After sharing my enjoyable experience at Ming Chung, the oldest Heng Hua restaurant in Singapore, buddy suggested that I can also give Heng Hua Restaurant at 748 Yishun a try.
So, here we are 😀
Full house lunch crowd.
Whereas Ming Chung has ninety years of history and located in a pair of vintage shophouses in one of the oldest parts of Singapore, Heng Hua Restaurant is located in a HDB new town. But, even here at Yishun, Heng Hua Restaurant has over 20 years under its belt. It has a good, loyal following judging by the lunch crowd.
We ordered too much a lot of food for three of us. Buddy said "don't worry, can't finish can tabao (takeaway)".
That's a real confidence booster 🤭
The dishes came fast and furious. First to land was the fried ikan batang fish.
Serving was generous for $12. Fish was fresh and fried to the golden brown doneness I like. Inside, the meat was still white, tender and moist. Flavour was mildly savoury with subtle fresh fish taste. I like this but Ming Chung has a slight edge here as they have a secret something in the seasoning which made their version more tasty (to me).
Heng Hua stir fried noodle with seafood (mainly la la clams) and vegetable stock. There's dried seaweed, mushroom, clams, prawn, peanut, greens, a lot of things in the crowded dish.
The soft-tender noodles were moist, not wet, and well enveloped by the mild umami savoury sweet taste of seafood and vegetable stock / sauce.
Love it.
The Heng Hua bee hoon is the same thing (as the HH noodles), same seafood vegetable stock but stir fried with rice vermicelli. Relatively dry but delicious, and delights in its own way.
We ordered extra la la clams for more umami ooomph with our carbs.
Kai lan greens with soft fried tofu skin splashed with a savoury brown sauce. Nice, I enjoyed this but Ming Chung's version has more bean curd taste in their soft fried tofu skin.
Chilled pork trotter (literally translated from 凍元蹄).
"Don't worry, can't finish can tabao 😆 "
I love this. The lean pork trotter meat was tender and moist. The flavours were gently savoury porcine and there's a bit of rice wine in there 😋
The fats were soft and skin was soft-tender. Lovely.
Comes with a robustly spicy garlicky savoury dipping sauce which complemented the gentler pork flavours well.
Heng Hua Braised Tofu.
Lots of savoury sweetish flavours from vegetables embedded in the egg and tofu, topped with scallion and fried garlic.
This is my favourite dish today 👍
"Don't worry, can't finish can tabao".
Don't worry lah 🤭 😀
Delicious, excellent value for money and authentic according to my Heng Hua buddy who goes back to Fuzhou regularly. When his Heng Hua relatives visit, he brings them here because they like this place too.
There are many more dishes at Heng Hua Restaurant which I need to go back for soon 😋
Sampling from the menu. There are more pages.
Read about Ming Chung, the oldest Heng Hua restaurant in Singapore 👈 click
What is the difference or relationship between Heng Hua and Putian?
Putian is a prefecture level city in China's Fujian province. Putian borders Fuzhou (to its northeast) and Quanzhou to its southwest.
In 979 (during the Song dynasty), part of Quanzhou 泉州 was carved out and given the name Heng Hua 興化. Heng Hua 興化 was renamed Putian 莆田 in 1970. So, Heng Hua is just the old name of Putian.
Due to their shared history and proximity, Putian / Heng Hua language is 60% cognate with Quanzhou language and 40% with Fuzhou language.
Source: Baidu
Written by Tony Boey on 18 Oct 2023
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A glimpse of Putian
yes been there few time.nice..Another good henghua stall at race course rd corner kopitiam but dont know still around.Majority henghua residents use to reside near Pekkio,Jalan Besar and Little India in the old days.
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