This is what I love about Singapore. You can go to a food place that has no frills, no gimmicks, but yet serve restaurant quality food at reasonable prices.
Nestled in a coffee shop at 253 Jurong East St 24, is a stall named Zai Shun Curry Fish Head. If you take a look at the tables during lunch hour, chances are you will spot a plate of steamed fish on it. The shop is famous for both its curry fish head and steamed fish of various styles. Besides that, the stall is both a zi-char place where you can get cooked-to-order food, as well as a Teochew porridge-style joint where you can pick from about 20 ready-cooked dishes to go with your rice or porridge.
The owner of Zai Shun Curry Fish Head is 62-year-old Ong Cheng Kee, who began his career in the kitchen at the age of 14 while he was still schooling. At 20 years old, he decided to open his own stall selling curry fish head and moved into Yuhua Food Centre in Jurong East shortly after. 17 years ago, he relocated to a stall in a coffee shop at the foot of Block 253 where his delicious food soon drew crowds.
Bolstered by his success, he expanded his business, renting over the whole coffee shop and introducing more dishes to his menu. The shop had since been featured on the Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list in 2017, 2018 & 2019. It only operates from morning 7am till early afternoon 3pm.
On any good day, you’ll see a wide array of farmed and wild-caught fish on offer, ranging from the more common red grouper, barramundi cod and pomfret to rarer species of fish like giant grouper and sometimes Jelawat & even Empurau. The fish are all stored in foam boxes buried in ice. This is a good sign, as that means that the fish is being kept in the best possible condition after gutting.
Contrary to what many people think, just like aged beef, freshly caught fish that has been gutted and kept on ice for a day or so actually develops more flavour. You made your choice of fish and then you can pick how you want your fish to be steamed ; Cantonese or Teochew style, with soy sauce or plain. Prices depend on the type and weight of the fish.
Steaming may sound like a simple cooking technique, but it is a skill that requires finesse at each step, from choosing and cleaning the fish, preparing complementary sauces and condiments to the control of temperature while cooking. The owner is especially particular about selecting the freshest catch of the day and personally examines each delivery to ensure freshness.
The steaming sauce is a guarded family recipe carefully adjusted to bring out the natural sweetness and clean flavours of the fish. The fish is then steamed at a very high temperature so that the flesh cooks quickly, a method that ensures it remains smooth and tender.
I ordered a steamed Pomfret fish done Teochew style and it is was super yummy. The white fleshy meat was soft yet firm, with mild flavour, sweet and extremely fresh. I also ordered another specialty dish of theirs, fried bitter gourd with salted eggs. There was no bitterness at all from the crunchy bitter gourd slices and the egg & salted eggs mix made this a most scrumptious dish. A place certainly worth putting on your food bucket list.
Image Credit: MICHELIN Guide California Video Credit: DanielFoodDiary
