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Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm 农光行鳄鱼场 Visit with Singapore Chefs' Association

Today, I joined the Singapore Chefs Association members' visit to Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm 农光行鳄鱼场 at Neo Tiew Crescent (Kranji) in Singapore.

Singapore-Chefs-Association

Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm is the only croc farm in Singapore. Located in Kranji near the Kranji Dam, Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm is the size of 12 football fields and has over 13,000 saltwater crocodiles.

Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm is a fully integrated facility with it's own breeding pond, hatchery, pens, abattoir, tannery and R & D.


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Mr Lee founded Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm in 1964. Croc farming has been Mr Lee's lifelong passion. Today, Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm is managed by Robin Lee who has rubbed off a lot of the elder Lee's passion for crocodiles.

The Lees love crocodiles to the point of obsession. They think about crocs all day and dream about it during sleep.

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Our tour started at the scenic breeding pond. The environment is made conducive for the female crocs to lay their eggs in the numerous concrete pens that ring around the breeding pond.

Crocodile-Eggs

During the breeding season from Jan to Jun each year, each female croc can lay up to 60 eggs.

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Workers collect the eggs from the breeding pond and incubate them in the carefully climate controlled hatcheries at Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm. The eggs will hatch in around 80 days.

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Robin with a week old hatchling. Survival rate in the wild is about 10% whereas at Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm over 90% of crocs born here reach adulthood.

The hatchlings are kept in the "baby house" until they are 19 months old.

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The crocs are then transferred to these pens where they will spend 5 years here.

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The crocs are raised in pens like this until adulthood. There are 40 crocs in each pen and the water is changed every two days. All the crocs in the same pen are from the same mummy croc, so they are actually siblings. Keeping siblings together, keeps the crocs calm. A peaceful pen is important as fighting damages the crocodiles' skin.

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The animals looked happy and healthy in the very clean and well kept pens. They are fed only chicken, so their meat is clean tasting.

At about 6 years old, the crocs are already for the abattoir.

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The crocs are raised primarily for their prized skins. Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm has it's own tannery and supplies it's skins to clients in Europe and Japan.

Besides the skin, there is a steadily growing demand for croc meat for it's medicinal properties in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and also more people are acquiring a taste for it's white tender flesh.

Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm supplies croc meat to restaurants and supermarkets such as Sheng Siong in Singapore.

The Chefs' tour of the croc farm was followed by a BBQ session featuring croc meat, of course ;-D

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Crocodile is a very versatile meat. It is high in protein, nearly zero cholesterol and has medicinal properties.

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Croc satay grilling over charcoal fire.

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The croc meat was tender, moist and absorbed the spicy marinate well. The croc meat felt like a blend of chicken breast and fish. This croc satay tasted like a piece of spice perfumed sponge.

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As croc meat is tender and absorbs flavours well, they make good patties. I think croc meat will generally work well for dishes using minced meat.

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Pork or beef prime rib is often referred to as "dragon bone" in Singapore. But, the true "dragon bone" is croc prime rib as crocs are closer to "dragons".

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Croc prime ribs can be cooked many ways. Today, it was marinated with oyster sauce and black pepper, and grilled over charcoal fire.

The texture of the meat was tender with some chew. The clean tasting meat took on the marinade's slightly savoury and peppery flavours well. The slight char added a bit of smokey flavour to the ribs.

If you like to try croc meat you can ask if the restaurant serves it as more and more eateries in Singapore have croc on their menu. If you like to cook croc meat yourself, you can buy croc at supermarkets like Sheng Siong.

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Besides croc meat we also had these wonderful fresh large wild sea prawns from Myanmar, courtesy of TheSeafoodCompany which is also the event sponsor.

These prawns were cooked without marination at all. They were so good we can taste the ocean and the prawn's natural crustacean flavours with every bite.

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We also enjoyed the fresh quails with thanks to Lian Wah Hang Farm.

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Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm 农光行鳄鱼场


Address: 321 Neo Tiew Crescent, Singapore 718914

Maphttp://bit.ly/LKHcroc
Phone: 6793 7038

(Not open to public)


Date visited: 4 Apr 2015


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