My last night in Singapore I was lucky enough to be able to have dinner with one of the people I worked with while here back in the ‘90s, and another ex-Landmarker who is (coincidently) working for PGS. Pauline always knew the best places to eat in town, so Mark and I gladly ceded all responsibility for the food to her.
We met about 7:00 PM. She has not changed a bit in 11 years. We started off to the food, stopping tp pick up Mark in the meantime. She drove us to a house on the East Coast called Hua Yu Wee. IT looked very promising. We walked around to the back, and Pauline asked for her favorite waitress. They chatted and laughed in Chinese. My only request was that we get a jug of cold Tiger, and some Black Pepper Crab. The beer was soon on the table, and we also had a plate of peanuts.
The peanuts are there for an appetizer, and you are supposed to eat them with your chopsticks. That is quite fun, especially since these are not dry roasted, but the oiled ones. Delicious, and entertaining as well.
The food started coming shortly thereafter. The first thing we got was fried mushroom caps. They were covered with something or other, and were large – about the diameter of a cue ball (but not round, of course. Nor hard. Nor white) These were quickly followed by a plate of Baby Kai Lan. Those are similar to baby Bok Choy in the US. You can’t stop eating them!
Drunken Shrimp followed (Shrimp boiled in some sort of alcohol) with a hot dipping sauce. Concurrent with the Shrimp were Butter Crayfish. There were just the tails, breaded and stir fried. Deep fried, maybe. They were LARGE, too. About 5” long and at least 1 ½ “ wide. They brought us forks so that we could hold one side down and dig the meat out with a chopstick. Now we were really eating.
We also got a plate of deep fried squid. These are tiny. Popcorn or peanut size. You can just eat a million of these little things.
Ah, but then, the dish I was waiting for. Black Pepper Crabs. Big Sri Lankan crabs that are partially steamed, then cracked and covered with spices, mostly black pepper, and other goodness, and finished off in a wok. It is sort of like heaven in a claw. I ate more than my share, though I must say that nobody left that table hungry.
We finished with some fruits and more conversation.
11 years is too long to stay away from this sort of food.
Are the deep fried squid whole little squids or pieces cut up?
ReplyDeleteI made deep fried squid at home once. They were better than any you get around here.