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Singapore Dining - Hua Yu Wee

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  • Singapore Dining - Hua Yu Wee

    Singaporeans are quite aware of history and heritage these days. Conservation is a topic of much national interest, and by and large, you see old landmarks and historic buildings being preserved, not least our new National Gallery, housed in the old Supreme Court and City Hall buildings.

    Of course, timescales are much shorter in Singapore, and what passes for historic here might raise the eyebrows of people from more ancient countries and cultures. I wonder, for example, what our Italian friends in Rome think when we talk fondly about our old, "historic" National Library building, first built in 1960, and later demolished in 2005 to make way for a traffic tunnel. To preserve or demolish? Not always an easy question to answer. And let's not even weigh in on the ongoing dispute, in the news and social media this past week, between siblings over an old house in the Orchard area...

    But this post is not about history on a grand scale: it is about a small piece of old Singapore which has somehow managed to stay largely unchanged over at least 50 years, probably longer. The fact that it involves our national past-time, the quest for good food, makes it even more cherishable.

    Hua Yu Wee is a seafood restaurant at 462 Upper East Coast Road.



    It is housed in a 1920's colonial era bungalow in Bedok, in Singapore's East Coast. (For an excellent account of the background and history of the Bedok and Siglap area, check out the NHB's excellent Bedok Heritage Trail website, here.) This stretch of Upper East Coast Road, all the way up to Bedok Corner, used to be home to a whole string of seafood restaurants. Now only Hua Yu Wee remains.



    On the other side of Hua Yu Wee, beyond the tree-line in the picture above, used to be the East Coast beach front. Yes, the beach was right there. And beyond that, the sea. The land there has now been reclaimed to form East Coast Park, and part of the ECP towards Changi Airport.

    But somehow, the restaurant has remained, and it still serves traditional local seafood specialities, including chilli and black pepper crab, at reasonable prices, to a packed house each evening.

    To dine there is not unlike entering a time warp, back to Singapore in the 70's (Or earlier...). It is remarkable how little the menu or the service concept has changed since those days. As a restaurant, it is rough-around-the-edges, not at all trendy, and does not even make an attempt to celebrate it's storied history or heritage. The restaurant doesn't even have a website, for God's sake.

    You don't go there to experience a Disney-fied version of history -- this is the real deal: authentic seafood and zi char served in a hot, sweaty and chaotic setting. In other words, a national treasure.

    If you have fond memories of post-independence Singapore, as a struggling, developing country in the late 60's and 70's, you will find dining at Hua Yu Wee to be quite a trip down memory lane. On the other hand, if all you are familiar with is modern Singapore, with it’s freezing malls and attack-of-the-clones food courts, then Hua Yu Wee will be a eye-opening study in what we have gained, and what we have lost.
    Last edited by yflyer; 19 June 2017, 09:32 AM.

  • #2
    There is an indoor dining area in the main building, now air conditioned, but otherwise little changed…



    As well as a large non-airconditioned semi-outdoor dining area, which is arguably the more authentic way to sample traditional Singapore seafood and Chinese restaurant dishes…



    The food is all prepared in a separate building, with open windows where you can look into the huge kitchen, lined with a row of chefs cooking away on large woks over bright orange flames.





    This is “old school” Singapore Chinese seafood zi char restaurant cooking at its most traditional…the kitchen is a frenzy of perspiration-soaked chefs tossing and flipping stir-fry in huge sizzling woks…each by now an expert practitioner of wok-hei…

    And the front office is just as chaotic, with waiters and waitresses dressed partly in SQ-patterned sarong kebaya tops in different colours squeezing in between the densely packed tables to take orders and deliver large platters of food to tables. A scene of barely controlled chaos which somehow added to the charm and atmosphere of the place…

    Last edited by yflyer; 19 June 2017, 09:38 AM.

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    • #3
      And the menu? A very long list of traditional (and not so traditional) chinese cuisine and seafood favourites...

      Some of the old favourites includes crunchy deep fried baby squid…a guaranteed sore throat the next day if you eat a large portion, but oh so delicious…



      Tofu with spinach and mushroom…a more modern creation probably added to the menu in recent years due to popular demand…



      Seafood hor fun (flat rice noodles…) with both boiled and crisp fried hor fun, as well as fresh shrimp and clams…



      …the hor fun had a wonderful smoky flavour which is very hard to replicate unless you have your wok-hei technique just right…

      Crisp roast chicken – another old standby…

      Last edited by yflyer; 19 June 2017, 09:39 AM.

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      • #4
        There is always a debate at Singapore seafood restaurants over whether to order chilli crab or black pepper crab…

        Often the best solution is to order both…

        Chilli Crab, served in piping hot gravy…and as good as anywhere on this island…



        …and with chilli crab, it is all about the fiery red gravy, eaten with deep fried buns called “man tou”…



        …which you dip into the chill crab gravy…

        And Black Pepper Crab…large, tender and meaty, with wonderfully rich flavour and just the right amount of black pepper for a hot, spicy kick…



        Few beverages go with this cuisine as well as Tiger Beer…



        Fruit for dessert, although there are other options available as well…



        Apart from the dishes above, they do excellent fresh prawn and whole steamed fish dishes as well.

        When dining here, be prepared to get your hands dirty...dishes like chilli / pepper crab really must be eaten with your fingers.

        And the service? One quirk which I remember about this place is that the dishes tend to come in random, no particular order. Great from the kitchen's perspective. The service concept here seems to be a frenzy to match food coming out of the kitchen with whatever guests have ordered out front. Remember the face of the person taking your order, because you'll have to recognize him or her as that person whizzes by in order to grab them for any additional orders or questions. Or just accost any other member of the service staff you see weaving past the closely packed tables.

        On busy nights the waiters and waitresses can seem to be in perpetual fire-fighting mode, lurching from one near crisis to the next. ("We're out of deep fried man-tou buns! And table 6 has just been served chilli crab...they need the man-tou NOW!").

        In general, though, the staff are surprisingly good humoured and responsive. They all work as a team here. The place is so busy it would be impossible for the restaurant to function if they didn't. If anything, the service appears to have improved over the decades.

        Just don't expect a genteel, refined dining experience -- go with the flow and embrace the madness. The food and experience are worth it...
        Last edited by yflyer; 19 June 2017, 09:42 AM.

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        • #5
          For this style of cooking, you really need to go in a large group. 6-10 people is ideal, although you could probably order a decent selection of dishes even if were a party of 4.

          Parking there has never been adequate. There is a valet service, but it probably makes sense to get there by taxi or Grab/Uber (Or MRT and bus if you are a local, or an adventurous tourist.).

          How does Hua Yu Wee compare with other seafood joints here? Very favourably in my view. While my personal favourite remains Jumbo Seafood (Especially the branch at the East Coast Seafood Centre), the signature dishes of chilli and black pepper crab at Hua Yu Wee are very satisfying, as good as any in Singapore, and their other dishes are of a very high standard as well.

          Personally speaking, Hua Yu Wee is a place I have been dining at since I was a child. Often with the extended family, and on some occasions, with friends and colleagues. I was most recently there on a humid evening the week before Mother's Day earlier this year, where the restaurant was even busier than usual. I remarked to my pioneer generation relatives that I had been eating there since I was young...they said they ate there when they were young. It must have been something to be growing up in Singapore in those days. I imagine that at the time, dining at Hua Yu Wee, or any of the other big name seafood restaurants along this stretch of Upper East Coast Road, would have been a trendy night out with friends or family. A very different era.



          Why is Hua Yu Wee still there, and what makes it special?

          The colonial-era building is definitely of historical interest. The restaurant serves great local food. Somehow, the cuisine and the venue together add up to more than the sum of their parts. The whole experience of dining there is almost overwhelming in how it recalls old Singapore. It's not a gazetted national monument as far as I know, nor should it be, but it is still an irreplacable part of Singapore's collective memory.

          Who knows how long the restaurant will be there? For now, it is a place where you can still go to enjoy old-style seafood and zi char. Hua Yu Wee is that rare restaurant that has stood the test of time -- whether through culinary skill, business acumen, good luck or simply benign neglect. It remains a thriving and popular place to eat, and perhaps that is at least part of the secret of its longevity. I hope they never have to change a thing!
          Last edited by yflyer; 18 June 2017, 02:36 PM.

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