Orchid Live Seafood

Orchid Live Seafood Restaurant.

This leg of the journey in Singapore takes me to Orchid Live Seafood Restaurant with my parents and my dad's former schoolmate. The restaurant certainly looked impressive from outside with the parking assistants instructing customers on which parking space to take, and the illuminated signboard with its two lobster heads on both sides looked imposing as well. Still, to be truly impressive the food has to be top notch.

Cold crabs.

I have never sampled cold mud crabs before. The only cold crabs that I have eaten are flower crabs, which I am not such a fan of. Hence, I was a bit sceptical with this dish.

I went for the shells first due to the obscene amount of roe in them. A spoonful of roe into my mouth and I was delighted. The creaminess and fat in the roe just melts in the mouth. From what I could tell, the roe was seasoned with a bit of shao xing wine, which added a strong fragrance to the roe without getting rid of the roe's intense flavour.

The meat was rather fresh but had a tough layer of skin in between the meat and the shell. I think that was due to the crab being in the moulting stage. Nonetheless, cold crab meat is not too special to me although it does have its merits as an appetiser. There is something about crab meat that makes one turn hungry.

Unknown vegetable.

I am beginning to see the connection between Teochews and this vegetable. In every Teochew restaurant or restaurant with a Teochew influence, this dish was on plenty of the tables. Yet again, it was just another fried vegetable. Nothing special there. I did not quite fancy the soggy vegetables and the overpowering flavour of garlic.

Lobster congee.

I have always thought that cooking congee with lobster is a waste of a good ingredient. Orchid proved me wrong, so wrong in fact that now I think cooking lobster in congee is perhaps one of the best ways of preparing the shellfish.

Although lightly seasoned, the congee was sweetened by the lobsters. Despite that, the lobsters still retained their natural flavour. Also, the generous amount of shao xing wine in the congee complemented the sweetness of the lobsters well. The lack of robust flavours is made up for by the juicy, succulent texture of the lobsters. Another praise I have for the dish is the number of lobsters in the claypot. I swear there must have been more than ten halves in there. That kind of generosity is much appreciated when it comes to seafood.

Steamed fish.

Another steamed fish dish. Nothing to shout about here. The fish could have been fresher but by Singaporean standards, I am not complaining.

Steven chicken.

I did not know the name of this dish until a quick Google search. I am guessing that someone by the name of Steven invented this dish or is a known coward. However, the look of the dish definitely raises more questions than the name.

I suppose it could be called a semi-deboned chicken wing, or a semi-dechickened wing bone. The idea behind this technique I suppose is to expose more surface area to the batter to give more crisp and crunch to an otherwise boring friend chicken wing dish. Whatever it is for, it definitely worked for me.

The sauce that is used to lightly glaze the chicken wings was a sweet, tangy sauce which had a honey-like consistency, very much like those applied to honey glazed pork ribs. It was not too heavy in flavour, robust but not treacly and applied in a sensible amount such that it did not make the batter soggy. Very good balance between taste and texture.

Deep fried seafood tofu.

By the time this dish came I was stuffed to the brim, but still I could not resist deep fried goodies.

The fillings in the tofu I could not identify but it definitely tasted like a mix of seafood, most likely prawns, with pork. It tasted like the generic deep fried seafood tofu available in most seafood restaurants. Perhaps it due to me being so full that I could not really enjoy this dish and do it justice with my review.

Orchid Live Seafood Restaurant is the kind of place where you would think of going to every now and then for their famous dishes, but not to go so far as to call it your favourite seafood restaurant. However, one thing that left a great impression was the generosity in the portion of the food which is unknown to our region due to the culture of "frugality" among restaurant owners, especially when it comes to more pricey ingredients like seafood.

16 Jalan Kelulut, 

Singapore 809033.

9636 1909