ray's birthday lunch at temple street

i took bus service 190 to dhoby ghaut and from there transferred to a north-east train to get to chinatown station. emerged at smith street and walked a short distance to the restaurant at temple street.

the name of the restaurant is chan de fu. it looks like a family-run business. the owner is a singaporean. his assistants include his wife, who is a chinese national, and his sister-in-law. the chef speaks mandarin with an beijing accent.

they specialise in a cuisine which hails from a certain region in china. i cannot be sure about which part of china. anyway, the dishes are quite distinctive and you are not likely to find them in a regular restaurant.

we started with chilled brinjal pieces which you dip into some sauce before you eat them. there were pork ribs, chicken wings, steamed fish, soup, some vegetable stuff heated over a stove, fried and chilled aerovela, minced meat and other stuff wrapped in popiah skin and soft durian buns.

apparently, ray is a regular at the place. he, not only gets a 10% discount on the bill, but also received a birthday present from the restaurant owner. we rounded off the session with a slice of the (birthday) durian cake each.