Charlie's Peranakan

Ayam Buah Keluak ($12)
This is my must-have dish whenever I visit a Peranakan restaurant. I like ordering this dish when I'm with my family, since none of them eat the buah keluak nuts, so I can have it all to myself! Especially since most restaurnants give about 4 nuts per portion of curry. This ayam buah keluak is pretty different from the ones that I've eaten so far, because the buah keluak forms the sauce, instead of the normal curry gravy. The tarry black sauce (which is an acquired taste) tastes best when eaten with steaming white rice, and as I'm writing this, I'm salivating. The Ayam Buah Keluak comes with 5 nuts, stuffed with minced pork. I'm definitely going back soon to get more of this! Maybe I'll takeaway a portion home too, to make my journey more worthwhile :)

Chap Chye ($6)
This isn't one of my more favourite dishes, so I don't think I will be commenting on it. I somehow have this misconception that it's always cooked with fatty pork. I think when I was younger I ate some chap chye which had so much fatty pork, and the vegetables in Chap Chye cooked till they acquire the same colour as the fatty pork. My friends, however, liked this so it was eaten up quite quickly.

I can't remember the name of this curry, but I think it's the Penang Gulai fish ($12). The curry is incredibly tasty, not very spicy, and the eggplants are cooked perfectly.

Sotong Hitam ($8 nett)

Squid cried in squid ink - I don't particularly like squid, but I found this dish pretty good. The squid was not overly chewy and pretty tender.

Ngoh Hiang ($10 nett)

Huge portion of ngoh hiang - probably one of the biggest ngoh hiang I've eaten. I thought it tasted quite alright, especially when it's eaten with the sweet sauce, but my friends didn't like it - just as well - I get to eat more :P The ngoh hiang is quite crumbly cos it's so huge, and the skin isn't very crispy, but I quite liked the meat and prawn stuffing.

I really like Charlie's Peranakan cos the food isn't spicy. So I can taste the full flavour of the spices since my tongue isn't numb and thobbing and having allydonia. If it was nearer, and I don't have to trudge through the AYE/ECP jam, I'll definitely have this somewhere on the top of my dining list.

Although the restaurant charges 50 cents for water, I don't feel as cheated as I do when I'm charged for water at other restaurants, since Charlie's Peranakan doesn't have additional service charge or GST. Prices in the menu are nett, so you won't exceed your budget. Not too sure if they charge for the achar starter tho!

Charlie's Peranakan

205 East Coast Road

Tel: 6344 8824

After dinner, we went to play mj. And look at the st benard (I don't know how to spell its name) and Chocolate the shar pei.