Oceans of Seafood, Singapore

Back when I was in Perth, the idea of a perfect Sunday for me would be to sleep in and then walk around Fremantle - a cuppa coffee, brunch and a walk around the markets for fresh produce and seafood.

The newly opened PasarBella at The Grandstand (formerly known as Turf City) would be Singapore's version of Fremantle. Ever since it opened, I find myself there nearly every week. And it always ends with some of the freshest seafood you can find in town.

Oceans of Seafood is probably the largest stall in PasarBella, and it encompasses of 2 retail seafood outlets and 2 food and beverage outlets (one Japanese, sourced directly from Japan's Tsujiki Markets, and the other international).

Japanese seafood selection

Japanese ark shell (Akagai)

Their concept is similar to Raw Bars all over the world, you pick your seafood, choose a table and have it delivered to you. All seafood is either served raw, or simply steamed/boiled and served with your choice of homemade sauces which includes vinaigrettes, flavoured butters etc. They do charge a small fee for cooking though.

Pacific Oysters, 1/2 dozen ($12)

On my first visit, they only had Pacific Oysters. My second and third visits subsequently saw me indulging in Fanny Bay Canadian oysters (1/2 dozen, $16), Coffin Bay Australian Osyters (1/2 dozen, $16) as well as XXL USA oysters ($10 per piece). I like how they have Tabasco sauce on hand, you'll be surprised how many oyster bars don't provide any! So...do you like oysters? Or are they "snot of the sea" in your books? (;

Live North Sea brown crabs ($4.50/100g)

Served with garlic butter sauce

First time coming across brown crabs. You should have seen the delight on our faces when this was brought to our table! The roe! And unlike hairy crabs, brown crabs have decent amount of flesh on them so what you get is really sweet flesh plus all that roe. 

 Roe from the brown crab

Will you just look at that! The size of the roe was perhaps as thick as my palm - we ended up leaving half of it behind. It was just too much! Looking back, we should have doggy bagged it...crab roe fried rice...braised e-fu noodles with crab roe. Sigh...

Before...

 And after...

I can't remember which lobster we chose - but it was definitely not the Boston lobster. Either the Maine or South African ones I think. We also got 4 of the USA sea clams this time and decided to have them with miso butter and a dill and cucumber sour cream. That miso butter...oh my. Everything would have went well with that miso butter. You know when you can't quite describe something and all you say is that it's umami? Well this is it. I would have gotten some spot prawns just so I can dunk them into this miso butter had we not been so stuffed from all the non stop eating (sis was visiting for the weekend...)

More USA sea clams ($6/100g)

Couldn't get enough of these mollusks so we had more the next trip (: They're really sweet, have an abalone texture which is slightly chewy but right in the centre all creamy and erm....mushy. Does that turn you off? Lol

Uni ($35 per serving)

What does sea urchin taste like? A sea creature so spiky and alien like. My sister's absolute favourite, pretty sure she'll order this anytime of the day. I remember reading somewhere that uni tastes like a piece of phlegm, floating in the sea for days, rotting away. Epic. Well, my first encounter of uni in KL was exactly that. But have you ever tasted the sea breeze? The next time you're down that way, open your mouth and taste the breeze. Fresh uni should taste like that, just with a creamy custardy texture. Mmm...

 Japanese Top Shell ($23 per piece)

I'm sure many of you are familiar with top shells in canned form, served pickled with chilies and onion but never in my life have I seen a fresh one, let alone tasted one. 

Top Shell sashimi 

Imagine our surprise when this came to our table. Top shell sashimi in 3 parts. The part closest to you in the picture above, I believe, are the suckers because they were so hard and had an odd crunch to it. The part in the middle was slightly chewier, sort of like an abalone but with a slight crunch. The third part (which oddly looks like a pile of poo) was creamy and soft, with dark green innards. Tasted very much like what I'd imagine algae would taste like so we ended up drowning everything in miso butter and shoyu. Would I have this again? Probably not. But it was interesting while it lasted...

I brought this home for keepsake...it's sitting on my table right now. A good reminder that life is short and should be kept interesting (;

Oceans of Seafood
Pasarbella @ The Grandstand
200 Turf Club Road, #02-06 (#02-K2 to #02-K11)
+65 64661005