Shao Teochew @ Frankel Avenue Menu & Review. Oh that Marinated Chilled Roe Crab! 🦀 烧

Shao 烧 positions itself as a casual Teochew restaurant and it is exactly that. It's not the traditional Teochew restaurant the likes of Ah Orh or Chin Lee but the personal interpretation of youthful boss, Jack who was born and grew up in the cradle of Teochew cuisine in Swatow, China.

Pastel colour country style tablecloth over square and long tables, the decor looks more like a hipster cafe or casual Western diner than the likes of Ah Orh and Chin Lee - there I go again 🤭

Upstairs, the large round tables with lazy Susans look more the part for a typical Teochew restaurant 😄

Swatow native Jack studied in the UK and co-owned Tasty Garden Restaurant in London before moving to Singapore. Hence, Jack's modern take on Teochew cuisine is overlaid with eclectic cosmopolitan influences that may make Teochew purists roll their eyes 🙄 Still, there are several quintessentially Teochew dishes which we enjoyed from our lunch today.

Right from the word go, our taste buds and senses were pampered with this Marinated Chilled Roe Crab 🦀

I'll say right off the bat that this was the most memorable dish of the day.

It is live crab from Sri Lanka full of roe, cleaned and "cooked" in rice wine and marinated in a complex blend of premium soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chili pepper, onion, scallion plus a host of other spices and aromatics for 12 hours. Served dressed with a sprinkle of chopped coriander.

The wine "cooked" crab's naturally sweet-briny juices in the soft meat was overlaid with savoury garlicky flavours and some subtle spicy heat from the watery sauce. The yellow-orange colour roe supplied the umami pyrotechnics.

This dish alone is reason enough for me to report back to Shao.

This dish reminds of the Korean ganjang gejang 👈 click

Drunken Cockles tasted like the marinated roe crab dish but with crunchy juicy blood cockles instead of the clawed crustacean. Any fan of see hum would warm to this dish but next time I wouldn't have both of them back-to-back. I would rather have one or the other as otherwise the Drunken Cockles may be overshadowed by the "drunken crab". If I must choose only one, my choice would be the crab.

Oyster Claypot "Pao Fan" Porridge. Pao Fan is boiled rice "pao or submerged" into stock which is prepared separately to make a porridge.

The succulent oysters studded in the sweet-savoury porridge gave it an added savoury layer. The boiled rice infused the stock's slight savoury flavour and still had some residual bite after simmering in the liquid.

The mild savoury sweetness of the porridge was complemented with more robust flavours like this savoury sweet Signature Sotong Sausage.

Minced squid coloured with squid ink and bamboo charcoal with chopped tentacles embedded. Looks pretty and tastes nice with squid sweetness, umami-savouriness and underlying squid ink flavour. Interesting texture with tender sponginess and a bit of chewy crunch.

Perfect pairing with the simple oyster porridge.

Crispy Baby Pomfret.

The little fish were deep fried to crispness with little or no seasoning / marination. Not much flavour - just had fun eating the head, bone and tail which were fried to a dry crisp. Went well with the porridge.

Pork Maw stewed with mushroom, garlic, chives etc and served in a claypot. Homely mildly savoury sweet dish.

Wagyu Beef slices and vegetables stir fried in savoury fermented bean paste sauce.

Iberico Pork pan fried, sliced and dressed with a savoury sauce.

Come to a Teochew restaurant must of course try their Teochew chai poh kway teow known as Wok Fried Hor Fun in Shao's menu.

Nice wok hei with the coveted toasty-smokey flavour evident in the soft-tender chewy rice noodles. I love the spikes of umami-savoury flavour from the crunchy bits of preserved radish embedded here and there in the mound of flavoursome hor fun (broad rice noodles).

I like this pan fried Luffa Pancake with slivers of tender luffa gourd, bits of preserved radish and shrimp held together with sweet potato starch. Crisp outside, spongy soft-chewy inside with sweet savoury flavours. Must try for luffa gourd fans (me lah...!). Complements the porridge well and gets us ready for dessert 😄

Come to Teochew restaurant must of course round up the meal with a traditional dessert. We had savoury sweet Yam Sticks. (Is orh nee or yam paste passé liao? 🤔 Honest question.)

It is mashed yam made into thick sticks (more like small bars) and deep fried to a crisp outside. Served coated and dusted with icing sugar. Nice sweet yam taste layered with sugary sweetness.

I have long been a fan of Tsingtao beers since they arrived in Singapore decades ago (1980s?). Tsingtao beer has a German legacy, established in 1903 when Imperial Germany occupied Shantung province between 1898 to 1914 (when they were themselves ousted by Japanese forces).

Shao serves Tsingtao Gold which is extra smooth and has a slight bright refreshing fizz. The medium body German DNA lager is brewed by double fermentation for extra flavour.

I will be back at Shao to try other dishes and will have encores of the Marinated Chilled Roe Crab, Oyster Porridge with Sotong Sausage and Luffa Pancake. I also like more of Shao's Teochew Chai Poh Hor Fun and Yam Stick dessert.