食源味 NOMIN Seafood Restaurant
Last Sunday, we made a reservation at NOMIN seafood restaurant after it was featured both in the papers and on the telly (Chnl U), though I'd neither read the feature nor watched it so I had little idea as to what to expect, other than that it was a cze char place.
NOMIN is just one of a slew of terraced eateries along Teck Chye Terrace, accessible from Tua Tow Road just off Upper Serangoon Road near the Upper Paya Lebar Road flyover.
Parking was horrible. Teck Chye Terrace is not a particularly long stretch, and is a one-way service road that fronts the row of shophouses; when we got there, both sides were lined with vehicles with the shophouse side double-parked all the way, leaving just a narrow channel for pick-up and drop-off traffic. We eventually parked at the tail end of the Serangoon Stadium carpark, and walked 5-odd minutes up Boundary Road to the eatery.
NOMIN was featured for its CPF (crab-prawn-frog) hotpot, but we'd completely forgotten and ended up ordering the other cze char dishes on the menu instead. I don't remember the exact names of the dishes, so please don't quote me if you decide to use this as a reference for what (not?) to order!
The spinach in superior stock topped with prawn floss was an instant favourite. The spinach itself had a nice texture, well-cooked, firm but not crunchy, and the stock was deliciously rich (I wonder if they used MSG). Prawn floss worked well as a complement.
I didn't try the crab meat shark's fin soup, but my brother thought it was value for money. Don't remember how much it cost.
The pai kuat wong (排骨王) was good. The pork pieces came thick, juicy and tender on the inside, sweet and fried crispy on the outside. One of the better ones in my experience.
The prawn crispy noodles (生面) was well-received; J especially liked it. Sauce was thick and flavourful, noodles crunchy, eggs just slightly runny - nice. Prawns were well cooked and tasted fairly fresh.
But it went downhill from there.
The stewed chicken with dried scallops (干贝鸡) was a so-so thing, with the stew masking out the taste of everything else in the pot. To be fair, the chicken itself was tender and did practically melt off the bone, but I'd be fairly reluctant to order this again.
I didn't try the cuttlefish kang kong since I don't like (1) chilli (2) kang kong, but the others felt that it was only so-so.
The dried scallop tofu (干贝豆腐) looked fairly interesting. Impression from the first bite was decent, until the aftertaste began to set in - there was.. something.. that I didn't quite like. Rest of the family didn't like it much either.
The butter prawns, quite frankly, sucked. I usually like to load up on the crumbs for this dish, normally an intense taste explosion of butter and spices. But in this case, my spoonful of crumbs tasted like a spoonful of solidified cooking oil. Not pleasant.
The he zhor (虾枣) was a disappointment. Over-fried, too crunchy and way too oily! That we had to wait quite a while for this dish due to some mix-up didn't help one bit. Yuck.
Clearly, there's some substantial variation in the quality of food at this joint. We do intend to come back and try their famous CPF hotpot. But if that doesn't meet the mark, then it's fairly unlikely that we'll be back for a third time.
食源味 NOMIN Seafood Restaurant
31 Teck Chye Terrace
Singapore 545731
Tel: 6286 3291
posted by varf @ 11:34 AM
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