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I just got a chance to watch the recording of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Singapore Episode last week. As usual, Bourdain visits nondescript, hidden, non-touristy places which are frequented by the locals with the sole goal to enjoy good food. For the Singapore episode, I'm glad to know that I too had known and love some of the places he visited, such as Maxwell Food Centre and Golden Mile Baharudeen Soup Tulang. I think the local fixer (was it Seetoh from Makansutra?) did a great job because he was able to paint realistic image of the daily lives and peculiarities of Singaporeans (except for the segment in Aurum restaurant).

One segment of the show was seafood, which I love! For this one, Bourdain visited a place that we didn't know had existed: Tian Jin Hai Seafood. In the show, Bourdain and Seetoh ordered Chili Crab and Steamed Shark Head. Both seemed so much mouth-watering that I wanted to eat the TV. It was decided: I needed to try Tian Jin Hai seafood before going back to Indonesia.

Thanks to Google, I managed to found Tian Jin Hai new location ever since they moved out from Jackson Centre Kopitiam. I called Kevin Yeo, the proprietor listed in Makansutra forum, and he was very friendly in answering my questions regarding the food in the restaurant. He told me that since mid-January 2008, they have moved to Punggol Marina Country Club, a place soooo secluded that no public transfer available. One can take taxi, or hop onto the hourly shuttle bus from Punggol MRT station.

After confirming the address and made reservation to Kevin, Indi booked a car from the carsharing to go there. Joining us in the mission was the avocadolite family, having mandated to try the steamed shark by Cia, a faithful Bourdain follower.

The road to Punggol Club after leaving Punggol Central area was unique, as the road was lined with thick blanket of tropical trees. It took us about 15 minutes to drive from Punggol Central area. Tian Jin Hai restaurant is located by the marina overlooking Punggol Island. Unlike many other seaside restaurant, this one doesn't face heavy traffic of freight ships and motorboat. It is quite pristine and the sea breeze is fresh.

Kevin had prepared a table for six persons at the terrace of the restaurant, with easy access into the Marina. It was not too sunny, so it wasn't hot outside. When he asked for our order, we simply replied, "Just give us whatever Anthony Bourdain had!". He continued to share stories on the many times Bourdain had visited them, to the details of what he had ordered. Bourdain even followed the chef to Jurong Fish Market to see firsthand where the restaurant got the fresh supply. We decided to order medium sized shark head, steamed. This dish is what Bourdain had ordered and Chef Jeremy Leung had spoken highly of during the World Gourmet Summit. We also ordered pregnant crab bee hoon - crab cooked with rice vermicelli, a dish that has inspired Chef Justin Quek. Too bad the bar, which is not managed by Tian Jin Hai, has not opened yet, so we couldn't order Tiger Beer.

While waiting for our orders to come, we walked along the marina to see boats (our obsession!). Indi came across an old Catamaran and spoke to the owner, Paul. Meanwhile, Thalia posed for photos with daughter Aina.

A short while later, the pregnant crab bee hoon arrived. The first taste of the bee hoon has been quite orgasmic for Thalia, and soon I confirmed it. It seemed to be quite a simple dish. The seasonings and garnish were simple, complementing the natural flavor of the crab itself and the broth. I got the taste of the roe, and it was heavenly.



Noe couldn't seem to get enough of the beehoon and crab meat. I had to keep taking out the crab meat for Noe.



Then came the steamed shark head. Actually it was not the full head but the upper jaw area, not including the eyes. Again, it looked simple. With minimal garnishing, the real taste of the chewy shark cartilage and fat were brought out out with a hint of soy-sesame oil-garlic-ginger taste.



Thalia couldn't get enough of it and even gobbled up the hidden parts under the bone. I was curious to know if the shark eyes were included in this dish. I love to eat fish eyes, and I bet shark eyes would taste good in this dish.





We girls tried to make sure that the restaurant staff needed not to wash the dishes



Overall we are really satisfied. The food is good, the service is excellent, the atmosphere of the place is great. We would definitely come back to this place. Next time, we'll try the male chili crab, just like Bourdain had.

Tian Jin Hai Seafood (Note: the website still uses the old Jackson Centre Kopitiam address)
New Address:
Marina Country Club
No. 600 Punggol 17th Avenue
Singapore 829734
Tel/Fax: 6385-7831

Here's the coordinate of the place to put into your GPS: 1.4158262136390132, 103.89919638633728

First, the food is expensive, relative to the quality and the quantity of the servings. Second, the service is damn slow.

It was so slow, so that Indi decided to cancel his order. And the response of the waitress was, "Oh you can't cancel your order, we have made it, and it will be ready in no time. Please understand, we are having a lot of orders right now, that is why your thing takes a long time".

Oh Cmon! if you can't handle the orders, don't set up a cafe! What a lame excuse for bad service..."having too many orders"??? Better close business!

It's an upper-middle-end type of restaurant ($20-40 perperson), so we kinda expect the service to be up to par, or to have Japanese kind of friendliness and politeness. To our surprise, the service turned out to be really crappy. All the girls who works there, seems to be very depressed with their job. They do not provide service with smile. Smile, is a basic thing that should absolutely be available in service industry. When we enter the door, they screamed some kind of Japanese word that I presume it means "welcome!". However, it was not done with any smile, friendly gesture, or eye contact. When we sat and start to flip through the menu, they were not responding well to questions we posed on the menu items. When the food were served they were rushing to put the trays on the table. They spilled the green tea on the floor and did not even apologize. We had to ask them to mop the floor, and when they do, they did not even ask for permission.

It is not that they are not doing their job, but it seems that they just want to get their job done and over as soon as possible. They don't have the sensitivity and friendliness towards their customer. For this kind of upper-end restaurant, I would expect the service to be more than fulfilling orders. However, we were disappointed to see that the service was... only mediocre. Even though the food served were high quality, we were not compelled to return to this place due to its bad service. Don't come to this Restaurant!

Maison de Fontaine was a reflection of excellent service. And it's more affordable compared to other French restaurant in Singapore! The food was excellent, I can say, it was work of arts. I was having pan-seared escalope of foie gras with tomato timbale, port wine, & balsamic reduction as entree, continued with grilled beef tenderloin (160y) with sauce bearnaise & pot gratin (which tastes great, but i am not really into the sauce bearnaise), and was closed with freshly baked apple tart with vanilla ice cream. Indi was having baked oysters w/ cheese (really tastes great!), whole spring chicken w/ madeira wine sauce (the chicken was amazingly lean, fat-free), and for dessert he was having creme brulle with berries. We came to the restaurant a bit late at night, and we stayed there until past the closing hour. Amazingly, the restaurant manager did not try to kick us out of the restaurant even though we stayed there until half an hour after the closing hour. The manager was really courteous. We are looking forward to having another great dinner there!

During this pregnancy, my husband is the one who is really craving something. I'm not craving anything at all, but anyway, I only tag along with him whenever he craves for something. He has been thinking about turkish food these few days, so finally we decided to go to Sofra, our favorite turkish restaurant in Shaw Tower, where the price is great and the taste is awesome. In the picture below is the Turkish grape leaf salad (I forgot the name, is it Dolma) with some spiced wheat or rice filling. I also had Lamb Iskander Kebab, and Rice Pudding as dessert. Look at Rani's expression when having the gorgeous turkish food, she even licks the fork to savour the full taste of it! It's really value-for-money!

Yesterday we had a great dinner at Garibaldi Italian Resto in Purvis Street. Garibaldi was having a Summer Truffle Festival, and I took this opportunity to try the Angel Hair Pasta with Cheese Sauce and Shaved Black Truffle. Masindi was having Ravioli with Saffron Sauce and Mushroom. Both tasted heavenly and the service was simply excellent. Too bad we didn't have much time to order dessert. Price-wise, for me it's not really affordable.