This open air cze cha place (55 Tiong Bahru Road #01-59) was recommended not long ago and is apparently frequented by celebrities from time to time. I was quite surprised when we arrived to find huge tanks of all sorts of live creatures, including Alaskan King Crab and snow crab (wow - I don't think I've ever seen those in Singapore before...has anyone been watching The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel recently, BTW?). And while many Chinese restaurants often have a couple tanks too, the water at those places often look stagnant with the seafood all the more lifeless. This place's tanks, on the other hand, looked vibrant and fresh. I was impressed.
Now, we didn't go for any of the Alaskan King Crab, but we did get a number of the usual local seafood specialities, including cereal prawns, chili crab, and black pepper crab. None of those blew me away, but they were all definitely above average. One interesting variant that I had for the first time though was salted egg crab, which gave it an interesting (and not entirely unwelcome) twist in the taste. I'm not sure if this is a speciality unique to these guys or not, but it sure doesn't seem very common compared to its chili and pepper counterparts.
Well, one thing that these guys are apparently known for is their prawn paste chicken, which came out piping hot and crispy. And while these were good, I think I prefer the taste of Ice Cold Beer's chicken though, which are a bit more subtle in taste. I'm told that these guys have a number of other specialities like hot plate tofu and frog legs with chicken essence, but we didn't get to try those tonight. Maybe one of these days on the way home from the office we can stop by again, especially since they are open until 5 AM or something.
7 comments:
A suggestion to try Au Petit Salut at Jln Merah Saga. The set lunch is only $22+++ and it's overall good value for money. Loved the desserts. But the place is usually packed so need to reserve seats.
Is this the Tze char place just beside the bus stop?
If you like Salted Egg Crab, try YanQing Shanghainese Kitchen in Bukit Timah road beside your favourite piper pie shop :) But not everything is nice there, try those highly recommended ones. BTW, call them up to check if they still serve salted egg crab, their menu changes from time to time. Tel : 64632989
Hi BMA,
This is a very popular place, well-known for its fresh seafood. They also have this bamboo clam dish, served with lots of garlic that I think you will like.
I love the taste of salted egg with prawns, crabs and squid! I've tried them at Imperial Treasure restaurant, great world city and takashimaya.
Again, I've really enjoyed your blog.
Went here many years ago in the 1990s. The standard of the food here has dropped. A nice cze char place is at Forture Seafood Steamboat along Bukit Timah Road. That place is good for the herbal chicken and the prawn paste chicken. Again, I like reading your blog.
First time I had chilli crab here it was sooo good. Spicy but not overly so, gravy was eggy and not starchy. Second time which was just last week however, was a disappointment. Could not taste anything but chilli, we all (regular chilli crab and chilli eaters) burnt our tongues and drank lots of cold water and still felt burning..
Their tze char dishes were good though, pretty good hokkien mee.
I was goggling on food when i chanced upon ur blog. visited this place before too and had my reunion dinner there. Nothing but praises for them. Maybe u wld like to try out some of my recommendations. Like 1) fried udon 2) elephant clam sashimi but this will set u back by 70-110 bucks 3) honey grilled chicken 4) baby squids, a bit salty but with rice it's still fine. 5) the steam fish is nice and fresh, i duno which fish i had but it's HK style steam fish. 6) black pepper fish slice with bitter gourd
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