Ming Kee Live Seafood
It’s been a long time since S and I have gone out with friends and pigged out, mostly because she’s still trying to finish her long-overdue doctoral thesis. As I’ve written previously, we’re currently trying to stay in most nights. However, there are some friends that you just don’t say “no” to. Ever. N & M are two such people. So when they called and told us they were organizing a group to check out a seafood restaurant they’ve recently become enamored with, we immediately agreed to join them. And given the quality of the food we had, I’m very happy we did.
Ming Kee Live Seafood is tucked among a busy row of restaurants and eateries on Macpherson Road. It’s next to a famous fried intestines shop and a few doors down from Swa Garden, Ignatius Chan’s favorite Teochew restaurant. We had a splendid meal, made even better through the edition of some amazing wines supplied by N, including some JJ Prum Rieslings and a 1996 Flor de Pingus. We began our feast with a perfectly roasted suckling pig. This was followed by the most beautifully tender mussels cooked in a lovely, umami, soy sauce based sauce. After this, we had equally delicious steamed scallops covered in young garlic. We then had some fried mee sua that was good but not great. The next course, steamed crayfish, on the other hand, were excellent.
Our feast continued with a pair of fried soon hock. These were stunning. The fish was crispy yet tender. And the sauce was yummy and savory. Soon after the fish came out, we were served some homemade tofu with mushrooms and broccoli. The tofu was exceptionally well-made. We also had some kangkong fried with sambal, which was not bad. A dish that I didn’t expect to enjoy but which was quite tasty was deep-fried frogs’ legs. Our second-to-last dish of the night was some super-yummy fried hor fun. If I hadn’t already felt more stuffed than a Thanksgiving turkey, I could have eaten several helpings of this simple but gorgeous noodle dish.
The piece de resistence of the night, which was clearly S’s favorite dish, was crab bee hoon. S especially appreciated that the noodles were coated evenly with the crabs’ roe. The crabs were cooked well and were full of meat. The whole dish was very tasty and we were assured that it was all MSG-free.
Ming Kee Live Seafood is a great place if you feel like gorging yourself on course after course of delicious, well-made food. Personally, my favourites were the mussels, the scallops, the soon hock, the tofu and the fried hor fun. As said, S was a big fan of the crab bee hoon, which some friends declared as being even better than Danny’s (of Sin Huat fame). While I don’t want to cast judgement, I will say that it was excellent.
Ming Kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road
Singapore
Tel: 6747 4075
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
hi chubby hubby
what a lovely post! im very hungry now. i stay right behing macpherson road so i’m plesantlky surpised to discover a gem so close by! could you tell me roughly what prices to expect?
Agree, the mussels, the scallops, the soon hock these dishes are just great! One of the most lovely places we can have good seafood, however, the most recommended from me is still the mussels! A huge serving of that ain’t enough I sure of that! They are simply lovely!
Hey CH,
Ooooh seafood, my favorite. Everything looks soooo good, I will have to cook them one-by-one myself. 😉
About Soon Hock, OMG, I totally forgot about this fish. It was my favorite fish ever when I was in Malaysia; I found the texture the best! I am very bad in recognizing the shape of fish, but I don’t think it’s available in the US. Do you know the English name of it by any chance?
I really love seafood.I wish I can taste all those food you mentioned in Korea, especially crab bee hoon. I wonder why we don’t have good Singapore restaurant here.
That meal sounds extraordinary. How I wish Melbourne had better South-East Asian food. Thai here is terrible; Malaysian and Singaporean practically non-existent; Chinese overrated and cliched. We’ve had enormous influxes of students from South-East Asia and China to our universities and I’m hoping desperately that some of them may spread their culinary-entrepreneurial wings and make Melbourne home.
hi rasa malaysia
it’s called marble goby. but i don’t know if that helps you at all in the US 😛
The crab is huggin those noodles!
I wanna try this place during my next return-visit to home Singapore!
wow that does look delicious!! plus the photos are so gorgeous as always.
Wow! Simply delectable spread you got there!
Hey, I’m the sis of the MK restaurant’s owner. This little restaurant may not have the everything but enough to satisfy your palatte. It’s the “the place” to taste to believe it. So, i say Bon Apets people.
Love your site! And love your post on Ming Kee. Its fabulous. Frankly whenever I entertain and quality of food is the main concern, I inevitably go there 🙂 Cheers!