Y.E.S. 93.3FM DJs Xie Jiafa 谢家发 & Lin Peifen 林佩芬.

If you tune in to MediaCorp’s Y.E.S. 93.3FM on Wed, September 30, 2009 from 6pm to 7pm, you’ll get to hear me and Hungry Cow speaking in mangled Mandarin on radio! On Sunday night, we joined DJs Jiafa and Peifen for dinner at House of Seafood @ 180. Together with the other guests, we made up the tasting panel for the foodie segment called 美食鉴定团.

Huiji Fruity Lite

The foodie segment is sponsored by Huiji 匯集, a local company that specializes in Chinese health products. They are best known for their waist tonic. My mom-in-law swears by it!

One of their latest products is Fruity Lite, which is fast becoming another topseller. We tried it, and liked its sweet, tangy, and refreshing taste. Made of hawthorn fruit 山楂, black plum 乌梅, honey, and sugar, it comes in powdered granules that dissolve in water. It’s supposed to quench thirst and aid digestion.

招牌豆腐　Tofu with pork floss

Kicking off our 10-course meal was deep-fried blocks of tofu topped with pork floss. The tofu was quite smooth, but the outer skin was a little over-fried, making it slightly tough.

马来面　Seafood mee goreng

There’s a generous amount of prawn and squid, all hidden under the noodles! This dish was quite oily and spicy.

马来风光　Stirfried kangkong with sambal

Another oily and spicy dish!

生柠排骨　Lemon pork rib

If I had to pick a favorite for the night, this would be it. I could hardly detect any lemon flavor, but the pork ribs were very tender to the bite, and I like the deliciously sticky condensed milk-like coating.

三杯鸡　3-Cup chicken

Savoury and tasty, the chicken would be good with rice.

辣椒虾婆　Chilli crayfish

HungryCow and I both didn’t like the strong taste of belachan in the chilli gravy, but the crayfish flesh was sweet, juicy, and cooked just to the right timing.

黑椒螃蟹　Black pepper crab

A signature dish, the black pepper crab here is different from the usual version using cracked whole peppercorns. Instead, a smooth sauce of ground pepper, sugar, salt, and dark soy sauce is used to coat the crab.

辣椒螃蟹　Chilli crab

The chilli crab also has a unique touch. Finely chopped peanut is sparsely mixed into the tomato-y gravy, so you get an extra nutty bite that’s not obvious unless you notice. Mini mantou, both steamed and deep-fried, were provided for mopping up the gravies.

Four lucky numbers!

Each crab at House of Seafood comes engraved with a unique four-digit number for those who wish to try their luck at the lottery!

辣大头　Chilli mussels

By the time the chilli mussels came, most of us were already stuffed, so this was mostly left untouched.

Longan and sea coconut

After all that rich and spicy food, the refreshing iced longan and sea coconut was much welcomed, even though it was just canned fruit.

Perhaps I prefer seafood cooked in lighter styles, I thought tonight’s food was smothered in too much spices and grease. It was also quite a waste for all that fresh seafood to be covered in heavy sauces. Steaming would allow one to better taste the natural sweetness and freshness of seafood. All this talk of seafood just reminds me of our fabulous dinner at Ming Kee just a month ago!

Snapshots of a crabby dinner!

Besides two food bloggers, there were 4 invited guests who formed the rest of the tasting panel.

"Can I tell you how cute you are?"

Our interviews were recorded in Mandarin, and will be aired this coming Wednesday. Because my Chinese is kinda rusty, it was a struggle not to get tongue-tied!

Being DJs of a Chinese radio station, it goes without saying that our DJ hosts are fluent in Mandarin, but I was surprised that they also speak and write English very well. And they’re both so gorgeous-looking! Young, talented and good-looking, *sigh* I’m so envious!

Peifen lights up the room with her radiance!

Do tune in to Y.E.S. 93.3FM on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 6pm to 7pm if you’d like to catch our interviews on radio!

A big thank you to House of Seafood @ 180 for generously sponsoring this dinner, and MediaCorp Y.E.S. 93.3FM and Pris Yap for the kind invitation.

House of Seafood @ 180
180 Yio Chu Kang Road (off Serangoon Gardens)
Singapore 545628
Tel: (65) 6282 7180
URL: www.houseofseafood.com.sg