Remember my suggestion to have Seafood for your Chinese New Year dinner?

Since there’s still a few more days before Chinese New Year ends, if you are still looking for a restaurant to toss Yu Sheng, Palm Beach Seafood restaurant at One Fullerton might just be the place. Instead of the typical salmon yusheng, we had the Alaskan King Crab Yu Sheng (S$58 or S$88).

My weekdays, by and large, are similar to the weekends of most people. I had a fabulous dinner on Monday night, attended my friend’s big night on Tuesday, and now we have a seafood feast on Wednesday. It’s probably going to be Japanese cuisine tomorrow, and Russian food on Friday. Okay, I am muttering to myself.

Anyway, a seafood feast sounds pretty good right? Chili crabs, sashimi, lobster, seafood platter. Have I got your attention? Good. Make yourself comfortable.

Lets try again: air-flown Hokkaido scallop, huge gleaming oysters, live poached prawns, fresh salmon sashimi, and the gigantic bamboo clam. That’s better. I could vaguely recall the oysters that I had, unprocessed and fresh. A wedge of lemon is all you need for the perfect oyster.

I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely order the Seafood Deluxe Combination ($23.00 per person) with a selection of five seafood items.

I don’t know if there’s anything special about Palm Beach’s signature Chili Crab ($4.50 per 100g), but I absolutely love it! My feelings for the Singapore famous dish very much depends on two things: a) thick and spicy-sweet chili gravy, and b) deep fried mantou.

The pincers were long gone by the time I was done with the deep fried buns. It’s easy to choose between crabs and mantou (with gravy) – I’d go for the latter anytime.

The award winning Double Baked Cheese Crab ($4.50 per 100g) reminded me of the baked cheese lobster that I’ve before, with its strong cheesy taste. Baked parmesan cheese and crab? Sounds like a winner! If you do not want to get your hands dirty, ask for help from the staff. Catherine got her crab de-shell the easy way.

I first had lobsters when I was a very young boy. Back then, I had no idea how much a lobster was worth. To me, it looked like a GIANT prawn. But what mattered then, was that it tasted good. As I grew up, I realized that lobsters are very expensive seafood, and they can be prepared in many different ways; baked, steamed, fried, sashimi, salad – whichever ways it pleases your palates.

The one that we had was very different from the ones I’ve before. Usually I’d go for either baked or salad lobsters, but we couldn’t miss out on Palm Beach’s awarding winning Coco Lobo – Australian Lobster with Vermicelli in Superior Stock ($16.80 per 100g). It came piping hot in individual claypot, with the lobster meat and vermicelli absorbing the essence of the flavorful stock.

Sweet and tangy, intense yet refreshing. It’s also not too spicy. The Honey Tangy Marble Goby ($7.50 per 100g) is fried till golden-brown: crispy and soft and appetizing, drizzled with just enough of the terrific sauce. Ju had the blissful look after she finished the dish – it was awesome!

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This is the third part of a series that I’m doing on the waterfront restaurants in One Fullerton. I’ll like to thank Fullerton Heritage, Karin of Palm Beach Seafood and Gail for arranging and hosting this dinner.

From what we observed, most Singaporeans seem to dine in the comfort of the air-condition, while the tourists prefer the al fresco area with the waterfront view. Will you dine indoors or outside at the al fresco area?

Restaurant Review
Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant
1 Fullerton Road
#01-09 One Fullerton
Tel: +65 6227 2332

Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?

We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is  you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.

How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.

The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.

This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.

I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?

It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.

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This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.

Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.

Tung Lok Seafood
1000 East Coast Parkway
2F Marine Cove
Tel: 6246 0555