Tian Jin Hai Seafood

Address Stall 13, Jackson Kopitaim Macpherson Rd

Opening Hours 5pm to 2am daily

Almost every morning, at an ungodly hour of 3am, he would head down for the wholesale fishery ports in Jurong, looking for certain heads to chop.

The wholesalers knew what he was looking for and would happily point him to his targets…sharks. With a few confident chops of the huge cleaver right behind the eyes, he would usually wind up with about half a dozen sharks head before heading for home. Mr Yeo Hock Heng knew exactly what he wanted to do with them. And this is what sets his seafood apart from the rest…being different, almost shocking, without crossing the line with customers expectations.

His first surprise…he bought a $300 sambal recipe from a chef in Muar , Malaysia and promptly told his family that he was going give up his fishmonger job and set up a seafood stall in the then Whitley Flyover food centre back in the seventies.

He did not know how to cook then.

He somehow grilled seafood and he put that sambal to siput and made suckers out of many customers. Siput or choot-choot is a screw-like shellfish that you had to suck out of to get to the tasty, chewy and slippery flesh. The customers kept returning and Mr Yeo, or Ah Heng, knew there was no turning back.

Next, his big break. He was the man who turned a sleepy bus terminal corner at the Ulu Pandan and Clementi Road junction into a seafood haven in 1990. It was an oversized shelter with both covered and outdoor seating. His menu expanded then to include chilli and pepper crabs, ginseng chicken, chestnut chicken, crispy baby sotong, special fried tofu etc…but there was one controversial new dish that brought the diners in by the hundreds, practically every day.

Once, he noticed that some Indonesian fisherman were unloading giant clams from their nets which nobody was interested in, except Ah Heng. He did not know exactly what clams they were. He bought however much the Indonesians could supply him with everyday, at a throwaway price of $4 each. In the kitchen, he thinly sliced the abalone like sweet soft flesh and wok tossed it simply with celery, garlic, fresh cut chillies, spring onion and carrots and served it in its giant shell. He sold it for up to $100 each. He averaged 100 orders per day. I recalled enjoying the sweet , thinly sliced, softly chewy clam. The crunchy vegetables simply enhanced its natural flavour. “It was the highest point of my business. I bought two landed properties and four cars. Even when the rent for the plot of land increased four-folds to sixty thousand bucks a month, it was still profitable. I was so lucky” recalled Ah Heng.

But it all ended one evening when a group of marine conservationists had a meal in his restaurant. They realized that the clams were of an endangered and protected species, and promptly complained to the authorities. They warned Ah Heng, banned it and it flew off his menu, which led to the start of a decline in business. “I almost went broke and the debts were mounting and the sixty thousand dollar rental was still in place.” Ah Heng said, painfully.

But he moved on, borrowed some money, set up a new stall at Jackson Kopitiam and came out charging with his new shocking sensation…steamed sharks head cartilage.

Again, it began when this nosey parker noticed some fisher folks kept sharks head for themselves in the boat. He realized they stir fried its soft cartilage-y insides with spring onions and today, Ah Heng’s light soy and ginger version, is a hit with regulars at a minimum $20. It has the texture of top grade soft sea cucumbers and it is believed to have medicinal properties. I once surprised Discovery food show host Mr Anthony Bourdain of A Cook’s Tour with it while out on dinner. He took one bite an professed his love for it.

Another popular dish is the salt baked tilapia fish. Ah Heng guts the fish, stuffs it with celery, chilli, onion and ginger, packs it with salt and grills it to juicy perfection. The skin is removed and you eat the sweet juicy flesh. “ It is pai-tarn (hard to profit) dish. It takes almost 40 mins to grill on low charcoal fire. I charged $28 for this just to cover my labour cost.”

But my all time favorite is his crab beehoon soup (from $28). The milk-less milky soup is brewed with fish bones, prawns and other seafood and is sweetened with fresh vegetables. I can’t begin to describe just how beautifully simple this Teochew style dish is. He further sweetens the soup with a kilo of crabs and rightly uses the thin yet soft beehoon.

And if you are looking for the classic pepper and chilli crabs with mantou buns, butter prawns, baby sotong, sambal kangkong, fried soon hock etc…Ah Heng won’t fail you either.