I read a few reviews online before I went to Pu Tien Restaurant, Marina Branch.  I was quite amazed that many reviews had said that so-and-so dish was good and so-and-so dish was not that good while readily admitting that they knew little about "Pu Tien cuisine".  Well, I thought before we go on any further, it might be helpful to have a short tutorial on the cuisines of China.  To begin our Chinese Cuisines 101 - the cuisines of China can be classified in two main ways: by region or eating habits.  Classification by regions can be done in nine ways: Beijing, Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Huai Yang, Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangsu Zhejiang.  Classification by eating habits is much rarer; palace officials, common people, foreign, mountain/forest.  So what is served at Pu Tien is Fujian cuisine, 福建菜.  Pu Tien is located along the coast of Fujian province, NW of Taiwan and in between Fuzhou and Quanzhou.  The definining characteristics of Fujian cuisine: Fresh seafood, soups, stews, complexity, subtlety.  There are little bold and loud flavours in Fujian cuisine, unlike Zichuan.  Soups and stews are popular hence the popular Fujian saying : －湯十变 (one soup, many forms)   Notable Fujian dishes we are all familiar with? Popiah 薄饼, Buddha jumps over the wall 佛跳墙, Hand-made noodles 拉面, Oyster omelette 蠔煎.

So it was after the Standard Chartered Marathon that Justin, PY and I headed down to the Marina Square branch.  We started with a few simple starters:

This is something that not many people, at least of my age, can appreciate.  Whenever I list bitter gourd as one of my favourite foods (especially thinly sliced and stir fried with egg), I get a :-/ face.  Well, hopefully Pu Tien's bitter gourd here will gain some converts.  Thinly sliced and flash frozen and served with honey, it has a nice unique texture and not that much of bitterness.  It is, in a word, refreshing, and rather 开味 appetising.

Oh yeah! That is one for those kway chap lovers out there, 猪肠 pig intestines.  But this is not your regular intestines you find at the normal kway chap stall, these are small intestines i.e. the more expensive type.  You rarely find these and can be rightly termed a delicacy.  It is multi-layered with soft fats in between, like a well marbled piece of steak.  And not to mentioned, it is braised to perfection.  I figure you can do this yourself at home too, you just need to get the ingredient - possibly tekka market or a special order from your butcher.

Now this is something you don't get everyday, 酒蚶drunken cockles.  Or what we commonly call "See hum", served on the half shell with a sweetish garlic/chilli/spring onion sauce.  Personally, I could have done with about 5 seconds less cooking though.  Furthermore, I think the garlic mixture could be toned down a little with more sauce and less garlic.  I though that the taste of fresh see hum should take more centrestage.

And then came this rather dainty bamboo herbal prawn.  It was a good way to end the starters portion, with a nice hot herbal soup to prepare the stomach and oesophagus for the mains!  But nothing really special in this dish.  Yes, the prawn was fresh and the soup delicate.  But the herbal mixture is nothing you can't get at a typical NTUC.  But I appreciate the fact that the soup was very clear; possibly because the herbs were put in a cheese cloth to be boiled so there is no sedimentation.

We started our main courses slowly, starting first with this cholesterol gauge buster called spinach with salted egg and century egg in supreme stock.  Wow! You can imagine the richness of the sauce here, rather amazing - thick, rich and flavourful.  A big plus, for me at least, was the deep fired whole garlic pieces here.  It was as if to balance off the cholesterol of the eggs.  This is definitely one of the preferred ways to get in your five a day.

And then came the real stuff, thick and fast, like the la mian here.  I had this radar specialist once called Koh, who actually got a Eu Yan Sang scholarship to study traditional chinese medicine in China (holy cow!), who told me that the defining dish of Fujian food is the la mian.  And this one at Pu tien did not disappoint.  The broth was rich and thick and there were generous amounts of ingredients.  But best to eat this steaming hot as, like all thick soup bases, it goes watery once cold.  The clams here are the stars of the dish.

And then came the protein.  On the right - Deep fried pig's trotters with pepper - Not for those with high blood pressure, it has a salty and peppery exterior but the meat was fried to perfection.  Most likely the trotters had been braised or cooked in some way before being deep fried.  And after having been onboard ship for so long where deep fried food is common, I can kind of tell when a deep fried food item is of quality; if it doesn't taste SAF cooked, its of good quality.  No seriously, the oil you use is important.  Fresh oil equals great deep fried food.  Unfortunately, the deep fryer oil onboard ship is never changed, it is just constantly topped up and everything cleaned out only once a ayear during hygiene inspection!  On the left is the fantastic deep fried duck with yam - a thick slab of duck encased in yam and crispy batter.  It tastes great but I wasn't sure that duck meat is such a good complement to yam though.  Both tastes don't really seem to go together but then this is something unique and probably not that easy to re-create at home or to buy from a regular stall.  Worth a try.

And phew, finally we come to dessert.  On the right we have pumpkin cream with ice-cream.  This was a brilliant dessert, excellently textured and creamy.  Plus it came topped with pistachios, yummy!  On the left we have the classic aw ni or yam paste.  This was no good, I recommend for you to avoid.  The paste was dull and the accompanying sweet starchy liquid was a big fat "duh?" For those in the know, yam paste or aw ni, is a Teochew dish i.e. from 潮州 in Guangdong province.  Little to do with Fujian province.  Even more interestingly, pumpkin is known also as 南瓜, and Fujian province is a southern province.  Moral of the story: know your Chinese cuisines and order accordingly!

Ok, a quick note on service - what you would expect at the START of a nice wedding banquet.  Quick changing of plates, quick courteous replies, promptness and efficient pouring of tea.  Nothing to steal the glamour of the food but also nothing to write home about. 

Ambience wise, space was rather limited at the Marina Branch, though I imagine it to be worse at the Tampines Mall branch.  Good for gathering of friends, but avoid if you're trying to impress a date.  Focus on the food!

Value for money? Some dishes are pretty pricey, especially the starters.  Overall, slightly on the high side but the food is quite well worth the money.

Food 7.5 Service 6.5 Atmosphere 6 Overall 7

Pu Tien Group of Restaurants