Putien Codfish Specialty House @ Phoenix Road

For those who like Heng Hwa dishes, this can be a new addition to the places you can go for dishes originating from the Putien region in China. My aunt who is Heng Hwa discovered this place by chance and found the quite good and authentic.

Our cousin who took a liking for the food here calls it the 'up the hill' place. It's located on a slope high up near Phoenix LRT on Choa Chu Kang Road. People living this area seems to call it the 'hill' too, though it's not really that high. (found out after I posted a few photos of this place on Instagram and people responded saying the 'hill') It's on a row of shop houses and it's the last shop and there's a 'tent' at the end of the road with tables that people prefer to sit rather than inside the shop.

This place is known for their codfish steamboat, but we were not having steamboat but ordered different dishes instead. Here's what we had.


This was the salt-baked chicken wings. It's soy sauce that has been wrapped in paper and baked in a mountain of salt. I personally don't find it that special. It's tasty though. It seems it's one of the specialty dishes and limited packs are available daily.


The cold meats. Drunken Pork Trotters thinly sliced. Some people might like it, but I found it too cold, too fatty. Aunt likes it, I guess I am not a Heng Hwa to enjoy this. LOL!


Clams in Soup. This innocent looking dish has been spiked with cili, probably cili padi! It's very addictive though! Not overcooked, the clams are still soft and tender and you keep picking one after another to enjoy the natural sweetness of it.

Try the soup and you get hit by this spicy 'bite' in your tongue, but you will somehow keep wanting to continue drinking it.


The Heng Hwa Lor Mee. A dish that I won't get tired having it. A mix of seafood and other ingredients in a semi-starchy broth.


Instead of the usual Heng Hwa Bee Hoon, aunt ordered the Pork Leg Bee Hoon instead.

Some of you grew up eating stew pork leg noodles, and have eaten Heng Hwa Bee Hoon, this dish is like a mix of both, only wetter. It's delicious.

(Their Heng Hwa Bee Hoon's good too, we 'tapow' a pack home for eat!)


This was an unusual vegetable dish. It's fat plump beans that has been deep fried and coated with cereal. Instead of the usual cereal prawns or crayfish, this is vegetable style.

It sure was addictive, the many pairs of chopsticks were all picking bean by bean from the plate!


The salted vegetable duck soup. It was a huge duck drumstick in a big claypot. I can't remember the taste to describe it. Go try it and let me know. ;-)


A yummy dish of sambal kangkong. Definitely not a Heng Hwa dish, but it's on part of the menu that has local dishes. So we ordered it because someone who had eaten it before said it tasted good!

An alternative place to go for some Heng Hwa food that's worth going back. There are many other dishes to try. For Heng Hwas who miss dishes like Mee Sua Hu, Fried Mee Sua, Fried Yam, good old simple Fried Fish, they have it here.

Oh, the boss is a quirky funny man. He speaks nonsense at times. If you speak the Heng Hwa dialect he will talk to you in it and confuse everyone else who don't speak it. When you go early and it's not so busy yet, he will prepare some of the more homely dishes, I can't remember what aunt wanted to order, I don't understand the dialect!


Putien Codfish Specialty House
2 Phoenix Road
Singapore 668156

Hours: 11am to 11pm
Tel: 8163 4477 / 6875 0577

Putien @ Kitchener Road (Eating Hairy Crabs)

I told you all yesterday that it was our first time trying Hairy Crabs. So how was the experience? It's great! I have never been so pampered eating crabs before!

No, there was no bowl of tea or water with lemons on the table. We don't need that! Our fingers were kept so so clean. Why? Because there was someone doing everything for us, except the eating it of course.

When we were ordering the food, it never cross our minds to try the crabs. We were thinking of other Heng Hwa delicacies to try. But when presented with the idea of ordering and the convincing sales pitch of the lady taking order, we were tempted! So so tempted that we ordered it!

The crabs arrived on our table. Hey Mr Hairy Crab, giving us a pitiful face won't work. *evil laughter*. We paid good money for you and we are eating you up!

Each crabs came in its own bamboo container.



Just like a convict on TV shows, we got to take the front and side profile of the crab. From this angle, you know why they are called Hairy Crabs. They are hairy! It's not spiky by the way, it's soft!



If you had the impression that Hairy Crabs are served cold, it is not. It arrived steaming hot!
Since it's our first time eating crabs, we did not know what to do! But our worries were unfounded.

Shortly after the lady served us the crabs on the bamboo container, she put on plastic gloves and proceeded  to serve us. She began to pry open the shell and served it to us. It was steaming hot and yet the lady's nimble fingers could quickly pry it open and with so little effort!



The top shell with the egg roe below it. This is the reason for eating hairy crabs. The precious golden roe that's full of flavour. We were told to eat it with the specially formulated vinegar that the chef had prepared. The vinegar enhances the taste of the crabs by leaps and bounds! It really does!



After the shell's off, this is the naked crab. All exposed. We could see more roe on it! The lady then snipped off the 8 legs and the pincers.



This is the body. When broken into half, you can see that it's filled with the golden roe that makes people pay money for it!



For a moment, we thought if that was it. Do we eat the crabs for the golden liquid only? We were too shy to ask. Again, we did not have to embarrass ourselves by asking. But while we were devouring the crabs, the lady was preparing the next part of the crabs for us.

She snipped off the pincers and served it to us. They had this special scissors for cutting crabs. They removed part of the shell, so we could just pick up the claws and eat! So easy right?!

The black part is the hair of the crab. It's a lump of hair. It's not dirt or mud. :-)
You know after showering, you hair clump up and stick to your head? Well, it's the same thing for these crabs! haha... That's the hair.



We wonder what was next. The lady then snipped the other parts of the crab legs into parts. Both ends were snipped off nicely, the lady pushed the crab meat partially out of the shell. What we needed to do was just to pick them up and suck it into our mouth. How easy is that?

Eating crabs have never been easier right? The crabs were just steamed and then we eat the meat with vinegar. It's so simple and yet so delicious and sweet.

Ah.... if only there's someone to prepare crabs this way for me next time. LOL...




We asked the lady if everyone gets such treatment. She said when it's not so busy in the restaurant, they do it for their customers. If there's not enough people, they teach customers how to handle it.

We think it must be because there are 3 Heng Hwa ladies that we have such wonderful service today. It can't be because I am keropokman, because no one knows how he looks like. LOL..

Are you tempted to try the crabs now?
Go before 31 Oct if you want to enjoy the 100% rebate. That's why we came here. :-p
I got rebate vouchers to come back for more food.


Putien @Kitchener Road (Flagship)
127 Kitchener Road
Singapore 208514
Tel: (65) 6295 6358
Fax: (65) 6295 6458

Putien @ Kitchener Road

I took half day leave on Tuesday to treat mum and 2 aunts for lunch. There's this promotion at Putien that's giving 100% rebate back in vouchers for dining at their restaurant. (until 31 Oct if you are interested).

We came here because we think it's a really good promotion and also because it's a Heng Hwa restaurant. If you have read this food diary long enough, you would know that mum's Heng Hwa and these are her 'hometown' dishes. Mum's 2nd generation Heng Hwa and not born in PRC, so her memories of Heng Hwa food's through my maternal grandma's cooking. We are here to try the ones cooked by Heng Hwa chefs all 'imported' from Putien.

We were chatting the night before about the food that my maternal grandma cooked for mum last time. There many dishes but some are just too tedious so mum and my aunts don't cook them or have forgotten about it! Maybe one future project is to document grandma's recipe down. (those that mum and my aunts can remember.)

Anyway, here's the food we had at Putien.

One of the Heng Hwa delicacy is braised pig's intestines. If you notice, there's multiple layers unlike the normal ones you see. They literally stuff intestines inside intestines to have multiple layers of it! Think of the work!

I don't eat intestines at all, but since the 3 of them said I got to try it, I did. Hey, intestines are not bad! It doesn't smell awful like the ones you eat at Kuay Chap stall. These are tasty! Now, how can I describe the texture? It's like overnight braised egg (lor neng) that's been cooked twice. It has the firm and yet soft texture. Oh yes, dip it into their chilli sauce and it's yummy!



The Steamed Cold Pork Belly with Garlic. One of my favorite dishes. I just like the garlic taste of the sauce. The pungent and spicy taste will just jump start your taste senses!



While eating, we realize that Mum and both Aunt's vocab of Heng Hwa words fail big time! They can't speak anymore and have to think hard to remember the words to use. Totally utterly rusty!

So in order to help them remember, we asked the lady serving us (who is Heng Hwa by the way) to tell us the name of the dish in Heng Hwa. OK, so they could still understand but not me. You can't fault me, I am not HH. (or half only) LOL.. (But I did catch that she was saying for the next dish: Pig's Hand)

This is the Deep Fried Pig's Trotter with Pepper.  This is yummy! I think pig trotters deep fried always taste good. I like the salty pepper seasoning on top of it. A bite into the crispy skin and the soft meat inside is just delightful.



The Mix Vegetables stir fry. Those things that look like onions are actually lily bulbs.
The bottom white pieces are fresh Huai San (Chinese Burdock) which is really nice. Huai San has this very nice texture to it. Maybe I should find this at the supermarket next time.



Another of my favorite dish is the Heng Hwa Bee Hoon. I remember mum cooking this when we were young. I like the very very fine bee hoon and lots of veggies and ingredients they put inside.



This is the Heng Hwa Lor Mee. Ya, the Lor Mee that's white and not dark in colour. You don't seem to see any 'dark' dishes in Heng Hwa cuisine. I wonder why?

It's very nice and the sweetness of the dish is from the seafood inside. The clams, prawns etc.These are hand made noodles too.



Guess what else we had? Hairy Crabs! It's the season for this delicacy. It was also our first time having Hairy Crabs! I will reserve that post for tomorrow. :-)

After we finished everything, we were presented the menu to choose desserts. We were told there's a promotion and for each order or crabs, we can choose a dessert. Asked what's the most popular desserts, it's Pumpkin paste and ice cream and also their 'Or Nee' (Yam Paste).

The next photo is my experiment with over exposure. haha.. Too bright eh! Never mind, you can see how the Or Ni looks like.



The next dessert is quite unique! Pumpkin with ice cream. It taste nice though.



We have tried the food at the different Putien but it seems that this one at the main branch taste the best.
Heng Hwa folks should eat this especially since they are having the promotion. hehe...


Putien @Kitchener Road (Flagship)
127 Kitchener Road
Singapore 208514
Tel: (65) 6295 6358
Fax: (65) 6295 6458

Heng Hua Food: Pu Tien Restaurant - Part 3

Continue with the dishes. This is Part 3 and the final post of this series.

This is vege with century egg.
上汤苋菜



This is something different. It is actually those gourd. I have forgotten what gourd it is, but its made into pancakes that taste really good.
胡瓜烙



Tofu dish.
自制滑豆腐



Instead of yam rings that we usually see, this are yam bites.
酥炒芋头



These bamboo clams are so so yummy! My fav!
蒜茸蒸蛏



These are fried oyster. Don't they look like banana fritters?
炸蚝



The famous heng hua bee hoon. Also my fav. the noodles are extra fine!
兴化炒米粉



If you realise, there's so many yam dishes. This is Yam Duck.
芋香鸭



This is for you to figure out, huh, yam duck? Here you go...



We ate quite a bit ya? We had 7 persons. It's always fun going out in a big group to eat. We get to order more things.

Hope you have enjoyed this. Make a guess what tomorrow's food will be? LOL....

Heng Hua Food: Pu Tien Restaurant - Part 2

Today you shall be treated to the "cold plate" that we had. (In mandarin, its called 'len3 pan2').


This is white meat with garlicy sauce. Ooooo so yummy. If you have been visiting this bloggie, you realised that colleagues and I have this obsession with this dish, be it cantonese, heng hua, hokkien or whatever. haha...

蒜泥白肉



This is the deep fried century egg. Century eggs cooked this way does not scare many people right?
拼盘



Spring rolls. Light and crispy.



As I said before, ain't this Jap?



Haha... This is not from the cold plate. We ordered another bigger plate of this.




Ok. more tomorrow...

Heng Hua Food: Pu Tian Restaurant - Part 1

The last time we went to have Heng Hua, it was with family. This time, colleagues said let's go. This was taken 2-3 weeks ago. This Heng Hua Restaurant is also called Pu Tien. But this is Pu Tien Restaurant, the prev one was Pu Tien Seafood Restaurant. This one is most people call the 'original' one. haha..

This shop is also located at Kitchener Road, a few doors away from another restaurant with an almost similar name. Add: 127-129 Kitchener Rd, Singapore 208514.

Here's the shop front of the shop. It's true this shop's food taste better :-) Taken across the road.



They even have something to tell you that they have been on TV and Radio.



The kiam chai that's on the table when we sit down. I usually like salted veg, but this one not really my taste. But colleagues love it though.



This is one of the starter dishes. Make a guess. This is bitter gourd. Thinly sliced and very very cold. It is served with honey on a saucer by the side.



冰浸苦瓜

Wait the next day for more pictures.

Heng Hua Food: Bee Hoon Soup, Chicken, Prawns in Bamboo, Dessert

The last of the series.

Here's the Heng Hua Bee Hoon Soup. I prefer the dry version.



This chicken looks normal right? Is there anything Heng Hua to it? haha... But it's delicious.



This is the Drunken Prawns in Bamboo cylinder. I think someone commented on the first day about it. Wonder if I am allergic to prawns? hmmm...



This is the dessert. White fungus, ginko nuts and red date. (note its singular. haha...)




What shall I post for the food tomorrow? I have only been eating plain porridge and pickled chai sim for the last 2 days. Poor thing eh...

Heng Hua Food: Briased Beancurd, Heng Hua Bee Hoon, Steamed Fish, Braised Red Pork

Here are more dishes that we are. You know it's sometimes a bit hard to take photos when there are many people around the table. When the food comes out, all the chopsticks are rushing to it. So I had to quickly snap the photo, so some pictures are really blur. :-(

This is the Beancurd / Beancurd Skin dish.



Heng Hua Dry Bee Hoon. (this is yummylicious!)



Fish, looks and taste quite normal to me.



This is two slabs of braised red pork. So much meat.



Ok, the last installment of Heng Hua Food tomorrow. A bit busy these few days and am on MC yesterday (allergy due to some food? arrghh) So comments are not still not answered.