seafood paradise at defu lane 10

i enjoy seeking out makan places in unexpected locations, like the bottle tree village at sembawang and botak jones at tuas. last night, we went to another - the seafood paradise at defu lane 10. this restaurant is tucked away in an industrial area in hougang.

to get there, travel along upper serangoon road till you reach the turning to tampines. turn right onto this road and travel on it, pass hougang avenue 1 before making a right turn into hougang avenue 3. keep left and look out for the turning into defu lane 10. turn right and keep on going until you come to swee hin building.

parking is free within the compound of this industrial building. there were ample lots on a weekday. i would not know the situation on a weekend. you can choose to sit in the air-conditioned room or opt for al fresco in the open. we were there on a tuesday night and i counted at least sixteen tables occupied.

we had the signature butter crab, cheese prawns, tofu, oyster omelette, sambal sweet potato leaves and yam basket.

the butter crab ($28 per kg) is served with fried buns (man tou). made of butter and skimmed milk, the gravy is spiced up by the white pepper that is added for fragrance. do not know if the tofu was the homemade version. anyway, it was good. the sambal sweet potato leaves dish had to be good because we had two plates of it.

abc food centre @ bukit merah

i drove lay bee's car to the borneo motor's workshop at leng kee road for its 10 000km servicing. while waiting for the car to be ready, i walked to abc food centre. this upgraded food centre at bukit merah seems to have more than its fair share of award winning food stalls.

one of the first stalls that greets you as you enter the food centre is the boneless chicken rice stall which has earned a string of awards. across it is the crispy roti prata stall manned by an elderly chinese woman. next to it is ong's kitchen curry. opposite the curry stall is guan poh cuisine whose speciality is hor fun. the stall in between the chicken rice and guan poh cuisine is one that sells sugar cane, soya bean and beancurd. it has also garnered some award.

going on to the next row, you have jasons's penang cuisine and swee kee's wanton mee. there is also a branch of chong pang nasi lemak. yong kee fish bee hoon, sin sin porridge and amoy street prawn noodles - all have the word 'famous' in their names.

i did not eat at any of the stalls. instead i bought pan chiang kueh (chinese pancake) from this lady whom i have been buying from for more than ten years. she first had a stall at bendemeer food centre, then she moved to ghim moh food centre and now, she is at abc bukit merah.

lunch at chinatown temporary food centre

victor had arranged for me to meet his friend patrick who is knowlegeable in financial investment and management. met victor, helen and victor's regular makan kakis for lunch at chinatown temporary food centre which is next to the outram mrt station. according to victor, the outram prison was adjacent to the site of the temporary food centre.

as the renovation of the chinatown food centre and market at smith street has been in progress since 2006, this is the make-shift site of chinatown's wet market, sundry food stalls and food centre.

every wednesday, victor will meet up with this particular group of friends and they will have lunch at a different location each wednesday. for example, next wednesday, they are meeting at amoy street food centre.

today, four members of the group had fish head bee hoon. the other three, including myself, had rice with fish head, bean sprouts and sweet and sour pork.

after the meal, we adjourned to pearl centre level 4 where the yangtze cineplex is located. found out that this cineplex screened ra films. saw a lot of ah peks among the patrons but did not see any female going into the theatres. there are four theatres, each screening a different ra show in a different language, namely, english, mandarin, japanese and filipino (tagalog).

it gives me an idea. i could apply to work as an usher here and get to watch x-rated shows for free.

forture restaurant @ bukit timah


had dinner at this zhe char restaurant along bukit timah road. it has expanded to include a steamboat section.

this restaurant, with a misspelt word, has been around for quite some time. when the turf club was at bukit timah road, a lot of cars, especially taxis, would be parked along the stretch of road outside the restaurant.

each time i eat there, i will come across a number of expatriates/caucasians having their meals there or buying take-aways. i have often wonder where they come from and how they come to know about the good food at this restaurant.

i did not eat their signature herbal chicken or the thai style fried fish. i had sambal kangkong, tom yam soup and thai style pork knuckles. at this restaurant, you can also order satay from a malay couple who operates a stall at the side of the restaurant.