por kee eating house, tiong bahru

decent food at this hidden-away sprawl of a cze char eatery in the newly-hipstered enclave that is tiong bahru. long before the fakely bespectacled, tight-trousered, coiffed hippied teenager took over the now cafe-belaboured estate of tiong bahru, places such as this one must have made the area’s reputation as gastroterritory.

cze char (or zi char or tze char) is home-style food served outside your home – and this place is truly old-school: slightly cantankerous chinese-speaking staff, blue-white plastic dinnerware, and good food unpretentiously plated. the only caveat here is that while admittedly tasty, the food is a little on the rich + oily side – and I’m not one for fatty meats or oily vegetables (but you jolly well could be!)

big eater restaurant, changi

fantastic seafood and zi char at this casual chinese restaurant nearish the singapore expo – really, it’s rather out of the way (for us), but it’s now become my family’s go-to place for crabs and the like, and well-worth travelling to. the place has been packed to the rafters even by early evening (we popped here on two consecutive sundays because it was so good) – but the prices are reasonable, the food is absolutely commendably executed, and service is both sincere and quick.

if you’re not from around here – then zi char refers to a rather casual style of dining-out, where you get local home-style chinese cooking spanning nearly anything you could want – meat, seafood and veg – with some stalls so expert as to provide restaurant-quality cooking at more accessible prices.