Le Chasseur | Singapore

Le Chasseur means “the hunter” in French. It’s a weird name for a cze char place, which usually involves romanisation of Chinese names. It turns out that the owner used to stay in Mauritius, and took the name from his stay there.

I went to Le Chasseur the day it was featured on ladyironchef’s blog (the advantages of a flexible schedule) and was raring to try its signature dishes.

Ngor Hiang (4.5/5) was crispy, and paired well with sweet-spicy sauce.
BBQ Live Prawn (2.5/5) was just a skewered prawn that may have been live. It was a bit rubbery and tasteless. I think it was overcooked.
Eggplant with Salted Fish (3.25/5) was standard.
Pork Knuckle (4.75/5) was very crispy and tender. The lady boss was teaching us how to eat the pork knuckle. take a piece of crispy pork knuckle, and spoon some cucumber-pineapple-soy-vinegar sauce. A winner
Claypot Rice (3.5/5) tasted average for me, contrary to what most people claim. Some nice charred bits, and nice dark sauce, but most of it was just dark sauce rice with lap cheong and chicken.

Verdict: Go for the pork knuckles and the ngor hiang. Claypot rice isn’t bad, but nothing special.

Le Chasseur
31 New Bridge Road
Tel: +65 6337 7677
Daily: 11am – 11pm

Sin Huat Eating House | Singapore

His crab beehoon is lavishly praised. It is also notoriously ex ($340 for 4 pax). How good is Chef Danny’s Crab Beehoon?

Before last month, I saw at least 3-5 reruns of Anthony Bourdain coming to Singapore and trying the hawker food. The culmination seems to be when he drives up to this grimy Geylang place, Sin Huat Eating House. What culinary magic resides in Lorong 35?

Honestly, I don’t quite know. “crab beehoon” (4/5) ended up being disjoint. “crab and beehoon” would be a more apt description. at no point did I actually eat crab and beehoon together. The eating process went:

1. pick up piece of crab
2. crack piece of crab
3. try to suck out crabmeat and spit out crabshell
4. put down piece of crab
5. take chopsticks and eat beehoon
6. put down chopsticks and repeat

The sauce, which got all over my chopsticks was a nice shallot crab-roe based sauce. It tasted abit lard-y as well. (I have no idea if any of this is true).

The beehoon got in the way of my enjoying the crab, and the crab got in the way of enjoying the beehoon. I’m a bit puzzled as to why people rave about it.

earlier in the evening, chef danny, while taking our orders at the table, went down a prepared list of dishes.

“scallops?” “okay”
“gong gong” “er small one can?”
“you can do a large one. I’ll do a large one.”
“prawns” “er…okay”
“fish?” “no, no that’s enough”

he’s been called a food nazi, but chef Danny just strikes me as a nazi.(Frontera Grill in Chicago – which according to one Yelp review prevents takeout even by dine-in diners because they can’t “assure quality” is a “food nazi” place. Chef Danny just seems more focused on ticking the boxes.

Scallops (4/5) – smothered in sweet bean sauce, served on the shell (and with all innard intact)
Gong Gong (2.5/5) – Steamed shellfish, with a sweet chili sauce. Sharp claw at the end. Use a toothpick to spear the meaty parts, or most of it stays in the shell.
Garlic Prawns (3/5) – Standard fare.

One rule I’ve found is that prawn dishes in cze char restaurants, unless they are making oatmeal prawns, is blah. The prawn isusually flavourless and tough. I suspect this is because they don’t usually fully shell the prawn, and often overcook it as well.

Maybe try it once, just to see what’s the hype’s about. But it really isn’t THAAAT great.

Pasta Brava | Singapore

Pasta Brava

Pasta Brava has good pasta. But the other 2 times I’ve been here (2009, 2010) I remember being unimpressed by their other offerings. Keeping that in mind, I ordered pasta. Third time lucky?

Yes. So I am delighted to mention that Stracci al Gamberi e Capesante (4.5/5) , or “thin strips of fresh pasta with scallops, prawns, green peppercorn, white wine and saffron cream sauce” [source] is delicious.

Crunchy scallop, crunchy prawns. Delicious sauce, delicious delicious sauce. Mount the butter!

Por Kee Eating House | Singapore

There are food places that are just famous for one-dish, and Por Kee is one of them.

The champagne pork ribs (5/5) are transcendental. Made from some unholy combination of (as far as I can discern, and this might be completely wrong) – champagne, sweet sauce, huao diao jiu (glutinous rice wine), sugar, coffee – it just coats the juicy pork so lovingly.

Get it in the short rib variety. The long rib variety is too troublesome and features too much striated flesh, leaving shreds between your teeth. You want a pillowy texture, get the short ribs. Pillowy mounds of fat.

Proust loved his madeleines. I say, get me to Por Kee.

The house special tofu has good texture and taste. (3.5/5) I had it in a seafood claypot bowl, which featured a cornstarch based brown sauce, as is de rigeur in Chinese cooking. The sauce isn’t great, but the tofu is good.

The Thai-style fish (4/5) is also good. Leave it to simmer with soup for 20 minutes in front of you, and the fish gelatin will come out. Recommended.

Bamboo clams (3.5/5) (or Atlantic jackknife clams) with garlic are also decent, but generic.

Who are you kidding, you’re here for champagne pork ribs.