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

Pu Tien @ Food Republic VivoCity

This was Sunday's lunch. Comfort food that reminds us of our late maternal grandma's cooking. Do you know when she was around,  we called her SuperGran!

What did we eat here?

We had to order this every time we are here. Ice cold bitter gourd with honey.





If you don't like the regular tea, you can ask for their special teas. This place serves nice tea! The tea we had came in individual cups. There seems to be some promo. We only paid for 2 instead of 4 cups.

These tea cups have filters for tea leaves.




The tea we had was the Fujian Tie Kuan Yin. You should try it, it's nice! Each cup is filled with half a pack of these fragrant leaves.




The 9 layer braised pig intestines. If you like intestines, these are delicious.
(But if you want the even nicer ones, the Kitchener Road main branch seems better. hehe)




The Hing Hwa Bee Hoon that we like.
Supergran and mum's version has 'kim zham' (tiger lily buds) and 'bok nee' (black fungus).




The shredded meat with bun. Their version here has the 'hoisin sauce' taste. Supergran's version is with dark and light soy with something else. Sigh... I am thinking of supergran now...




You eat it with crispy skin sesame seed buns here.
(For supergran's version we had it with plain rice or her favourite 'cho bee' (brown rice) or 'cho bee berr' (brown rice porridge) )




We had a peep at the next table and saw that they ordered this. We got tempted and swapped our orders. Steamed bamboo clams with garlic.  It's delicious!




This is the wet version of 'hing hwa bee hoon'. If you like gooey stuff, try this! It's not mee suah but when you eat it you might think it is. Hing hwa bee hoon is very fine.

All of us remembered supergran when we ate this. She liked gooey stuff like this dish. She must have fed so much of it to us, now when we taste something similar, we feel very warm in our hearts.




A great lunch. Yummy yummy indeed.


Pu Tien @ VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-01B VivoCity Food Republic
Singapore 098585

Tel: 6376 9358

Putien @ Kitchener Road

I had some vouchers that was given when I ate here the last time. Each time you eat here, it seems they give you some vouchers. The ones I had was worth $160. So we thought we could come here and use it up.

Guess what? We did not read the terms and conditions at the back. We thought that we could just use it like cash like the ones we had at Waraku previously.  It was only when we were paying we found out that we could only use each $20 vouchers with every $100 purchase! Arrghh...

Anyway, we did not want to let that bother us, we could at least use $30 worth of vouchers.  We enjoyed the food, service and the fellowship at the table.

The last time I was here was with mum and 2 aunts. Sis and the rest did not try it. So we ordered food that we had previously.

This is the Iced Bitter Gourd sliced thinly and served with a little bowl of honey. As a family of bitter gourd lovers, we like this. ;-) ($4.80)





We also ordered the braised pig intestines for sis to try too. ($12) It's not that scary actually. Try it!





Another of our favourites. Cold Pork with garlic sauce. ($7) The ones here are really cold, so it's very nice! You know how some food taste really good after being left in the fridge? This is one such dish.





My favourite noodles. Fried Hing Hwa Bee Hoon. I like the super fine bee hoon that has absorbed all the flavours of the seafood.





One of sis favourite is Yam. So this is ordered for her. Stir Fried Yam. ($10) It's crispy outside but it's soft and mushy inside. The sauce is sweet. So it taste really nice.





We were going to order the main dishes and were choosing when the service staff suggested we should order the set meal for 4 persons instead. We  had 5 persons and we were ordering things that are quite similar to the sets. The sets are priced cheaper. We could add a few others if we think the food's not enough.

So the following dishes are part of the $88 set for 4 persons. (the set meal details I just realised is on their website too)

We had the Claypot Sea Cucumber with Chestnuts. Guess what's my favourite inside this pot? The roast pork! Of course we like the sea cucumber too. ;-)





The Pu Tien Sweet and Sour Pork with Lychee. Done perfectly. Crispy and sweet and sour enough. Also you can bite into real meat instead of mostly flour in many places.





We also had the Steamed Seabass. It was quite a big fish. Our cousin is a fish person. A young girl finishing up even the head. She can really eat every part of the fish!





The set also includes a main that we can choose. We had the Pu Tien Lor Mee.
Yes, the Lor Mee that's not dark. It's yummy. I like to eat it with the chilli sauce that's very spicy and sour (that's on each table). It goes really well.





Since it's a set for 4, so we only had 4 bamboo containers with 2 prawns each. We just shared the prawns. What a cute little prawn. ;-P





We ended the meal with a sweet note. A complimentary dessert.
White fungus and white lily seeds. Sweet and cold. Ahh.....




We had our meal with a pot of Tie Guan Yin that's really nice. The lady asked if we would like to try some premium tea leaves. So we did. The tea was good and of course expensive! It was $14.40. We had 3 packs of the tea leaves over lunch.


I still have 6  pieces of the same vouchers that I used to pay for the meal. It expires on 28 Jan this month though. If you want them, you can have it. Remember that you have to spend $100 though to use it. (I found out only when I was paying.)

Just drop an email at keropokman @ gmail.com and if you are the first 6 persons, I will mail them to you.


Pu Tien
127-129 Kitchener Road
Singapore 208514

Tel: 6295 6358

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

Putien @ VivoCity (Food Republic) Part II

Here's the continuation.

The vegetable dish we had. Spinach with salted egg. I think there was century egg as well. It was very starchy though. (characteristic of Hing Hwa food I wonder?)



This is the Hing Hwa Lor Mee.
Yes, it's Lor Mee and it's not dark! Hing Hwa lor mee is clear, but it's still starchy. :-)

It's very nice though. I like it.



This is Deep Fried Duck with Yam.
Duck covered with yam and deep fried till it's crispy outside. Aunt and sis just love yam so this is their favourite.



Lotus Leaf Steam Crab with vermicelli.
This dish sure took a long time to come out. I think they warned us but we still wanted to eat it. Our wait was worth it. All of us liked it. The vermicelli's has soaked in all the taste. The crabs nice too. You can see that there's lots of roe. :-)



After tasting the vermicelli in the crab dish. We thought we still wanted to eat vermicelli. We also did not order the Hing Hwa Bee Hoon, so ordered it! LOL

If you come here alone and want to order something to try, you should order this. It's good.



Another of the 44 cents item is the Hot Yam Paste with Ginko. If you look at their website you will realise it's big. For 44 cents, there's only 1 nut on top. :-)

But it's nice though.






Putien @ VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-01B VivoCity Food Republic
Singapore 098585
Tel: 6376 9358