Sunday, November 27, 2005

Return to Paradise

Sometime back in July this year, I had blogged about this zhe-cha coffeeshop at Defu Lane 10 called The Seafood Paradise Restaurant (link back to previous post). Itching to suck at some well-cooked crabs, the whole family trooped back to this coffeeshop last week and with their extensive menu, we managed to order an array of dishes without repeating a single item from our last visit here.
Butter Crabs
Although this dish of butter crabs came last, I must feature it first cos' these guys do a really mean butter crab dish - creamy butter sauce spiced with some black pepper and slices of red-hot chilli padi (and I believe, some Thai-based spices, tho' I may be wrong), garnished with coriander leaves, fried bits of garlic and crunchy oat bits. A separate side order of fried mantous (little square breads) are a MUST in order to soak up all that lovely sauce. Finger-lickin' good!

Bitter Gourd Soup This bitter gourd soup was ordered by hubby, which came as a total surprise not only to me but his family as well since hubby is not known to consume bitter gourds. Kudos to hubby though as the combination of bitter gourd slices cooked with fresh fish slices and cuttlefish produced a refreshing soup - with just a tang of that distinctive bitter gourd taste without overpowering the sweet flavors of the fresh fish slices and cuttlefish.

Bacon Cheese Sausage Wrap Most stuff wrapped in bacon and panfried or deepfried will taste good and this particular dish of bacon wrapped cheese sausage was no exception.


Braised Frog Legs with Chicken Essence We also loved this dish of tender braised frog legs, which was served at the table with a bottle of Brands' Essence of Chicken that we duly poured right into the broth itself. The broth was quite flavorful tho' I generally prefer my frog legs sauteed with dried chillies in thick black sauce normally served with porridge (but that's a post for another day).

Luohan Chye Parcel We were fairly impressed with the presentation for this dish of 'luohan chye', with the braised mushrooms of different varieties, baby corn, black wood-eared fungus and other ingredients all wrapped inside a parcel of beancurd skin. Cutting open the parcel released the ingredients within as well as the aromatic steam of the braised mushrooms and vegetables.

Suckling Chicken
And finally, I must share with you this unusual dish called the Jinlong Suckling Chicken. Now, I've eaten suckling pig but I must say that this is the first time I've come across a dish called suckling chicken. Thin slices of chicken meat (meat that is sliced just next to the skin) together with its crispy roasted chicken skin are served with a savory sweet sauce. Altho' the skin did not remain all that crispy after being drizzled with the said sauce, it was nevertheless tasty and before we knew it, our chopsticks had picked up more than one slice (which was the number we had originally intended to limit ourselves to per person, considering that chicken skin no matter how lovely couldn't be all that healthy for us, no?).

Our return to Paradise did not disappoint and we now await eagerly our next visit here - which can only happen after that little bump at the tummy region has had some work-out done to it!

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant
91 Defu Lane 10
Swee Hin Building
Singapore 539221
Tel: 64872429

6 Comments:

Blogger RealLifeReading said...

suckling chicken! sounds interesting!

11/28/2005 06:03:00 PM  
Blogger slurp! said...

i like to eat chicken skin, suckling chicken now gives me another option *yum* :)

11/29/2005 12:07:00 AM  
Blogger boo_licious said...

wow! I love the butter crabs and suckling chicken. I hope some tai chow guy in KL is reading this and recreates that dish here as it sounds so yummy.

11/29/2005 09:51:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hi olduvai, if u get the chance, u must try for the heck of it!

dear slurp, I like roasted chicken skin and would happily indulge in it too if not for all the naysayers who have denounced this as totally unhealthy *sigh* :(

hi boo, if can't find in KL, just drop by Singapore soon!

11/29/2005 11:06:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi

Decided Seafood Paradise as birthday dinner venue bash for my father after reading very favourable reviews both by you as well as asiaone. There were 18 of us inclusive of children of varying ages spread over 2 tables.

We ordered abt 15 dishes as follow:

1) Crabs done two ways. One with the vermicelli and the other in creamy butter sauce. The vermicelli and crabs were unevenly distributed and the creamy butter sauce watery and sweet (too much sugar). Crabs so-so.

2) 2 kinds of veg. Thai Kai Lan in Oyster sauce and Luo Han Chai. You know it is overdone when it is dull green instead of bright green. Tasted really old, not crunchy. Nothing special about the LHC but at $15/serving, a bit steep for nothing.

3) 1 claypot toufoo and their special homemade toufoo in mini-wok. Can't even turn this simple fare out. One word: hopeless.

4) Two prawn dishes. One fried with oatmeal and the other drunken. Fair enough.

5) Jinlong suckling chicken as well as another round of Fragrant chicken later (actually just fried chicken) because there is no meat so to speak. I expect at least a thin slice under the skin. More like eating biscuit for the children and they are still hungry.

6) 2 types of noodles. Was recommended fried mee sua but tasted more like a cross between HKG chow mien and sinchow beehoon. The worst dish is the crab meat eefu noodles. Don't look like eefu and doesn't taste like one either.

7) Imperial ribs. Good standard fare.

8) Fishslice fried in black beans and bittergourd slices. It's so put together and black that you don't know what you are eating.

9) 15 bowls of rice and 2 plates of mantou. Basic but very gratifying and most satisfactory of the lot.

Maybe you went during weekdays or off-peak timing. It was terrible during weekends. They just can't cope and all the so-called "famous" dishes were disastrous. It was just not our night....to crowded, short of staff (both wait and serving). Our orders were definitely prepared and cooked by asst cooks because it was bland and tasted the same thru out(no wok hei at all).

The children left still feeling hungry and we adults felt empty and unsatisfied. Nothing is memorable so our unanimous take (family vote) is we will not go back there nor recommend it to anyone.

12/13/2005 03:55:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous, I'm so SORRY to hear of your not-so-satisfactory experience. It sure doesn't sound like the place I went to twice with my family members which got thumbs up on both occasions. Maybe it was just one of those days! :(

12/13/2005 04:08:00 PM  

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