The robust cloudy soup / broth is stewed for over 3 hours with pork bones and dried sole fish, resulting in a punchy meaty fishy savoury sweet flavour.
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Garnishes of crisp napa cabbage, tender yam / taro chunks, wispy seaweed, and crunchy cai xin / choy sum, combine to lend vegetal earthy sweet flavour.
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The generous chunks of bone-in and boneless red grouper fish are tender and flaky, with meaty sweet savoury flavour, holding up well in the roiling boil of the charcoal fire steamboat. Note that no milk is added.
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While each order of steamboat already comes filled with ingredients, you can opt to add-on additional ingredients.
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Nan Hua Chang (Traditional) Fish Head Steamboat
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2024/08/zi-char-nan-hua-chang-traditional-fish.html
The Cuttlefish Kang Kong (SGD $12 / $16 / $20) features fresh crisp kang kong / water spinach with vegetal sweet flavour, and slippery smooth chunks of cuttlefish with neutral flavour, in a piquant thick gravy of fermented shrimp paste, plum sauce, hoi sin sauce, and rock sugar, resulting in a sweet sour salty herbal nutty flavour. Enticing to the palate.
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The Signature Fermented Bean Curd Fried Pork Belly (SGD $12 / $18 / $22) has tender chewy chunks of pork belly coated in a crisp red fermented bean curd batter, and each bite carries lovely savoury meaty earthy salty flavour. Served with a light chili and white vinegar sauce on the side for a touch of sour spicy heat that tingles.
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The Salted Egg Chicken (SGD $12 / $18 / $22) has boneless chicken chunks stir-fried with salted egg yolk and curry leaves till crisp crunchy in texture, carrying addictive eggy salty savoury spice flavour. Their rendition is well coated, with the salted egg yolk sauce clinging to each piece of chicken.
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The Oyster Omelette (SGD $12 / $18 / $22) features an egg omelette that is crisp fluffy around the edges, and soft tender in the center, with eggy savoury salty sweet flavour. The large juicy oysters carry briny salty savoury flavour, pairing well with the spicy chili sauce on the side.
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The Signature Tofu Bean Curd (SGD $12 / $18 / $22) features dense spongy soft tofu bean curd strips, covered with a crisp batter. Each bite has a pleasant grainy salty savoury sweet flavour. Their rendition seems more dense than elsewhere.
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Nan Hua Chang (Traditional) Fish Head Steamboat
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2024/08/zi-char-nan-hua-chang-traditional-fish.html
Love Nan Hua Chang, the fish head steamboat at this Singapore’s first Teochew Fish Head Steamboat restaurant. Absolutely recommended
For the smallest portion, this was still quite a lot to share and everyone was satisfied with the amount we got. The texture is the same as what you could get at some caifan stalls but it’s definitely tastes better and less salty.
Crispy, juicy, satisfying fried chicken made fresh! Found another zichar place to frequent now. If you avoid this fish dishes and come in a group, it can be pretty affordable.
Not as salty as Ah Jiu, and it's a good thing! $40 for a pot of grouper fish for 2.
#ps_2star #ps_sgfood #burpple
Yes, the popular fish skin snacks that come in packets are very convenient but having the fish skin deepfried on-the-spot still wins.
This plate we had at this air-conditioned casual eatery specialising in fish steamboat and “zi char” dishes, was freshly cooked with some salted egg yolk and curry leaves. So it arrived very hot and smelling like a million bucks. Every bite was also audibly shattering!
Everyone around the table loved it and I swear, if we had ordered a second serving, that would have been disappeared as fast as the first.
By the way, do note this place is located at the bottom of the HDB block. Please don’t confuse it with the similarly-named eatery located in the rundown-looking corner coffeeshop just across the traffic light junction from it.
When you come here for their charcoal-fired steamboat as most people do, be sure to also order their Crispy Beancurd. We got a medium portion ($16) based on our waitress’ recommendation, and well, every bit of it disappeared into our bellies all too swiftly.
Prepared in big blocks, the tofu is deepfried to an addictive crisp but the main reason for its popularity is how flavourful it is. Obviously the beancurd must have some very finely-minced ingredients mixed in (am guessing vegetables, maybe even seafood, but I could be wrong) which gives it that tasty sweetness. Enjoyed it most dipped in the sourish chilli sauce.
I have found a “Har Jeong Gai” (deepfried prawn paste chicken) to rival my favourite at “881 X.O. Fish Head Beehoon” on Balestier Road. This one is from “Nan Hua Chang Seafood Restaurant” at the ground level of Blk. 462 Lavender Lane, the lone, long, curved HDB block facing the traffic light junction.
At this air-conditioned “zi char” place, only the mid-joint of the chicken wing is used (sorry drumlet eaters) but each piece is really big and cooked to perfection. Sealed within a fabulously fragrant coating of crunchiness is chicken meat that’s extraordinary juicy and tender. Freshness is apparent as their chicken has none of the gross odour you find in those that have been frozen for too long.
The charcoal-fired steamboat here is another winner. Whenever we visit, my family would order one each of pomfret and grouper because we can’t get enough. Whichever the fish, it always tastes very fresh and comes simmered with plenty of yam, Chinese cabbage and seaweed in a flavourful soup rendered deeply umami by ”ti poh” (sun-dried flat fish).
Pricing is very affordable too (shown above is the medium portion that costs $14) and I feel the food here tastes better than the longer-established and popular place selling very similar dishes, diagonally across the road from it.
Family-bonding time last Sunday took place over not one but two charcoal-fired steamboats. Because when one loves fish as much as my parents do, choosing between pomfret and grouper is impossible.
Besides the differing fish, everything else was identical. That is, the steamboats were chockfull of Chinese cabbage, “tang o”, yam pieces and seaweed.
The broth in both were equally delicious. Speaking of which, my parents’ habit is to only add on a little each time whenever the staff come around with the soup kettles. They like to stretch out the concentration of the original soup in which all the ingredients were simmered in.
I asked the auntie of it was another branch she rudely replied "same but different boss". Tastes the same to me but sitting in the air conditioned room makes me smell liked I just had a BBQ.
Steamy hotpot tze char dinner! $306 Price tag (Left-right clockwise) Preserved beancurd pork, hotplate deer meat, scallop asparagus, crispy prawn roll, Naibai vegetables with bean sticks, salted eggs prawn, pomfret steamboat, four treasure beancurd, prawn paste chicken, yam ring, deep fried baby squid, and chili clams!
Mei Cai Kou Rou 梅菜扣肉 (Steamed Pork Belly with Mustard Greens) Tender and Juicy Meat 🐷
