One of our colleague's leaving and it's customary for us to send him off with a good meal. We came up with a list of places to feast, narrowed down to 2 or 3 and asked him to pick one. He said, how about, I bring you all somewhere else instead?
It's the place he and his wife (and sometimes his whole 'clan') love to go. I think he probably has tried almost everything on the menu! He especially loves the cold crabs there and thinks the rest of us would definitely enjoy it too. He warned us, the place is no fancy place, it's probably stuck in time. It's as if time has stopped 30 years in the decor department. But... he said, but the food's good! Superb!
Looking at the photo above, it's not that ancient ya? From the outside, it still looked ok.
The inside, it's definitely not modern at all. Not the decor you expect from food magazines. It's a little old school, yes, even 'equipped' with aircon that's struggling to keep everyone cool. Don't worry, they have some trusty standing fans.
Teochew Cold Crabs that had tempted us for a whole week! We have been told the whole week (by our colleague), how awesome, captivating, tempting they were.
"Just steamed crabs what, so special meh?", we teased our colleague. We knew it would be, but since he is leaving, we had to 'suan' him every opportunity we can.
Yes, in the expert hands of the chefs, it tasted really really good!
Crab meat. Slightly chilled. Semi-crack shells that only requires you to gently twist it and you get the luscious looking crab meat. Admire it before popping it into your mouth. Crabs are what I call a 'busy over nothing' food. It's just a perfect food to waste time away and chit chat.
It was a working day, but since the boss was with us, we can safely have a super extended lunch hour.
Spicy Wok Fried Sweet Potato Leaves. They probably have a nice big wok in the kitchen to whip out this 'fan shu ye' with sambal. Spicy and yet so addictive. We like!
What is this? It's Teochew Braised Goose. You read it correctly, goose and not duck. It was so tender and doesn't have the ducky/gamey smell.
Pop it into your mouth and you can feel the tender meat kind of dissolve. OK I lied, it does not dissolve. You know what I mean. You don't need to use any strength to bite the meat, it's breaks up and you don't need to chew.
Some green fodder for us to have some fibre in our diet.
Plain fried and yet it disappears in a blink of the eye. There were 13 of us, all hungry fellas!
A plain looking dish with a fancy name - "four treasure beancurd".
But take a bite at the beancurd and you would like it. It's something really tasty. Since there was so many of us, we each had a nibble only.
"Kiam Chai Ark" - Duck and Salted Veg Soup.
This soup was so comforting. Though a tad too salty, but we all finished every drop of it!
(I think it was this soup that made us thirsty the whole afternoon later. LOL)
Our colleague said we should try this too. I forgot it was duck or goose web.
It's not the whole plate of it, there were tofu below it.
I know some of you don't eat this. But if you have followed my colleagues and my food adventure, we love chicken feet, so you can assume that we like other kinds of 'feet' too. Almost boneless! It was a blessing in disguise that half the table don't eat this, the rest of us walloped it all!
Our colleague ordered most of the things in some Cantonese gibberish / secret codes.
But he spoke in Chinese when he ordered this. He called it the chicken that's usually served in "cold platter". It's called Fried Spiced Chicken.
I think this is so so lah.
This was one of their signature dishes. Chai Poh Kway Teow.
Super wok hei kuey teow, was oily but quite unique.
I like chai por and CKT, so I absolutely adore this!
I think most of the colleagues like orh nee, but I am not a lover of yam.
Those who love orh nee thought it was rather good, but I ate it just to have a taste of it.
Our boss was raving about it.
Splitting the bill with so many of us is quite a good deal. A very satisfying meal indeed.
No service charge by the way! We noticed something, they looked ancient in their 'hardware', old furniture etc, but the software they use for their receipt's pretty modern!
Wishing our colleague, 'wire' all the best in his new workplace!
Swa Garden Restaurant
540 - 542 Macpherson Road
Singapore 268223
Tel: 6744 5009
