Duotou clams are back at Putien

We came by Putien (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一) for a quick dinner grabbed a plate of those sweet clams steamed with minced garlic together with their Xing Hua noodles (兴化米粉). Noticed that there're new dishes on their menu. Will come back another time for some of those.

Revisiting Xing Hua (兴化) at Chinatown Point

More food from this branch of Xing Hua. The more we eat here, the more we notice how these guys fall short compared to Putien. 😬

This was described as stir fried long beans (四季豆) with XO sauce. Not sure if this was with any XO sauce at all. Those bits were kinda like spicy dried shrimp/hae bee hiam. Lightly spicy, salted with a light sweetness. Nice. I thought this was a pretty competent rendition of the dish. 

We ordered the salted egg Duotou clams because we hadn't had them in this style before. I wouldn't recommend these. These weren't worth half of what they charged. Most of the plate were shells and batter for the salted egg. Those clams were also small and pretty tasteless. Nothing like the quality one gets at Putien.

Ordered their claypot seafood tofu. Tofu's not bad. There's a couple of slices of fish in there that's pretty muddy tasting and also a couple of sad looking scallops besides those prawns. The dish looked and felt like a obligatory item that was on the menu because someone felt that it needed to be there. Nothing outstanding about this.

Tried their claypot drunken duck because we've never had drunken duck before. Remember those boiled to death chicken in chicken soup where the meat has become hard and/or stringy and tasteless. That's what these duck tasted like. Not like duck. The braising soup/broth thingy was delicious though.

The chicken from this double boiled red mushroom chicken soup was actually pretty good eating. Tender, salted and easily slurped off the bone. Not dry and stringy like the duck. Not a bad one.

Chilled jello worms, iced bitter gourd and more Duotou clams from Putien

More food from Putien. Been enjoying the food from this branch at Great World (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九). In all these visits, we've never felt that their Michelin starred flagship at Kitchener Road was any better.

One of the new items on the menu was described as chilled jello worms. Don't know what those worms were but they had texture that was akin to clams. Said worms were trapped in a savoury jelly that's drizzled over with finely minced garlic, chilli and soy sauce.

Trying their iced bitter gourd for the first time. These thin shaven and chilled bitter gourd strips were served with a honey dip on the side. Crisp and refreshing they were.

Salt and pepper 蛏 fried in a light flour coat. We wanted to try more of these Duotou clam dishes since since they were still in the season. Those brown strips were tea tree mushrooms.

蛏 steamed with minced garlic. The main flavours came from the pungent sweetness in the garlic and light soya sauce pairing with textures that reminded me of bamboo clams. Nicely done.

Stir fried pig's liver. Not bad.

The other new dish from their menu we picked up were kelp seedlings with minced pork in chicken broth. I liked this.

Gotta do this with all that right?

Duotou clams season is back at Putien

The Duotou clams are back at Putien. They even have a cute mascot this time. Along with an update to the menu that included, IIRC, around 20 new dishes. From what we learnt from the restaurant, the clams are referred to as 哆头蛏 or just 蛏 (chēng).

This braised home made tofu was one of the new dishes. Liked the spongy texture with the bean flavour which has soaked even more flavour from the braising sauce.

Stir fried kailan and beancurd skin was from the old menu. Had this previously.

Another new dish on menu was claypot chicken in Chinese red wine lees (红糟). I'm a little surprised that a dish with these red wine lees haven't been available here earlier when places like Xing Hua have already done so. Anyways, this was pretty good. Chicken was tender in a delicious gravy that was superb pairing with rice. Those black stuff are wood ear fungus.

One of the dishes from the current 蛏 season were said clams stir fried in dried chilli and garlic. Savoury and a bit spicy. I realized for the first time that these dried chillis can be eaten. Nice.

More 蛏 in omelette and mushrooms which allowed the flavour of the clams to be showcased.

Can't be doing all these flavourful dishes without rice.

Xing Hua (兴化), Tiong Bahru Plaza

This shop is located next to Nana Curry. We've noticed them (#02-110 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) for a while now. Curiosity prevailed and we wanted to know if they were good. 

Their sweet & sour pork with lychee was competently done. Some of the pieces were fatty pork belly and others were lean meat but they all had a good crusty surface from the deep fry. Easily one of the better sweet & sour pork we've had in recent times. My only gripe was that the lychees weren't stir fried with the pork. I know because they were the only items on the plate that was slightly chilled. 

The short of it was they did a pretty tasty and savoury Heng Hwa bee hoon. Flavour was much more intense than the one from Putien Delights but the quality wasn't the level which Putien is at. Then again, neither was the price. They also didn't use those Duotou clams here. That being said, I'd happily eat this again. 

Never had Mazu mee sua before so I haven't any comparisons. This was essentially the broth-y version of the Heng Hwa bee hoon with mee sua instead of bee hoon. That broth had a similar taste profile with a cabbage-y sweetness like the white lor mee we've had at Old House. Not bad.

More eating at Putien

I'm not a shareholder if anyone was suspecting. I just like their food.

We have favourites like their fine Heng Hwa bee hoon which is great on its on or with their lime-y chilli sauce.

They also do a very decent lychee sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉) which we enjoy.

This was their deep fried tenggiri - Spanish mackerel which is pretty common in this parts. Fish was dry without excessive grease and pretty tasty with their sweet garlic sauce.

Ordered their kailan with bean curd skin. Loved those bean curd skin. Reminded me of the tau kee that I used to eat loads of in Chinese vegetarian bee hoon as a kid.

The Duotou clam festival is in progress so we grabbed a pot steamed in Huadiao wine (花雕酒). This method of cooking preserved the natural flavour of the clams while adding another light layer from the wine on top. 

See how fat and juicy looking the clams were. They were literally squirting out hot juices when I bit into them.

Of yellow croakers, Duotou clams and others at Putien

The Yellow Croaker Festival is not yet over but the Duotou clams are already in season. Hence both items have their seasonal dishes on their menu. What are Doutou claims you might wonder? they're succulent meaty clams which are harvested in and named after the village of Dou Tou in Putien.

Here're some of those clams in chilled in fermented wine. The dominant flavour here was the wine. I thought that the clams packed more flavour in previous cooked noodle dishes we've had.

The clams were also available steamed with garlic puree. What worked here was the garlic that they used weren't overpowering and had a sweetness with paired with the meat from the clams.

Fried yellow croaker from their regular menu.

Yellow croaker steamed with chopped chillis. Not as spicy as it was salty from the fermented black beans that were used in those chilli. Delicious with rice. The meat from the fish was tender.

Tried their spinach in supreme stock - a stock that oddly reminded me of the smoky gravy from hor fun that I had when I was a kid. This was good. Garlic cloves in the dish were fragrant, tender and sweet.

Gotta have rice for the chopped chilli from the steamed yellow croaker and that supreme stock from the spinach.

We had room for desserts so this was their double boiled pear with osmanthus and aged mandarin peel. The flavour from the mandarin peel came through in the soup and the pear.

And some very tender white fungus that was sweet and soothing.