beat the crowd.



*See the whole set here.

Maxwell Market - Maxed on Rice

Usually on a weekday, I try to watch the amount of carbohydrates I have for lunch as a preemptive for the next few hours at my work desk would be an uphill struggle. So since it was the weekend and there was nothing much planned for the rest of the day other than to stretch out on the bed after lunch to recharge for the next week, the limited carbohydrate rule didn’t stand but what took place for lunch today was a little too extreme.

I went to Maxwell and I totally maxed out on rice, 3 very delicious portions of it. The first was hainanese curry rice with a portion of pork chops. The pork chops were well seasoned and crisp, but I prefer the thick curry combination at Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice where it was thicker and richer. The second tasting portion of rice was claypot rice. Wonderful crunchy bits of burnt rice wearing a rich gloss of dark sauce with fresh tasting pieces of chicken and slices of sweet lup cheong, yummy! Finally, we had chicken rice from madam foo’s Tian Tian Chicken Rice stall, which legendary in terms of the number of accolades that she has gathered after for her 40 years of labour in this craft. Her chicken is succulent and has a lovely layer of jelly inbetween its skin and meat and the chilli is very punchy.

Rice, rice and more rice: Hainanese curry rice with pork chops, claypot rice and chicken rice. “Have you eaten you rice?”

Crab Shack

Crab Shack
227 Upper Thomson Road
(Opposite McDonalds)
Tel: 9451-9040



By day this place is a dark and undistinguished coffee shop that sells economic rice but come sunset, it magically transforms into a brightly-lit bustling family-run crab shack.
Serving up fresh crab delicacies, this hole-in-the-wall unit is unpretentious and is solely focused on what they know best, crabs, more specifically, fresh flower crabs.

Lining the walls of the upper “deck” are photos of their family excursions to their supplier’s kelong, where they source their sweet fresh crabs. And when it comes to seafood, nothing beats freshness, it is either fresh or it should be cast away.

If you are a purist when it comes to crabs, you will be delighted to know that they serve it in KFC menu style—2 piece, 3 piece or 8 piece value meal—where you choose the number of crabs you wish to consume accompanied by your choice side of fries, corn or baked beans. Other items of the menu include crabbed baked rice, which is deliciously stuffed with fresh crabmeat and the crab spaghetti, which tasted like an interesting rendition of an aglio olio made with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.

My verdict on this place is that it is an absolute keeper. Very affordable for a crab binge or gorge since an 8 piece value meal would only set you back $21.95 and their crab baked rice is worth coming back for.

Pork Chop!

Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice
Hock Lian Hin Eating House
Blk 116 Bukit Merah View #01-253
Closed on Alternate Tuesdays



Hainanese pork chops. Dusted with a fluffy coat of breadcrumbs, the end result is a crisp casing that protects a succulent slice of pork inside. Straight out of the hot oil, the crunchy pieces of pork of first cut into thin strips and then dressed with a mixture of savoury sauces such as curry sauce and a soy sauce based sauce.

I think fusion food has taken place longer than we have figured. The Hainanese chefs that served the British the past were masters at marrying local and foreign flavours and created a range of Chinese-styled western food. One creation in particular that I really like is the Hainanese pork chops.







What better way to enjoy this locally concocted dish than at a kopitiam (coffee shop), with plates of lavishly multi-curry covered rice. This stall take their curries seriously, I watched them as they plated out rice. The lady in charge of the rice and curry station first scoops out the rice then lowers her ladles into all the different pots of curries in front of her in varying proportions. How the curries differ, the proportions or the sequence that they should be ladled on, still eludes me. I reckon I would have to dine here everyday for a month before they would be willing to share with me some Hainanese family secrets, or they might simply remained tight-lipped. Although we ordered a whole load of dishes alongside the pork chops, the pork chops are the superstar, it was the only thing I remembered eating from that meal. It is so good that I got tired of simultaneously eating and keeping my eye on the rapidly depleting slices of pork chops on our communal plate of that I went back to the stall and ordered another plate. When they asked me what size I wanted, “small or large?” needless to say I promptly said, “large, please”.

Singapore my home, chicken rice our dish

Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice & Restaurant
275 Thomson Road
#01-05 Novena Ville
Tel: 62556396



While some Singaporeans were at the polls last Saturday deciding the future of our nation, I decided to perform a patriotic deed by eating our national dish, chicken rice. When it comes to chicken rice, fat is flavour. The only (damn) reason that the fragrant rice is so tasty is because of the rendered chicken fat that is added to the rice cooking liquid. Low-fat and healthier options such as white rice are now available but in my opinion, if you do so, the whole meal is a little as tak shiok. Part of the whole ritual in eating this dish is smothering your cream-coloured chicken fat laced rice with ribbons of sweet dark soy sauce, chilli sauce and pounded ginger and to mix it all together, matching flavour for flavour. Imagine if you opted for white rice, all you will have then is rice + dark soy sauce + chilli sauce + pounded ginger that’s just not as fun (really, I’ve tried the healthy route and I’ve backtracked).





I, who would usually shun chicken rice because of the garlic-ginger taste that lingers and lingers and lingers, liked it so much that I’ve been there twice in 7 days (I’m not sure if I’m a convert yet) and so I would go out on a limb and say that this is one of the top 5 chicken rice stalls on our island. Other than the good chilli and the succulent chicken, the shui jiao (water dumpling with minced pork and prawns) is also a must have when I dine here, although don’t bother too much with the soup, just zero on for the bobbing dumplings in the soup. Another tip, if you aren’t too much of a rice fan, you can order a plate of noodles that will be dressed with the savoury chicken sauce, which are great to slurp on with the shui jiao and chicken.

It boils down to stock

River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodles
31 Tai Thong Crescent
Singapore 347859
Opening hours: 6.30am – 4.30pm
Not open once a month on Monday

When it comes to good cooking, it usually boils down to one basic thing, good stock. Skins, bones, shells and hard work are the building blocks for a good stock. It is a hell a lot easier to walk out and to purchase stock cube or concentrate but sometimes there is no real substitute, good food needs some commitment. Stock-making is one of the acts that I would perform to train my patience level and to learn that sometimes in our super-fast paced world there is some glory in delayed gratification.



Prawn noodle stock is actually a prawn-pork based stock that is made from boiling down pig’s tails, pork ribs, and prawn shells. River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodles is probably the best prawn noodles store we have. The stock at this stall is rich and sweet and terribly sinful. Simply put, liquid cholesterol never tasted this good. Perspiring from the heat, I bent over my bowl of noodles and alternated slurping down the chilli-laced noodles and spooning the flavoursome soup into my mouth (burning my tongue in the process). Lunch here was painfully delicious.

Cooking á la minute

Geylang Claypot Rice
659 Geylang Road, Lorong 33
Tel: 6744-4574
Opening hours: 5pm – 12am
(Closed on Monday)


(I apologise for the out of focus picture, it isn’t your eyes, it is my shaky hands and the lack of sidewalk light)

Packed to the brim with the tables lining the sidewalk and the back alley, this corner shop is the place for many claypot rice devotees. As I joined the many, I experienced that sitting on the sidewalk for dinner had its perils. The sidewalk pavement is rather narrow, so a rectangular table is much better than a circular one, but if you were like us, who sat around a circular table and at the tail end of a pavement where there was a slight slope, dinner becomes quite a balancing act between trying not to accidentally fall into the drain or onto the road, and keeping the table at equilibrium with the help of a tiny bottle cap to prevent plates to slide off the table. However, once we settled down and worked out the balance, it was all good, then all we needed was the food to arrive.

The average waiting time here is 30 minutes, non-negotiable. No compromised is made on the quality of food here, the rice is cooked from scratch once the order chit makes it to the kitchen, so, you will just have to be patient. The owner offered one other alternative the last time we walked in but didn’t have the time to wait, call them in advance and give them a heads up of what time you will arrive and they should be able to accommodate you.

Once the claypot arrived, the three of us quickly divided the work that had to be done. One person took charge of the scoop and started scooping the “toppings” off onto a side plate, my other dinner companion took charge of the oil and I took charge of the dark sauce. Together we worked together and very efficiently flavoured our rice, transferred the “toppings” back, and distributed the food. The defining feature of this claypot rice is the al-dente rice texture, with a slight resistance when you bite into it. The salted fish also flavours the rice and balances the sweetish lup-cheong that is scattered around the rice. Simply put, it is good rice.

The Sturgeon Quest

Sha Tin Kitchen
511 Geylang Road (off Lorong 27A)
Tel: 6747-2483



We set out on a quest to eat the sturgeon fish. The simple reason is, if the sturgeon as one of the most valued fishes in the world for its caviar producing nature, surely the flesh of the fish could not be bitter or terrible tasting. A while back we read a review about this slightly off the beaten road kitchen that served up some good family food and the egg-licious producing sturgeon fish.

This slightly non-descript kitchen sit along the long Geylang Road competing for attention alongside all the other fantastic food nooks around this area. This place has its own followings packing a full house on the weekend; it would be wise to make a reservation before making the trip.

There is a sense of humour in the menu that I appreciated, with an almost irreverent dish name like crouching tiger, hidden dragon, (lobster meat cooked with egg white and served on a potato nest) I simply could not resist ordering. Unfortunately, the dish sounded more exciting that it was, the lobster egg white mixture tasted a starchy and I could not quite detect the lobster at all. For the sturgeon dish, we opted for sturgeon stir-fried with eggplant. Thankfully this did not disappoint; the sturgeon fillets were first deep fried to create a crisp texture and the flesh of the fish was firm and sweet. However, other than that, the other dishes were not too extraordinary. The sturgeon adventure was a success, but I do not think I’ll be making another trip down here.

* Read colin’s from Only Slightly Pretentious Food review of Sha Tin Kitchen here, he dishes out better advice on what’s good here.

New Year, New Beginnings

After 2005, the Old Airport Road Emporium & Cooked Food Centre located at Blk 51 Old Airport Road, would be relocated just down the road from its original location. This Olympian sized food court housed many culinary gems that I only hope will not be lost after the upgrade. Here’s a little tribute to the stalls that I loved and (fingers-crossed) moved to the new complex instead of moving on to retirement.

Sin Bee Hiong Hokkien Lo Mee Prawn Mee
Previously at #01-127C



Certified by Makansutra with a triple chopstick grading, this Lor Mee sets the standard. The dark vicious gravy is hardly starchy and the crunch garnish of deep-fried and crumbled ang ko li (red snapper) bits, makes this humble dish rather spectacular.

Chuan Kee Satay
Previously at #01-123S


These meat sticks are dangerously addictive. After my first stick, I eyed the rest jealously, making sure that I got my equal share or more of the 2 dozen that we ordered. The meat is perfectly barbequed, the meat takes on the sweet marinade, remains succulent and takes on little burnt bits to provide some bitterness. And did I mention they came with a yummy pineapple satay sauce?

The battle of the Wantan Mee



Cho Kee Noodles
Previously at #01-113

vs.

Hua Kee Hougang Famous Wan Ton Mee
Previously at #01-113B

When I wandering into the far deep end of this eating complex, I found two famous wantan mee stalls -- judging from the number of newspaper articles, Channel U and Makansutra awards -- just stall or two away from each other Hua Kee had a long queue and Cho Kee had a digitised signboard that flashed numbers, summoning their customers forward to collect their bowls of noodles. Curious to see which was better, I bought one from each. I preferred the Cho Kee for its noodle texture, chilli and sauce, but wantan vs. wantan, Hua Kee’s wantans were better, Cho Kee’s was a little dry.

Matter Road Seafood & Barbeque
Previously at #01-131G

We had the chilli crabs from here, and the sauce was great, but the crabs were so-so. The stingray was wonderful and rightly torn apart and eaten under 5 minutes.

My Genie Gourmet
Previously #01-135

My dad groaned and complained about the queue when my mother queued up for some of their soon kueh, but he ate ALL of it for breakfast and did none for us. So I personally did not taste it, but it must have been good, no?

Mr Cook
Previously at #01-135C

The herbal chicken was fantastic. Falling off the bone, the meat melted in my mouth and the herbal chicken juices were slurpishly good.

Other very worthy stalls:

Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Prawn Mee
Previously at #01-115J

If you trust our makan guru See Toh, this is another tripe chopstick award winner.

To-Rico Guo Shi
Previously at #01-129D&E

So successful and popular, this double stall is hard to miss with the snaking human queue.

Toa Payoh Rojak
Previously at #01-125D

I haven’t been to the new place yet, but with a treasure chest of hawker gems, my next visit is not too far off.

“All we need is just a little patience”

As most of our Hawker centres are tragically begin replaced by cleaner and more uniformed white floored food courts, I hope Hong Lim Market & Food Centre and our remaining “old school” hawker/food centres will remain and never ever torn down and have another ultra modern glassy multi-story building with a white floored food court at the basement. Hong Lim Market and Food Centre is quite a treasure trove of good food – char kway teow, prawn mee, bak chor mee, hor fun, etc – all you need is a little patience and preferably a cool afternoon, with a breeze.

Outram Park Fried Kway Teow
Blk 531 A Upper Cross St.,
#02-18 Hong Lim Market & Food



Our lunch was had a char kway teow agenda, we were headed for the famous and relatively cheap Outram Park Fried Kway Teow. The wait is about 20-30 minutes, so get a table, place your order and then order nibbles from the other stalls to fill up the time in between. The char kway teow is worth the wait, the kway teow is silky and soft, the sauce is garlicky and sweet and the hum (cockles) that it comes with and super fresh. When you think about it, char kway teow is pretty much a poor man’s food, much like the pomodoro in Italy. With the pomodoro, they bulk it up with bread and the easily accessible produces like tomatoes, and for us, we add a cheap meat, the seahum. Nonetheless, our forefathers have all found a way to make food tasty, and this dish and numerous plates still consumed everyday.

Tai Wah Pork Noodles
(Opposite Outram Park Fried Kway Teow)



Other than the char kway teow, I made a beeline for the queue for the Tai Wah Pork Noodles stall, which is located opposite the bustling Outram Park Fried Kway Teow. The downside is that you have to stand in line for this award winning bowl of noodles. It can get rather hot, so what you can do (as I did), order a packet of sugar cane juice (or soya milk/chin chow) from the nearby stalls, and sip away to keep cool while standing in line. I watched the dance between the two stallholders: one takes the orders and assist the cook by keeping watch on the ingredients and topping them up when necessary. The other focuses the cooking with his all his moves - with a quick flick of his wrist, he adds the vinegar, chilli, sesame oil and lard – together they form a pretty well oiled noodle stall. The noodles were yummy. I think the secret of their success is in the vinegar, it was tart with a slight mellowness and the dumplings that came with it had a good skin-filling proportion.

The downside of these two stall is the wait, but if you have a little time, patience and a love for food, why not?

“All we need is just a little patience”
- Patience, Guns and Roses

Lady General and The Very Peppery Crabs

Eng Seng Restaurant
247 Joo Chiat Place
(Junction of Still Road and Joo Chiat Place)



In the name of good food, I will sometimes endure some abuse. Sometimes I think we, the customers, get bullied by the famed hawkers in our island. Two hawkers with a punchy character that comes to mind are, the Hokkien mee stall in chomp chomp, where an order for a plate will always be replied with, “30 minutes to 1 hour wait ah”, or Chef Danny at Sin Huat whom will make you sit around nursing your tiger beer before he come around from the kitchen to take your order. Service was never really their strongest aspect of their restaurant. In fact, most of the time I find myself at the mercy of these hawkers, having driven across the island with the end goal of fulfilling the craving of Hokkien mee, crabs or whatever, I will endure the madness. The best things to pack for these survival situations are engaging company and a good sense of humour.

This corner coffee shop serves up the best black pepper crabs. The crabs, which are usually sold out by about 9pm, are weighty and jammed packed with sweet and firm flesh, and come coated with a sticky, gooey, thick pepper sauce; think spicy black honey. Other than their trademark “very peppery crabs” that are sold here, it is hard to imagine this place without the fearless matrie’d that keeps the peace and customers in line with her thunder voice. I have not mustered up the courage to ask her for her name, or for her last name, so we just call her the lady general.

This place opens at 5pm, but it fills up and it will be full by 5.30pm, which means you will have to stand in line to wait for them to turn over the tables. While you stand in line, remember that you are on lady general’s turf. If you try to cut the line, she will scream at your and order you to the back of the line. When you stand in line and place your order, you can order what she permits -

Lady General: Hor fun, mee fen?
Us: Err, do you have hokkien mee?
Lady General: Hooor fun, meeee fen.
Us: Err .. how about ..
Lady General: HOR FUN, MEE FEN!
Us: ok, ok, mee fen.

On other occasions, she will stipulate how many crabs you can order. If it is later in the evening and the crab supplies are rapidly dwindling, she might cap your crab order, or if you are a party of 4 and want to order one crab, she will give you the look of death and instruct you to order more. When faced with these situations, just be the obedient Singaporean and comply, experience has told me that the fight is futile. When your table is ready, she’ll point you to it, and you can slowly meander through the tables and crowd to get there.

Despite having to stand in line, and to sometimes endure the abuse of this lady (I have seen a softer side to her after her service hour, when she has ushered the last customer to their table), the crabs still make the trip worth while. They serve both pepper crabs and chili crabs, which are both good, but I prefer the pepper crabs, because of the pepper paste that liberally slapped into the wok, and worked into the crabs. In addition, lady general has her own aura; her crowd control management skills are impeccable, adding some character to this corner coffee shop.

It's a Steamy Affair in this Basement

Chien Kee Steamboat
6001 Beach Road
Golden Mile Tower, #B1-20
Opening Hours: 11.30am - 10pm
(Everyday except Chinese Festive Seasons)

The old building didn’t seem to have much life as we entered it, but down in the basement, there is certainly a sign of life there. When I stepped out of the lift, all I could see were tables and more tables covered with raw food, satay, chicken and the hot steamboat. We walked around to try to find an empty table and the front desk so we could either register our name with the wait list or at least to get them to find us a table, but we tried to look for either a table or a person to help us, we uncovered that the restaurant is sprawled across the whole of the first basement: tables were lined up outside closed shops, tables were in vacant shops, and everywhere you looked there were tables, and more tables. There isn’t much of a system except those of nature: survival of the fittest. You have to be sharp and perceptive to place yourself in a strategic position to wait for a table that is about to finish, and make sure you mark out your territory, such that when others pass by, they know you are waiting and won’t prey on your table as well. Once you get your table, sit and wait patiently: there is some sort of system, once someone spots that you have got a table, they will come over, clear it, and take your orders.



Nosh: Raw food for steamboat is ordered in terms of fixed priced plates, all you determine is if you would want a seafood mix, or additional beef. In addition to the raw food that is served on really retro aluminum plates, you can order their Hainanese chicken rice and some satay to go along with your steamboat meal.

The steamboat food is fresh, but the range is limited, and so for a person like me who likes variety, it was too simplistic. However, the chicken rice, satay and the chili condiment was pretty fantastic. The rice is fragrant and is a wonderful base for the blander boiled foods that you cook in the steamboat, and so eaten together, it is a pretty well orchestrated symphony.

Pay: S$10-S$15 a person.

Service: Slow and generally not too friendly since they have about a hundred tables to deal with and so they are pretty glad to just do the job and turn the table around.

Side note: An interesting basement eating experience, but not to be repeated in the near future.