I wrote about our fondness for lobster porridge, and a very good one near Margaret Drive. But Chui Xiang is no more...the place where it was housed is slated to be demolished, and I understand the owners decided to reduce the operations to a stall in MDIS. So our search for a replacement began in earnest.
This little corner restaurant along Maude Road, near Little India came with lots of bloggers' recommendation...perhaps its because the PR people have been working the blogosphere with tastings. I did not participate in the tasting, but reading the review, decided to have a go at the lobster porridge.
A small portion, good for 2 pax is served with a medium sized lobster...about 450g fresh. Calling it a lobster is a bit of a misnomer, as lobsters have claws, but this was rather a crayfish or a rock lobster, dwelling in warm waters and lacking the said claws. More like a very large prawn, I guess.
The lobsters were nice and rather a bit larger than the Chui Xiang ones, though combined, they probably weigh almost the same. As a result, the Wanhelou ones here were a bit more meaty. The flesh was quite firm, had the requisite seafood sweetness and rather fresh.
The porridge was cooked Teochew style, more like rice in a rich broth. The broth itself was nice, rich, If I were to make the obvious comparison, we found the Chui Xiang broth to be a bit brighter, so to speak, more flavourful and more robust. The Wan He Lou version was a touch heavy on the ginger...if it were to mask the less than fresh seafood, one can understand, but as the lobster was very fresh, this was not not essential, and I view it as perhaps a bit heavy. But it was still delicious, and made a nice filling meal.
We also had the kurobuta pan fried pork
The sauce was quite similar to what one would use for a char siew, I would imagine. And as a lover of char siew, I found this to be very nice. The pork was fat, tender, and had the slight hint of porkiness which provides a punch and dimension to the dish. Very nice.
We also ordered the silver fish fried rice.
This was rather superb. The rice was nice and dry. The dish bursting with lots of ingredients, and tossed in a very hot wok with silver fish, scalions, eggs, small scampi, a bit of pork sausage. Scrumptious. Wok Hei was very powerful on the dish. Definitely a very agreeable fried rice.
Having sampled a small number of dishes, I think I can muster this restaurant a recommendation. I will be back to sample more of the rather large menu, and no doubt will enjoy it.
Wan He Lou Chinese Restaurant
Daily: 11:00 - 14:30, 17:00 - 22:30
www.wanhelou.com
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