Daniu Teochew Seafood Restaurant · Authentic Chaoshan Cuisine in Singapore 大牛潮汕海鲜 |Tony Johor Kaki Travels for Food · Heritage · Culture

We came to Daniu Teochew Seafood because we were recently obsessed with goose and heard that Daniu is one of those rare places to get it in Singapore.

Besides the goose which we enjoyed, we found out that Daniu actually has quite a few other nice Teochew dishes too.

Photo courtesy of Carl Neo, the man behind the HappyCat 黑皮猫 YouTube channel

Born and raised in Shantou, Chaoshan, chef owner Daniel Teo runs Daniu with his chef father who is in the kitchen leading his crew from Chaoshan. Daniu 大牛 which means "big bull" is a cheeky play on his English name Daniel.

Daniel 张志柯 came to Singapore from 澄海 Chenghai district (Shantou city) more than 20 years ago and worked as a barista and espresso machine serviceman. Later, he started his own servicing company, then sold it in 2020. That year Daniel opened Daniu restaurant because he missed the authentic taste of Chaoshan cuisine. By the way, Daniel also own Cow Kaffee next door to Daniu because he is still passionate about coffee ☕ (Source credit: Zaobao)

Daniu restaurant is small, simply decorated and furnished with utilitarian furniture. It's a place to eat (in air con comfort) 😀 I like this kind of eating places - it gives me the authentic Chaoshan vibes 😄

Further inside, they have several private dining rooms with similarly simple decor and setup.

The focus is on eating well, the Teochew way with emphasis on fresh, quality seafood. Customers can choose their own seafood from the display chiller.

We started with braised goose 鹵鹅肉.

It was made with a Hungarian bird, imported frozen. Braised in a savoury soy sauce based stock with a little Chinese spices.

Tender firm but smoother than most braised duck. Most of its subtle goose flavour came from the skin and fat just beneath it.

The cold crab 冷膏蟹 was mind blowing delicious, especially the body part with the roe. It has a creamy umami savoury flavour complemented by sweetness from the soft moist white meat. The shell was relatively soft, so it was easy to chew the shell, roe and meat. Everything together.

Teochew Marinated Raw Crab 生腌蟹.

Another dish that blew my mind. The briny sweet umami flavours saturating the crab were accentuated by the vinegar, savoury soy sauce, spice, aromatics and a bit of garlic / chili heat. The shell, roe and juicy meat were soft, releasing its flavours willingly to our eager tastebuds.

Marinated raw prawn 生腌虾.

Made with live prawn, this preparation brings out the natural sweetness of prawn better than sashimi style, in my opinion.

Pork trotter aspic 猪脚冻. Texture like floppy jelly slices with subtle soft crunch embedded inside. Tastes subtly sweet savoury.

Disclaimer: Most Teochew dishes come with its own accompanying sauce specially tailored to bring out its best flavours. But, I didn't touch any today 🤭 I wanted to taste the dishes' original flavour. Besides, the pace of the dinner was fast, and I have to take photos and make mental notes. Can't multitask to include tasting the sauces. Next time then 😬

Braised Eel and Pork 红烧鳗鱼.

I focused on the eel steaks (thick chunks). The fish's delicate and nuanced natural sweetness was somewhat masked by the rather robust savoury sauce (though less so than Japanese unagi style preparation).

The handmade beef balls 阿牛肉丸 in soup were nice. Tender firm, springy to the bite. Sweet subtly beefy with a slight trace of Chinese spice in the trailing edge of flavour and aroma released with each bite.

Daniu is also famous for their handmade pork balls which we didn't try today 🤔

Goose neck and wings in daikon soup 萝卜焖鹅翅膀.

Like an unker, I actually love these tender wings and neck as they have denser savoury sweet flavour. Besides, daikon is one of my favourite root vegetables.

Orh chien or oyster omelette.

Made of oyster, egg and tapioca starch. The tender chewy egg and starch mix wrapped the oysters (which had given up some of their umami flavours to the savoury pancake) in a tight smothering grip.

Sand whiting fish and rabbit fish stewed in a umami savoury seafood stock 杂鱼蚝烙汤.

All we got were the fish's natural sweetness in its soft-tender flaky white meat. What more can we ask for? It is more than enough for me 😋

Chye poh fried kway teow with lots of lard and wok hei. Would be even better, if it is done with a more layered savoury sauce. Anyway, I was unabashedly picking up the last bits of noodles, kai lan and lard from the plate 🤭

Fried yam sticks with icing sugar 反沙芋头. This yam dessert is displacing the traditional place of orh nee or yam paste as the obligatory Teochew sweet dessert. (Actually, my old soul still prefer the good ol' orh nee 😝 )

All the dishes were well executed and delicious. Some are rarely served in Singapore while others are Chaoshan dishes, not normally seen here. So, Daniu is a good place to experience authentic Teochew cuisine in Singapore.