Guest writer: Chewy Charles
Since young, I am inquisitive by nature and have always been actively searching for answers to my numerous questions. Recently, Charlene’s parents took us to Putien at Parkway Parade for dinner. When we reached the entrance of the restaurant, the two chinese characters 莆田 caught my attention and got me into thinking. “what is 莆田?” and “how did it get its name?” I did a fast search using Wikipedia on my reliable iPhone and the answers that I wanted appeared on the 3.5 inch screen. 莆田 is a place in Fujian Province. It has an area of about 4000 square kilometres and a population of roughly 3 million people. How it got its name was more interesting. It was said that Lao Tzu was making an elixir in heaven when an explosion occurred. The elixir fell into the sea and burnt the Oxes of the Earth. As a result, Earth plates moved and a piece of land rose from the sea. People initially called it Floating Field, 浮田. However, there were some mistakes in official documents and its name was modified further to its current name, 莆田.
Oops! I think I digressed quite a bit! :X 咸猪手您有听过、但是您有吃过咸猪手吗？The first dish that we had were super sinful in my opinion yet heavenly! The Deep Fried Pig’s Trotter with Pepper ($15.20) has a slightly salty and peppery taste. Contrary to what we had expected, the meat was not very oily and fatty. In fact, it was very tender and soft to the bite. Putien provides plastic gloves for patrons to wear in order to eat them using their hands.
Next in line was the Deep Fried Duck with Yam ($15). The duck meat was covered by a layer of yam and then deep-fried. The overall dish was a little moist and complemented well with the taste of yam.
After 2 dishes of meat and more to come later, it’s good that we ordered the Spinach with Egg in Supreme Stock ($12). It is quite an interesting dish because there are both salted eggs and century eggs which went very well with the richness of the gravy. The spinach was soft and the consistency of the gravy was just right.
The Deep Fried Squirrel Fish with Gravy ($32) which is quite popular and is also available at City Square Putien ala carte buffet. The fried fish was served with sweet and sour gravy. It was crispy but not overly deep fried. The fish was also very fresh. 赞不觉口！
Personally I do not like meat items that are sweet apart from sweet sour pork. I just feel that their tastes do not complement each other. However, it is worth mentioning is that the Honey Glazed Pork Ribs ($15) was cooked till tender. Although sweet, this dish might appeal to some.
We were told that the Fried “Hing Wa” Beehoon ($12) is Putien’s signature dish and we just had to order it. The texture of the beehoon was extremely thin and refined. However, it was very dry.
We were told that we had to wait for 20mins before they could serve us this dish. However I believed that 好的东西是值得等待的。The Sweet Potato Balls ($8) as its name suggests, are sweet potato balls that are fried. Well I should say that they didn’t disappoint our taste buds as they were very tasty. Beneath the crispy crust was the hot, soft and mashy potato filling. For people who do not have a really sweet tooth, the sweet potato balls are highly recommended.
This is one of the most filling meals I have ever had in my life and I would say that it is quite a fulfilling experience. I would like to thank Charlene and her parents for bringing me to Putien for dinner.
Putien Restaurant
80 Marine Parade Road
#02-13/13A Parkway Parade
Tel: +65 6345 6358
Opening Hours
Mon to Sun
Lunch 11.30am – 3pm (Last order 2.30pm)
Dinner 5.30pm – 10pm (Last order 9.30pm)
