Cze Char Store, Forture Seafood (Beside Tessarina Condominium, Upper Bukit Timah Road)

August 25, 2007 (Saturday): A. has suddenly become fascinated with this term 'cze char' -literally, 'cook and fry' in the Hokkien (Fujian) dialect.

'Cze char' refers to the wide array of more elaborately cooked (restaurant style) dishes that one can get at the local neighbourhood coffee shop. That means at much lower prices which are not necessarily translated as inferior taste and quality.

I recall having gone to Plaza Market Cafe at Raffles Stamford Hotel a couple of weeks ago and had a very average buffet dinner - so unexciting that I didn't think of blogging about it. It is when you have hit upon really not-quite-there eateries in slightly up-market hotels that you wish you had gone to the small neighborhood shops.

'Cze char' is new to A., although he has enjoyed some 'cze char'dishes around Singapore. Combining the first consonants of 'cze' and 'ch' is a horrendous task for him - and his best attempts resulted in 'chai chee' or 'chee char' - which was close enough.

This 'cze char' shop appears in Makansutra 2007 which is not as up to date as you may expect. A. found it in the publication in his fit of wanting to know about the great eating places in Singapore. The shop is FORTURE, not Fortune, as you would associate with a Chinese restaurant. Its name is the coinage of a fengshui master, writes Makansutra. The atmosphere is so relaxing that a Japanese man even appeared in his slippers and samue. Samue was the comfortable attire of monks when there was work to be done at the temple. It used to be made in natural fibre such as the hemp and is probably the best type of clothes for summer as the light fabric wicks away sweat quickly. Today it remains a popular attire for Japanese men in summer or at home.

The recommendations for this shop by Makansutra are the fried eggplant with pork floss, herbal chicken, fish head cooked in Thai style, and crab cooked with salted egg yolk.

With my stomach still filled with the Mini-set I had for lunch at Donguri, I went for the Thai style fish head (SGD 15) and quick sprouts-and-mushroom stir-fry (SGD 4). The former turned out an average because I prefer my own style of fish head; but the sprouts were superbly light and fragrant.

For appetizer, there was achar, the Peranakan cucumber appetizer, and I ordered just Chinese tea for beverage.

The price tag was SGD 24.90- the price of one-and-a-half packs of Marks and Spencer sandwiches in Oxford!

I really think Singapore is a great place to eat and won't be bothered by how others rate it. Just imagine if you were in Oxford, you would have to pay SGD 25 bucks to have Japanese food the quality of those served at school canteens here.

I'd return to this 'cze char' place to try out more from its endless menu, but I'll make sure I go there when I am ravenous.