Pa's 59th Birthday Dinner At Little Red House Seafood Restaurant

As I previously mentioned in my previous post, it was my Pa's birthday two days ago on 3rd November. Yup, he just turned 59! I still find it hard to believe he and my Mum are gonna be joining the sixtysomethings next year...they just don't look their age at all! Anyway, as I already talked about during my earlier post, my birthday gift for Pa was a four leaf clover gourd keychain. Check it out, I left it on his study desk...

As usual, being his casual self, Pa just opened his gift, told me it was nice, then put it back into the box and tucked it into a special corner on his shelf for precious keepsakes. I had to tell him that the keychain is meant to be carried around with him to serve its purpose of bringing him good luck and health, and personally help him add the gourd accessory to his current keychain myself, so he'd use it. ***roll eyes*** Ha ha ha... Anyway, that night, my Mum, youngest brother Donald and I brought him to one of our family's favorite restaurants, "Little Red House Seafood Restaurant" (小红楼海鲜酒家) at East Coast Seafood Centre for his celebratory dinner. (My younger brother Rodney couldn't join us due to work commitments, but he had already brought us out to a pre-event dinner last week at Swenson's)

I really love this place!!! Our family and relatives have been loyal customers and been patronizing it since its "historical" days when it was right smack in the middle of the rural outskirts of Singapore! In fact, I'd say that the restaurant managers here would have even witnessed the growing up years of myself, my brothers and my cousins, seeing that we'd come here nearly every celebratory event (birthdays, promotions, etc) yearly!

Now, I don't know about your family, but for our family, it just seems that once we've identified what tastes good at a restaurant, everytime we return to it again, we'd just order back almost exactly the same dishes again! Yup, that's EXACTLY the same case here! I think, with the exception of the breaded fried sotong balls (they keep saying they're gonna bring this back as a seasonal item, but it's been years but there's still no sign of its return) and satay, which they've taken off their menu since the mid 90s, the rest of the items we've ordered are pretty much the same dishes we've been having since I first came to the restaurant when I was a toddler!!! And they still taste just as good all these years! Check em out!!!

Steamed Prawns (清蒸白灼虾)

I really LOVE LOVE LOVE this dipping sauce!!! It has just the right mix of dark soy sauce, garlic, and red chilli to give the steamed prawns that extra OOMPH!

Fried Dough Sticks (炸油条)

This was our "replacement" dish for the fried sotong balls we used to ALWAYS order. Sigh...it just doesn't come close, but will just have to do until the restaurant "revives" our much beloved "dearly departed" dish.

Crispy Duck Szechuan Style (香酥全鸭)

This is a MUST-HAVE when you come here!!! The duck is deep fried until it's nice and crispy, YET amazingly it is never soggy or dripping with oil. Instead, what you get is crisp duck skin with firm and tender meat, and when you dip it into the sweet sauce... oh so HEAVENLY!

Red House Mee Goreng (马来炒面)

Nice springy noodles, with a tinge of spiciness, fresh, yummy prawns and a good mix of beansprouts and veggies. Almost thirty years later, and this dish still tastes just as good. Fantastic!

And of course, the finale dish...

Red House Chilli Crabs (辣椒螃蟹)

No visit of ours here would be complete without a taste of this dish! Yeah, yeah, I know that taste is subjective and I'm sure all of us have our own favorite chilli crab dish out there but for our family, this is the definitive dish! Spicy yet not overwhelmingly tongue-scorching hot, with well cooked eggy bits and a hint of sweetness, not to mention firm, juicy crabmeat and lots of roe, this dish is TO DIE FOR! YUM!!! Ok, ok, I'm not that big a crab dish lover, but I swear by the sauce man! Now served up with fried or steamed 馒头, it's just super addictive! Although I do admit that it used to be SO MUCH yummier when it was served back in the day with well-toasted french loaves diced into bite sized cubes, but now the restaurant has stopped serving that, sigh...

So that's it. Another fruitful trip to "The Little Red House". Till our next celebratory dinner, BURP!