My family is always in search of good, reputable tze-char restaurants in Singapore as food served in such eateries tend to be more agreeable for everyone. Hence, if you guys and gals have any to recommend, please do not hesitate to let me know!
After that unforgettable dinner at JB Ah Meng in Geylang, we found ourselves back in Singapore's red light district but this time round, we would be checking out a new place that's literally a short walk from Aljunied MRT Station.
Penang Seafood Restaurant - the place was crowded and as we arrived later at the peak dinner time at about 6.35pm, there's a queue (along the super narrow walkway) and it was a wait of about 25-30 minutes before we secured a table in the air-conditioned premises.
Live crabs were available; however, the parents didn't join us and both my sisters were not too keen in crabs given the necessity to dirty their hands. Therefore, I didn't manage to try their signature, chef recommended chilli crab!
What else is recommended? Refer to the above! Did you notice something strange? For a restaurant named after Penang, none of the recommended dishes appeared to hail from Penang! And you know what's weirder? My family only ordered one chef-recommendation.....
Fried Sotong with Salted Egg- this would be the (only) chef-recommended dish and in a way, it didn't fail to meet our expectation with a rich and creamy salted egg sauce. Two problems though; too spicy for the kids and too rubbery for the adults with lazy jaws.
Giant Chives with Silver Sprosts - we had this at JB Ah Meng and in comparison, this was overly oily and didn't exhibit the wok-hei that JB Ah Meng did so well. Nevertheless, it's vegetables and should rightfully be healthier than meat dishes.
Jade Scallop Beancurd- especially for Jovyn. I usually take issue with bean curd dishes for two reasons; I prefer them deep-fried and in the form as above, the taste of bland yet bitter soya didn't quite appeal to me.
This was more like the egg-based bean curd which was smooth and nice even though I would like them to be lightly floured and grilled.
Mongolian Ribs King- they, to me, were just our common sweet and sour pork doused with pepper! Taste wise, it was a disappointment but to be fair, the meat was extremely tender.
Cereal Chicken - cereal prawns are the norm at tze-char restaurants/stalls and I don't think I have ever given cereal chicken a try!
Buried under a bed of cereal, you might have noticed that the pieces of chicken were also sitting on a bed of curry sauce that tasted almost like the iconic curry sauce for MacDonald's chicken nuggets!
The combination of cereal with curry was mind-boggling delicious and MacDonald's should consider having cereal-crusted nuggets with curry sauce dip! The pieces of chicken, sadly, weren't the main star of this dish and I eventually just mixed in the cereal and curry to my plain rice and gobbled up everything with 100% satisfaction.
Lala Hokkien Mee - Someone (could be the Great Kon) told me to try the lala Hokkien mee and I insisted on giving this unconventional dish a try.
Lala (known commonly as the clams) intensified the seafoodness and this plate of Hokkien mee was indeed better tasting and more flavourful than many other Hokkien mee operators!
I didn't even need the chilli that many people would find necessary for Hokkien mee and you know what's the best thing? The big chunks of amazingly good crisy pork lards!
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Looking forward to my next visit!
Location
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76, Lorong 25A Geylang,
Location
Singapore 388258
(Next to Aljunied MRT Station)
Map
As above.
Operating Hours
11.00am to Midnight (Daily)
Contact
6841-3002 / 6743-1622
Website
Menu / Order List
Pricing
Giant Chives with Silver Sprosts (M) - S$18.00
Jade Scallop Beancurd (S) - $12.00
Mongolian Ribs King (M) - S$18.00
Cereal Chicken (S) - S$14.00
Lala Hokkien Mee (S) - S$8.00
Plain Rice - S$1.00 a bowl
(Subject to 1% Service Charge and GST)