Today, we met at Swatow Seafood Restaurant for lunch. We enjoyed the food and like the vibes here, and agreed that we will be back to try their other dishes.
I know this part of Toa Payoh very well - I lived 5 minutes walk from here during my entire teen. There was a Chinese supermarket where GIANT is today. The second level where Swatow Seafood is today was the department store. I can't remember the name of the old supermarket / department store but recall that they kept looping the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" over their public address system (probably the hottest hit of 1973). Spent many hours of my youth loitering around here instead of studying 😥
The restaurant is up a long flight of stairs on level 2. There's a lift for wheelchair users.
The main dining hall is huge, reminiscent of old banquet halls. There's a good crowd on this Friday lunch with constant muffled chatter in the background - I like the vibes here.
All of us liked the layered savoury flavours and evident wok hei aroma of Swatow Seafood's rendition of this Teochew classic. The soft-tender rice noodles were well infused with savoury flavours from garlic, preserved turnip, fish sauce, lard, etc. Personally, I felt the noodles were a tad soft and relatively greasy with lard.
Instead of the customary oyster omelette we opted for the grand sounding Imperial Fried Egg with Duck Meat (price $12). This was my first time having this dish.
All of us enjoyed this duck meat omelette. The omelette was fluffy and the embedded duck meat was tender. It was a nice blend of savoury, eggy and slight duck flavours. (But, I still prefer a good rendition of oyster omelette as it has more flavour and texture.)
Obligatory Chilled Jellied Pork Knuckle (price $12) at Teochew restaurants. Layers of savoury-salty flavour in the soft-tender chopped meat, fat and skin held together with jellied braising stock.
Traditionally, the jelly is made by chilling the collagen from stewing chopped pork knuckle but this is rarely found in Singapore now. Most use a coagulant (gelling agent) to make the jelly. Lao Liang stall in Jalan Berseh food centre is probably the last place in Singapore to make it the old way (without gelling agent)
Another quintessentially Teochew dish Chilled Sliced Pig's Head (price $12).
This is made by slicing skin, fat and meat from the pig's head - snout, ears, cheeks, etc. Stew it in braising stock of 5-spice powder and soy sauce, etc. The stew is then drained and compacted with the resulting compressed blocks of meat, fat and skin held together by collagen and chilling.
I like this better than Jellied Pork Knuckle as the savoury flavours has more depth and intensity. Bits of soft-crunchy cartilage such as from the ears add variety to the mainly soft-tender texture of the dish.
We all liked Swatow Seafood's Braised Duck (price $16). I was struck first by the slicing skill - the slices were broad, thin and had layers of skin, fat and meat. The duck slices were soft-tender, juicy and infused with slight savoury-herbal flavours with a subtle bit of duck gaminess.
If you like braised duck, you gotta have this.
Swatow Seafood also serve dim sum, so we ordered some. This is Siew Mai with Fish Roe (price $5.20).
Siew Bee or Teochew style siew mai (price$5.20). It is steamed minced pork with ti poh. This siew bee is very salty-savoury from seasoning and ti poh (dried sole fish).
Pan Fried Carrot Cake (price $4.50).
Cantonese Style Boat Congee (price $5.80).
I opted for this Teochew Duck Porridge (price $6.80). This savoury-sweet porridge with flavoured braising sauce and pieces of duck meat inside was quite likeable.
When it was time for dessert, we had a discussion on whether we should have orh nee (yam paste) or stir fried yam (yam sticks). We settled on yam sticks due to my persuasive enthusiasm for this dessert 😜
We were all impressed when the photogenic dish arrived. But, it turned out that the yam was quite stiff and dry inside. There wasn't much flavour except for sugary sweetness from the thick crust of flaky icing sugar enveloping the yam stick. Sorry buddies 🙏
Our total bill came to $170 or $34 per person. Overall, we enjoyed our lunch. Most of the dishes were delicious and service was pleasant and responsive. We agreed to be back to try other dishes such as steamed fish at the next visit.
Written by Tony Boey on 27 Aug 2021
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