Putian Flavor Food – Simple & Delicious Henghwa Fare!

Henghwa cuisine is gaining traction in Singapore. This humble cuisine is prepared with simple cooking methods, and cannot be done well without the use of fresh produce. We stumbled upon Putian Flavor Food, a quaint restaurant located in Lorong Ah Soo. The restaurant, which has both indoor and outdoor seating, has an extensive menu that is made up of mainly Henghwa dishes.

For lunch, we ordered 3 quintessential Henghwa dishes. They were the Pu Tien style Lor Mee ($5, $10 or $15), Deep Fried Slice Tenglin Fish ($9, $12 or $16) and Stir Fried Yam ($9, $12 or $16).

The lor mee may look like handmade noodles, but it’s not the case. The lor mee, which isn’t the common, dark, earthy, and viscous counterpart, uses handmade u-mian, and is cooked in a rich seafood broth. The soup was loaded with mushrooms, sliced meat, clams and prawns.

I’ve never really had stir-fried yam before. The only ‘stir-fried yam’ dish I had was Hakka abacus seeds, which contains flour. The stir fried yam at Putian Flavour Food is divine. These rectangles of pure yam are soft and fluffy on the inside, but have a crunchy, slightly crisp caramelised exterior with sesame seeds studded all over. 

What stood out the most for me was the deep-fried fish. It came piping hot, with sweet, juicy and flaky meat encased in a crispy charred exterior. The fish meat was already tasty on its own, but you can dip it in the accompanying sauce, which is a concoction of tau cheo, minced garlic, soy sauce and vinegar.

What I love the most about Pu Tien cuisine is how the flavours of each dish come from the freshness of the ingredients. For example, I don’t think it’s possible for fish to be eaten plain unless it was really fresh. Similarly, there isn’t a need to complicate a dish to get gastronomical flavours – there is always beauty in simplicity.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.