Heng Hwa Cuisine

Heng Hwa is a minority dialect group in Singapore.  Unlike popular cantonese cuisine, one can count Heng Hwa restaurants in one hand. There are two such restaurants well known in Singapore - Pu Tien at Kitchener Road (which is frequented by businessmen, artists and politicians and is therefore more up-market) and Ming Chung at 67 Maude Street. Housed in an old shop lot along Maude Road, Ming Chung retains the charm of old Singapore. Its an old-styled restaurant, with traditional open-fire kitchen. There is no pretense, no gimmick. People come here just for the food. A short queue is seen on the evenings on Fridays and weekends, but fortunately turnaround time is fast and customers are encouraged to share tables.

A must-try on its menu is stir-fried fresh clams.  For me, this dish goes very well with beer.  Other popular dishes include deep-fried batter prawns and Heng Hwa Lor Mee as shown below. These are the three most common dishes seen at every table.  Food is overall good if one does not mind the old Asian management style and is willing to trade comfort with real Asian eating-out experience.