Saturday, September 02, 2006

Guan Hin Restaurant

Guan Hin Restaurant
Blk 34 Whampoa West #01-01
Tel: 62983179

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After reading umami and ivan’s account of their makankaki’s anniversary at Guan Hin, I felt it was almost obligatory for me as a Teochew to pay it a visit. As I stepped into the restaurant, I realized this place wasn’t as new and unfamiliar. I’ve actually been here and used to frequent it with my grandparents years ago. I don’t have much memory of the food except for what we did with the food. As a table of restless and irreverent grandchildren, we raced our quail’s eggs under the lazy susan and squashed them into a flatten mess once we were bored of our egg race.
Nothing much as changed or updated and still packs a healthy crowd of families and extended families on Sunday nights. Still using the reddish-pinking oriental and dragon melamine plates, this place really is old school with no real signs of modernization. Has the menu changed since my quail egg racing days? I’m guessing not.

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The food was standard and really reasonable. There were, however, two highlights in my meal. The first was my favourite dish of the night, char kway teow with chai poh that was simple and delicious from the wok hei and the preserved radish morsels. My peasant food choice over chwee kueh. The second was my first taste of pig tendon, which was stir-fried with sea cucumber and an assortment of vegetables. Like most tendons, on its own there isn’t too much flavour, but what is to be savoured its gelatinous texture and its ability to soak up flavours of its accompanying ingredients. Along with that we had a standard steamed fish that passed the fresh test, hei zuo (prawn balls) that were bordering on bad, vegetables that were gloriously fried in lard and ti poh, and the good old teochew classics of braised goose and orh nee.

In addition to the standards dish, there are the more elaborate dishes that require an advance order such as their suckling pig, which is labouriously roasted over charcoal at the back of their kitchen. And of course if you can persuade the boss or perhaps speak in fluent teochew and convince the boss that you are one of their people, you might be able to serve you the cold crab delicacy. And its all very reasonably priced.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh Cool! You went for Guan Hin for a visit.

Glad your enjoyed most of it. Hei Zho is more of an Hokkien thing though. :)

I would recommend pairing the Orh Nee with a good Port.

11:51 PM  
Blogger D said...

I was Killiney Rd changing my tires the other day and gave Warong M. Nasir's beef rendang a shot. It does come close to being the best (maybe in Singapore?) but I'll reserve my comments till my full review of it which should appear within the week. Thanks for the tip that it's there though.
Cheers!

8:30 AM  
Blogger D said...

Hi there again,
I've just posted my review for Warong's beef rendang and have included a link to your review as well. If you're not cool with that, just let me know and I'll unlink it.
Cheers!

12:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hiya joone,

just a random question: are you by any chance Teochew?

8:52 AM  
Blogger joone! said...

ivan, who could resist after those yummy photos you guys posted!

d, no problem! :)

s, i guess you question isn't that random since i've blogged about a handful of teochew places, but to your question, yes!

10:40 PM  
Blogger allie said...

I'll definitely make it a point to drop by this place. Coincidentally, me and some fellow Teochew colleagues were talking about Teochew restaurants in SG. I really miss the cold crabs in Hung Kang.

4:37 PM  

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