It’s been a long while since we have had Putian cuisine; while there has been a period of time when establishments serving up zichar-style Putian cuisine have been rather common across the island, it seems that the wave of such eateries opening up had since slowed down. Considering so, this also made us pretty excited when we heard about the new Pu Tian Ke 莆田客 which had opened its doors at the coffeeshop located at Blk 218 Bedok North Street 1 — this coffeeshop is also the same one which houses Spicy Thai-Thai Cafe, as well as an outlet of Yakiniku Hero after its revamp; also walking distance away from the the HDB block that houses other notable F&B tenants such as that of Nangfa Thai Kitchen, an outlet of Nakhon Kitchen, an outlet of Hay’s Gelato and Percolate. Pu Tian Ke takes up a shop unit that is located at the corner of the coffeeshop — it is interesting to note that there is no seatings in the shop unit which the coffeeshop occupies; all dine-in seating are located in the sheltered area outdoors. As a stall which serves up Putian cuisine in a coffeeshop setting, Pu Tian Ke serves up a menu that comprises of dishes categorised into Main Dish, Soup, Seafood, Meat, Omelette, Vegetables (wrongly listed as a second “Main Dish” section in the laminated hard copy menu), and Beancurd sections — the sort of place that would probably work best to dine-in with a few more pax just to share the food around.

We pretty much were drawn to the same dishes that would usually catch our attention at an establishment which serves up Putien cuisine. One of the dishes which we were pretty drawn to was the Sea Oyster Omelette — a dish that had only started to become increasingly common at stalls serving up Putien eateries in recent times. For those whom are unaware, the Putien-style oyster omelettes vary quite a little bit from the local variants of oyster omelettes that we are used to getting at hawker centres. One rather significant difference between the two would be how the Putien-style oyster omelettes use a different type of oyster as compared to the oyster omelettes that one would find at most hawker centres. Using smaller oysters for the making of the dish, the Putian-style oyster omelette is typically served with the smaller bits of oysters being placed in the middle of the omelette rather than around random spots on the omelette as how it would usually be; the starchy parts are also concentrated within the same area as well. We prefer this style of oyster omelette considering how there is a concentration of briny flavours and a sticky texture that exists in the middle of the omelette; makes it savoury and eggy at the same time. This is where the chili comes in handy; that zippy and tangy chili that is served to the table as one makes their order went superbly well with the Sea Oyster Omelette — cutting through all of the briny oyster yet taking the heaviness out of the starchy parts, while adding a hint of spiciness that should do fine for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of heat that tickles the taste buds.

Having visited Pu Tien Ke with only one other pax, there were a limited number of dishes that we could have ordered when we made our visit there. Apart from the Sea Oyster Omelette, other dishes that we had tried at Pu Tian Ke includes the Xing Hua White Bee Hoon and the Stir Fried Crispy Yam; both of which can be considered as rather quintessential dishes to Putien cuisine. While all of the dishes were pretty on point, the rush that we would pick between the two others that we have had would be the Stir Fried Crispy Yam. The Stir Fried Crispy Yam is typically a must-order dish for us even at other establishments and we felt that the one here was fairly well-executed. While the yam is being sliced in larger chunks here, the chunky slices of gam was actually pretty soft here, providing quite a soft bite even despite the lack of really crusty exterior. Coated with the sugar they had been browned and reduced, the sugar layer sort of forms a glaze that provides a sweetness to the earthy chunks of yam; a rather complimentary flavour profile if one would say the least. In retrospect, while we did feel that the Xing Hua White Bee Hoon was pretty flavourful at the start, we realised that it was a little bit too wet we reached towards the bottom of the plate — somehow, it just felt like we thought the stock just did not get reduced sufficiently during the cooking process that would have resulted with the Bee Hoon having totally absorbed the stock to achieve a dry texture throughout. Overall, we do feel that Pu Tien Ke does put up some rather on-point Putien fare that would match up well against other establishments serving up Putien-style zichar dishes across the island — the price point can also be said to be pretty wallet-friendly, with prices of the dishes not exceeding $25 for “small” sized items as well as single-sized dishes. For those whom are staying around Bedok; Pu Tien Ke is a spot that is worth checking out!