Blue Ginger

It was the perfect place to bring my overseas guests. Singapore food to them WAS the chili crab and durian - hello, we (at least I) only eat these foods a few times a year - so I felt an education was necessary. I'd take them to my neighbourhood Old Airport Road hawker centre (yeah, lucky me!) but there were some VIPs who preferred a restaurant.

So peranakan food at Blue Ginger it was. The marriage of Chinese and Malay cuisine, one we fondly call "nonya", after the womenfolk of the Straits Chinese. Ambiance-wise, Blue Ginger had it down pat - quaint shophouse, beautiful peranakan carvings and colourful nonya paintings. Even the tableware oozed old world charm! My guests definitely loved it.

For starters, we ordered the ngo heong and the kueh pie tee. Can I just start by saying that I LOVE kueh pie tee (well, how wrong can you go). The version at Blue Ginger was pretty good, although I thought 4 for one serving at $7 was pretty expensive.

The ngo heong too was good, although I could have preferred it more crispy and fried. My guests really took to the accompanying black sauce, we had to ask for more.

The highlight for the mains was the curry fish head. The seasoned Singapore traveler among my guests said this was better than "that indian curry", whichever that was. Repeated top-ups for rice was requested to mop up the delicious sauce.

The other dishes we ordered were ok too, although less gushed about. We had the sotong keluak, the assam prawns and the chap chye. Personally I thought the chap chye was flavorful but wayy too oily. The sotong keluak was a bit lack lustre.

Everyone was stuffed by this time but I had to let them try the durian chendol. Yay, overseas guests who actually like/can tahan durian! The pic looks a bit gross (like mashed brain) but it was soooo good. Gula melaka with durian rocks.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant as a place to bring guests. But having said that, it is a bit pricey as servings were quite small. Not hearty enough!