The famous family-run zichar store Keng Eng Kee Seafood, or KEK Seafood, opens a new branch at SAFRA Tampines, looking to serve the East crowed with meals that don’t get cold from delivery runs.
The warmth of a home-cooked meal is attractive to everyone everywhere, regardless of where you are from. The sincerity that comes with the cooking of dishes, especially for servings of a big size and scaled up for gatherings, is the true “secret sauce” of what makes them different; that is the main challenge family-run restaurants face when they try to share that love of food with a bigger audience, growing humble store-fronts into multi-branched food businesses.
Luckily, the heart is not always lost in the passing of time through this process of growth. The third-generation family restaurant Keng Eng Kee Seafood, or KEK Seafood, remains a popular spot for family dinners even after 50 years because they continue to feed its customers with the same hearty meals, never remiss of quality and flavour. Loved even by food host Anthony Bourdain and listed on the Michelin Guide with a Michelin Plate since 2016, it is popular on delivery apps even for recipients who stay far from their spot at Bukit Merah — that is why they decided to make themselves more available at a new location, SAFRA Tampines now housing its first branch outside the neighbourhood.
In a new 120-seater space, air-conditioned and with a view of the pool, it premieres a menu featuring new items as well as signature dishes that Singaporeans have come to know and love over the years. Warmth at this new outlet comes in the form of Claypot Premium Collagen Soup, rich in collagen and generous with slices of pig’s stomach, fish maw and dried beancurd.
A claypot KEK-style Vermicelli Crab pairs springy vermicelli with a sweet, fleshy whole mud crab fragranced with scallions, fried garlic and a homemade sauce, while a Homemade Tofu Loofah with Sliced Fish has smooth and silky tofu accompanied by fresh snakehead fish slices and loofah gourd.
Also staying true to how their dishes are enjoyed at home, the Claypot Pig Liver is served with rice, mixed into a herbaceous sauce and eaten with the iron-rich liver slices to trigger a memory-inducing wave of flavourful euphoria. The family-recipe Claypot Braised Duck with Yam also follows tradition — starchy fried yam sticks are added to the braised duck, sea cucumber, mushrooms and celery for fun, textural colour.
While the Signature Moonlight Horfun’s impressive “wok-hey” makes it a must-have when you eat at KEK Seafood, the true star of the lineup is the Coffee Rib; having won hearts in Denmark, New York and Spain in various gourmet events, it does not come to play. Aromatic, decadent, yet not overwhelmingly sweet, the caramelized coffee sauce brings out the bite of the juicy pork ribs, each mouthful divine yet nostalgic of childhood meals that often favour the intake of sweets.
This is what KEK Seafood really does best — make you think fondly of your memories of home-cooked meals.
If you’re wondering why all their special dishes are made with a clay pot, it was a deliberate choice — this is to ensure that catch-ups and other conversations can continue to take place in the comfort of an air-conditioned space alongside a meal that stays warm with time. There’s nothing better than eating a meal that gives you a full stomach and a full heart.
On selected weeks, enjoy 50% off different dishes as a welcome treat from KEK Seafood. The dishes on offer are the Spinach with Ikan Bilis $5.90 (UP $11.80) from 19 – 25 Sep 2022, and White Pepper Crab $44 (UP $88) from 26 Sep – 2 Oct. Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our September 2022 issue!
RELATED ARTICLES
