Singapore Pt. 6: Tung Lok Seafood Restaurant
For Boxing Day the family started with a dim sum brunch at Tung Lok Seafood restaurant at a new mall. The restaurant doesn't specialize in dim sum and I hope my next visit back will be to one that does but man this was good too. You can't go wrong when there are fish tanks with live fish swimming about. There's something comforting about going to a restaurant where there's a lazy Susan on every table with soy sauce, chili sauce and a little saucer of salted peanuts on it. Chinese meals are family style, they're fun, they're full of laughs and conversation and they just make me happy.
Side note: Someone from China needs to come here and open a proper Chinese restaurant that doesn't just reheat frozen dumplings and call it dim sum.
Another note, none of the collages are in any sequence, which pretty much describes how they bring the food out - it's whatever's ready first and whatever you can fit on the lazy Susan. Everything tasted great, especially after two days of turkey and ham.
Clockwise from top left: roast pork spare rib, fish... or was it fried squid? Whatever it was it tasted awesome, and the classics shiu mai and har gao
I'd never had fried fish skin before and I kind of liked it. It was crispy, and not fishy. They probably could have gone a little lighter on the batter but honestly it was good. It grosses my mom out but she doesn't like fish anyway. Me, hell I eat love eating jellyfish so fish skin is no big deal.
Clockwise from top left: Congee, fish skin, chive dumplings, yam dessert.
Clockwise from right: Char siew bao, deep fried shrimp, seafood crispy noodles
Clockwise from top right: Sambal kang kong, a little piece of the crispy yam on a new plate, and the yam being broken and mixed by a server.
Kang kong is one vegetable I've never found here in the U.S. It's a spinach of some sort, the stems are hollow and the way I love it prepared is when it's fried in sambal belacan, a chili paste that's made of pounded chili has lime, sugar and shrimp paste pounded into it for a really pungent, tasty aroma and flavor. The crunch of the veggies with the deep, spiciness of the sambal ... it's just... wow. Packs a punch, I recommend washing it down with some Chinese tea and a breath mint after. Oh and check your teeth too.
I guess, technically, this wasn't really a dim sum lunch, more like the dim sum options in a seafood restaurant. Regardless, dim sum is an absolute must when we go back to Singapore. It's not only because we don't get any here in Nashville, it's really because it's SO good there. Luckily we're spoiled for choice so no matter where my family chooses to go, we're rarely disappointed.
Side note: Someone from China needs to come here and open a proper Chinese restaurant that doesn't just reheat frozen dumplings and call it dim sum.
Another note, none of the collages are in any sequence, which pretty much describes how they bring the food out - it's whatever's ready first and whatever you can fit on the lazy Susan. Everything tasted great, especially after two days of turkey and ham.
Clockwise from top left: roast pork spare rib, fish... or was it fried squid? Whatever it was it tasted awesome, and the classics shiu mai and har gaoI'd never had fried fish skin before and I kind of liked it. It was crispy, and not fishy. They probably could have gone a little lighter on the batter but honestly it was good. It grosses my mom out but she doesn't like fish anyway. Me, hell I eat love eating jellyfish so fish skin is no big deal.
Clockwise from top left: Congee, fish skin, chive dumplings, yam dessert. Clockwise from right: Char siew bao, deep fried shrimp, seafood crispy noodles Clockwise from top right: Sambal kang kong, a little piece of the crispy yam on a new plate, and the yam being broken and mixed by a server.Kang kong is one vegetable I've never found here in the U.S. It's a spinach of some sort, the stems are hollow and the way I love it prepared is when it's fried in sambal belacan, a chili paste that's made of pounded chili has lime, sugar and shrimp paste pounded into it for a really pungent, tasty aroma and flavor. The crunch of the veggies with the deep, spiciness of the sambal ... it's just... wow. Packs a punch, I recommend washing it down with some Chinese tea and a breath mint after. Oh and check your teeth too.
I guess, technically, this wasn't really a dim sum lunch, more like the dim sum options in a seafood restaurant. Regardless, dim sum is an absolute must when we go back to Singapore. It's not only because we don't get any here in Nashville, it's really because it's SO good there. Luckily we're spoiled for choice so no matter where my family chooses to go, we're rarely disappointed.
