水煮鱼 – S$18.80

N.B. my chinese friend recommended & i tried this very cheap 水煮鱼at foodgle hub, NUS, on 23.12.2013, & it was quite good too.

i have this craving for sichuan 水煮鱼. my wife & children are not into it much so i have few “kakis” aka partners in crime to go for this fix. 🙂

these days there are so many sichuan restaurants in chinatown, geylang and where else. i have not been to many but a good one is chuan garden restaurant at pagoda street, but it’s kind of ex.

my favourite for now is chengdu sichuan restaurant at outram road. they don’t charge service & GST but the few times i was there i gave a tip anyway. most dishes are about chuan garden standard but at 1/2 to 2/3 prices. also chengdu uses 生鱼 (toman or snakehead fish) which is excellent whereas chuan garden i suspect uses pangasius, the cheap vietnamese catfish. 水煮鱼is my favourite dish & chief reason for going to such a restaurant and after trying the chengdu version, i don’t really want to go back to chuan garden if it is just a 水煮鱼 fix. 🙂

on this day, 17.8.2013, i got to satisfy my cravings with my sis & a chinese friend.

the 水煮鱼 (top photo) was so, so good. the 生鱼 fillet were so fresh & tasty & no bones, and the peppercorn (花椒) made it so “pang” ie flavourful & full of umami. 🙂

水煮牛肉 – S$18.80

蒜油麦菜 – garlic romaine lettuce

usually i would order 夫妻肺片which was another favourite sichuan dish, but i had not had 水煮 dishes for quite a while so decided to have a double dose & ordered 水煮牛肉..it was good! the beef was tenderised as usual with bicarbonate, certainly a “far more kick” preparation for me c/w the usual stir-fried beef, but really no comparison with 水煮鱼. 🙂

there were only 3 of us & the 2 dishes were rather large dishes, so we skipped other favourite dish like double-cooked pork (回锅肉) which is another very good dish here, & just ordered a vege, a 蒜油麦菜 garlic romaine lettuce, to complement the meal. this was very good too. 🙂

well, the craving was met but did not get any less by doing, so i want to go back soon. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy