Tuesday, September 02, 2008,10:02 PM

dad wasnt satisfied with his bdae dinner the other time, so we went to try a revamped old restaurant called Punggol Choon Seng dis time at his request. located in an old colonel bungalow along TurnHouse road (opp SIA Swimming Club), its so ulu, i tink it will be hard to come in here without a car.

heres extracts of their intro:
"Established in 1956, Punggol Choon Seng is synonymous with the best in the seafood business. Life for the restaurant began at the Punggol End Jetty...........Situated by the sea, Punggol Choon Seng obtained the freshest seafood daily and henceforth, the signature Famous Chilli Crab was born..........Our Success is the result of a long history of good food and friendly service."

both the interior and exterior maintained sum colonial influence from the past, as seen from the windows, flight of steps leading to the main door and hanging chandeliers. there was also a live band playing every fri nite.

we picked mainly their specialities, but honestly, i feel that the portions are too small for the price, and the quality was not dat bad, but not fantastic either.

1st dish was Crispy duck popiah, which was half a roasted duck, fried till crispy and cut up into shreds in front of us by the waitress, with sum popiah skins which was placed in a warmer to maintain its temperature and softness, and a plate of cucumber and spring onion shreds

we were den supposed to wrap the duck and vegs ourselves, like eating peking duck popiah.

the duck was pretty crispy, skin not too hard, generally pretty ok, but noting very interesting

next up was supposed to be Curry baked prawns, but when i saw the sight of it (pic above), was quite disappointed. Firstly, i didnt expect the prawns to be drenched in a thick laksa-like sauce, thought it would be a dry baked prawns with curry leaves to enhance its flavours or sumting like dat. the sauce really tasted like laksa though, and granny commented that she could cook dis dish herself at home too. the prawns were a little overcooked, coz the shells kept sticking on the prawns, making it hard for me to peel them off without making a mess of my fingers. urgh. but on a sidenote, the laksa gravy quite nice to go with plain rice though, haha.

for vegs, we had Stir-fried Asparagus with Mushrooms. nothing special too, juz dat the portion was really very small lah!

next up was a speciality, Red wine Pork Ribs. the meat wasnt too tough, and the sauce tasted like those in Coffee Pork Ribs u get in Zi Char Stalls, minus the coffee, plus a teeny bit of red wine. pretty ave though.

this was supposed to be their Signature Mee Goreng, which was very famous back then when they 1st started. dad even said dat he always bring mum here for this when they were pa-toh-ing, coz it was 1 of the few presentable and nice seafood places at that time. haha. their Mee Goreng is slightly diff from the malay ones we r familiar with here, its wetter with more gravy, and has less tomatoes in it. a decent amt of seafood and other ingredients in it though, too bad i didnt get to eat the plump little prawns u see in the pic. pretty spicy though, when it 1st enters ur mouth, u dun really taste much spiciness, but when u chew on it and swallow, thats when the chilli hits the back of ur throat! but if its still acceptable for me, shld be ok for most Singaporeans lah.

we were still not too full yet, so added a last dish in their specialities menu, Yam with scallops and cheese.

tried to take a pic of wats inside those deep fried yam balls, but my camera fone not too gd lah, heh. anyway, its basically yam paste wrapping a piece of scallop and sum cheese inside, covered with breadcrumbs and deep fried. nothing too special too. and the portion was so small, we each only have 1 small ball lah! grrr, lucky i dun really like yam.

on a whole, food pretty ok to me only, but quite expensive. but i like the secluded feel of its location, and the grandness of the high ceiling in the bungalow. maybe i m juz too picky lah, heh.

Punggol Choon Seng

23A-B Turnhouse Road

(Changi Chalets Locality)

65465251