Black Pepper Crab at Long Beach Seafood

We wanted our last dinner in Singapore to be memorable and so we arranged to meet some friends at Long Beach Seafood Restaurant on the East Coast Parkway. Upon first entering, there’s a bank of fish tanks lining the left hand side of the large restaurant, each tank containing a different variety of fish or shellfish. They’re not for show either as I saw people catch some for cooking.

There was one main reason why we chose this restaurant - their famous black pepper crab! And here was ours.

The crab was an incredibly meaty one with lots of flavourful flesh; this monster fed two of us quite comfortably. However, I was a little let down by the black pepper flavouring. While it packed the heat you’d expect from so much pepper, the flavour was a bit one-dimensional with nothing to balance that black pepper taste. Oh well, the crab more than made up for it.

There was kangkong belacan (gotta eat our veggies and this one is one of my favourites - it’s also known as ong choi or water convovulus) ,

country-style tofu (fried tofu topped with meat and prawns in sauce),

Mandarin-style pork (? it was in a sweet sauce),

an excellent barbecued fish (not too sure what kind of fish it was - we weren’t told),

and a most delicious silver-fish fried rice.

Unfortunately, I cannot say how much this meal cost as a couple of kind friends picked up the tab but I can imagine that it’s not cheap. It’s a fantastic seafood meal though, with such fresh seafood, and if you’re not fond of our fishy friends, I saw a whole braised pig’s trotter at the next table that looked great!

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant
1018 East Coast Parkway
Singapore

There are other branches on Dempsey Road, the IMM building, and at the East Coast Seafood Centre.

 

Hawker Food in Singapore

I couldn’t leave Singapore without eating at a proper hawker centre. It was suggested to us that we visit the Maxwell Road Food Centre and as it was located in Chinatown, our intended destination one day, we headed there for lunch.

I decided to have my all-time favourite hawker dish - chai tow kway. Yes, I know I’d already had a good taste of it at the Straits Kitchen but I needed another plateful! There’s a bit of chili paste fried in with this one though it’s not exactly visible. To drink, I had my favourite drink that isn’t available in the UK - fresh sugarcane juice. You can’t make it with a regular juice; instead, the stalks of sugarcane are pressed through rollers and that greenish liquid is what results. It’s sweet (duh) and very refreshing.

My friend chose to queue at the stall with the longest line and was rewarded with this delectable looking plate of Hainanese chicken rice (boiled chicken served with rice cooked in chicken stock - sounds boring, tastes wonderful). I had a little taste - it was very good. Well worth the long queue!

She also had this very cute cup of fresh soy bean milk.

For dessert, we split a deliciously crispy pisang goreng (fried banana) and a few pieces of hum jin pang (sweet five-spice dough fritters - the stall at this hawker centre is famous for them and I had to queue). Both were excellent - fresh and not at all soggy.

As this hawker centre was right by Chinatown, it’s unsurprising that there aren’t many Malay or Indian food stalls. That was a bit of a shame but there were already so many options for us that we didn’t feel like it was lacking in anything. Finally, certain stalls only open for lunch or dinner.

Maxwell Road Food Centre
on the corner of Maxwell Road and South Bridge Road
Singapore

 

A Kopitiam Breakfast

One morning, I dragged my friend out of bed to get to the shops early! Shopping in Singapore is fantastic and we spent a lot of time on their famous Orchard Road. Before hitting the shops though, we needed some sustenance and in order for her to try kaya, I took her to a kopitiam, a coffeeshop. I chose the Killiney Kopitiam in Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road as it was near to our hotel and was also packed.

Kopitiams are not your usual Western styled coffeeshops - there’re no cappucinos, no whipped cream, no fancy-schmancy cakes. The coffee served here is a Malaysian-style, particularly thick, almost greasy brew. Kopi is the Malay word for coffee and ordering it or kopi-o will result in a cup of black coffee. Kopi-susu is coffee-milk and a significantly lighter drink will appear if ordered. Tea is also available but as I never order it, I can’t really tell you of its variants!

I ordered kaya toast. Kaya is a coconut jam - it has the texture of grainy lemon curd but the scent and flavour of sweet coconut. It’s very addictive. The green kind is scented with pandan and the brown has the addition of brown sugar; I grew up on the green stuff and it’s still my kaya of preference. The kaya toast here was made into sandwiches of kaya and a thick layer of butter. Absolutely delectable and the big hit at this breakfast.

My friend wanted to try nasi lemak here but unfortunately, their nasi lemak was quite mediocre. The coconut rice was very lightly scented and a bit dry. The chicken wing was cold and already a little tough, so not at all freshly fried. The same applied to the ikan bilis (the little fried anchovies) as they weren’t as crunchy as they should have been. Nothing to complain about the fried fish ball and the omelette and the sambal that was provided was tasty and made everything go down easy.

There are probably better kopitiams around but at least this one was a nice introduction.

Killiney Kopitiam
Lucky Plaza #01-10
Orchard Road
Singapore

There are branches throughout Singapore and a few in Malaysia too.

 

True Blue Cuisine, Singapore

When I learned that my cousin was still in town, we arranged to meet up and I asked to meet at a restaurant serving Nyonya food. The Nyonya people, or Peranakans, descended from very early Chinese immigrants to Malaysia and who adopted many Malay customs. Nyonya cuisine has developed since then and isn’t really Chinese food nor is it Malay food but it has incorporated characteristics of both. Our mothers both cooked wonderful Nyonya food and I was looking for that wonderfulness again.

I was taken to True Blue Cuisine, a restaurant housed in a narrow colonial building that doubles up as a Nyonya museum and shop too. Upstairs is a small restaurant with beautiful Nyonya pottery (all on loan) displayed all around. We sat down, were presented with delicious prawn crackers and fried spicy prawn rolls (tiny deep-fried spring rolls filled with a very spicy dried prawn mixture), and then were left to peruse the enticing menu.

We decided on two salads not listed on the menu but were specials of the day: pomelo and banana blossom. The banana blossom salad turned out to be the spiciest thing on the table! I love the idea of a pomelo salad too - there’s a Thai recipe I’ve been sitting on for a while and now I really want to make it, having tried the version at True Blue. We were told the orchids on the pomelo salad were edible but they tasted of not much and so most were left behind.

Fried ngoh hiang - five spice meat rolls, wrapped in bean curd skin. These are usually made of pork but this restaurant was halal and so ours were chicken. Delicious - but larger than I was used to. I usually like them with a smaller diameter so they have more of the crispy wrapper.

Ayam pongteh - chicken stewed in preserved soy beans. I know this description probably doesn’t induce crazed drooling; the preserved soy beans are sort of like miso, if you can imagine. This was very flavourful and was a very comforting dish.

Chap chye - braised mixed vegetables, with bean threads, mushrooms, cabbage, fungus, etc. Just like my mother used to make - authentic!

Finally, a deep-fried pomfret fish covered in spicy chili sambal. Despite the ferocious look of that chili sambal, this wasn’t too hot. Very tasty and again reminded me of home and my Mom’s delicious fried fish. This isn’t something I plan on cooking in the near future as our tiny flat will stink of fish and oil and so I like to take the few opportunities I have to eat it. Before I forget, everything was served with white rice, of course!

Dinner was finished with pulut hitam (sweetened black glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk) and pomelo with mango puree. Unusually, the pulut hitam was mixed with very sweet dried fruits - not my thing. The pomelo, though, was very refreshing and I’m delighted to have tried it!

After dinner, we walked downstairs to the shop and perused their range of handmade Nyonya goodies. I picked up 2 jars of pineapple tarts (one each of their soft and crispy pastry ones. We’ve already worked through the soft ones - delicious!) and debated whether to get a jar of their achar, Nyonya pickles. Unfortunately, the achar was frozen and it would have been a little difficult bringing them home! They also sell beautiful clothes made of handmade batiks - sarongs and kebayas (traditional Nyonya wear) and silk scarves (which we also purchased!). Ah, eating and shopping - it made for a terrific night.

True Blue Cuisine
117 East Coast Rd., 2nd floor
Singapore

 

Banana Leaf Rice at Samy’s Curry, Singapore

Our taxi driver wanted to dump us at the first parking lot on Dempsey Road and we demanded that he take us to the front door of Samy’s Curry. It turned out that the first stop would have been alright - trees blocked the Samy’s Curry sign. So, take note, if you see the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant sign, Samy’s is right next door.

Samy’s Curry serves banana leaf rice, one of the meals I miss the most from South East Asia. Samy’s came with recommendations from two sources I trust and so it went into my eating plan. We were both exhausted after a long morning at the Singapore Zoo (highly recommended!) and the air-conditioned taxi had helped to build our appetites for what lay ahead. We entered the large room and got a table easily for the two of us. We walked out back first to wash our hands and then came back to large glass mugs of lime juice (sweetened and diluted lime juice - so refreshing!).

We were directed to a buffet at the front of the room where we were shown a variety of curries. From this colourful array, we selected a fish bergedil (or fish cutlet, a fried cutlet of spiced mashed fish and potato), golden curry squid, and bright red chicken tikka. Back at our table, banana leaves were being set along with forks, spoons and wet wipes. A waiter came back and forth with a few metal buckets and dolloped piles of each bucket’s contents on our leaves: white rice (we could have had briyani rice instead), vegetable curry and a wet dal that spread on the leaves. Another woman came along and placed a bergedil on the corner of each leaf and metal plates of the curry squid and chicken tikka between us. We were also asked whether we wanted some gravy on top of our rice and I plumped for fish curry. The waiter came back one final time with a basket full of crisp poppadoms.

We ate and we ate and we ate. There was much silence, only broken by my enthusiastic spoon-cracking of a poppadom. I had two helpings of rice; my friend had three helpings of the magnificent dal! The food was just what we needed after a sticky morning at the zoo - the food is well spiced but not heavy with dairy. The smallest pieces of chicken tikka were almost crispy, the squid was so tender, and the dal, oh the dal! These lentils had been stewed with some magical ingredients or something like that to be so delicious. I haven’t yet been able to replicate the dals that I’ve had at banana leaf rice joints but be rest assured that I will share the recipe when I’ve cracked it!

I was reminded how the humidity affects the food here. Poppadoms were stored in a large covered bin and removed only when needed. During the duration of our meal, the poppadoms in our little basket went from fresh and crispy, to slightly stale, to extremely chewy. I could easily bend a poppadom in half at the end of our lunch.

Our bill came to something like $24 Singapore dollars - about £8 in total for the both of us, drinks included.

Samy’s Curry
Blk 25, Dempsey Road
Civil Service Club
Singapore