Phoon Huat Deli rebranded with new Online Store & Premium Food at RedMan, Star Vista

If you’re one of those who used to frequent Phoon Huat located near Buona Vista MRT that has since closed down, then you’ll be happy to know that it has reopened in style at The Star Vista basement.

Rebranded as Phoon Huat Deli, not only does it have well-stocked baking shelves filled with both common and eccentric baking goods every baker would swear by, it also comes with a baking studio, a Japanese food corner full of air-flown seafood, and more. 

Phoon Huat Deli isn’t just a one-stop hub for your baking needs anymore. As of 2018, they are a dedicated delicatessen that serves a wide range of fine seafood and deli offerings, flown in worldwide.

We were invited to try some of these premium ingredients, but not just to eat out of their packagings!

In order to whet our appetites, Phoon Huat Deli invited talented professional home cook @Snowcology, who painstakingly prepared four dishes using their premium ingredients for us to try.

(Phoon Huat has a baking studio for aspiring bakers and learners to get together)

The first dish is likened to a sashimi canapé, prepared using sliced focaccia bread, various kinds of raw fish, namely the Hamachi, Tuna, Salmon and Tako; Royal Belgian Caviar ($83), Ikura, and smoked salmon loins ($41.94) from Benfumat, which sells the best salmon in northern Norwegian fjords where the water is clearest and coldest.

A fantastic idea for a canapé tea party, except that you won’t finish it in one bite!

I love my cold cuts, and this exotic selection of fish coming together in this exquisite dish was no exception. I have to talk about the Gold Label caviar. It’s from the Siberian sturgeon or a crossbreed between Russian and Siberian sturgeon, and the fresh-off-the-fish caviar is packed directly into their cans to prevent oxidation – “why all the hassle,” you may wonder.

This “technique” makes the caviar especially silky and truly fresh. These darlings melt in your mouth instead of the usual slight ‘crunchiness’ that comes with small-sized roes.

(The finished Canapé prepared by Chef Chia Wee Loon from @Snowcology)

The next dish was the live Fine de Claire oysters (prices start from $1.80 per piece) flown in from Marennes-Oleron, France. Mr. Chia prepared the oysters with bafun uni from Hokkaido Japan ($78 per box), as well as Royal Belgian Caviar ($83 onwards).

The oyster was served on a larger shell than I am used to for a Fine de Claire oyster (I’m not complaining), and it tasted briny and had a slightly nutty flavour that complemented the sea-saltiness. Fine de Claire oysters are generally ‘skinnier’ and less fleshy, yet somehow there is this satisfaction from chewing on them rather than the on overly plump ones.

(Mr. Chia completed the dish by spraying white wine yuzu foam on the top of the oyster)

It was at this point that a kind assistant offered us some refreshments.

Natural Benefits has got several flavours. I tried Watermelon Mint and Honey Lemonade – they were refreshing and filled with “personality”, though I felt the lemonade was slightly sour in taste.

Beetroot was another flavour that was quite popular with the guests too.

The third dish Mr. Chia prepared for us was the Angel Hair Pasta served with delicious Carabinero prawns, which is a type of Spanish deep sea red prawn prized for its huge size and bright red colour. Compared to other crustaceans, the carabinero prawn’s taste is more distinct and robust. The price for a carabinero prawn was $18; sounds steep for prawns – but if you were to close your eyes and bite into them, you’d probably mistake them for lobsters!

The dish was topped off with baby rockets and tobiko, which is always great with angel hair pasta.

You could also make your own local prawn noodle soup by boiling the carabinero prawn heads for several hours – and expect the taste to be richer compared to a typical prawn noodle mee soup dish!

The final dish was deep-fried Miyazaki Wagyu (Prices start from $23.50 per 100g) paired with two slices of crisp, toasted bread.

Miyazaki beef is 100% purebred Japanese wagyu from Miyachiku co-op in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. In order to prepare this dish, Mr. Chia first coated the cubed wagyu with flour and then deep fried it for about 1.5 minutes.

The Miyazaki beef retains a very rich flavour that was not usually found in other kinds of beef. We thought that the meat was slightly raw due to the intense red even after it was deep-fried, but it appeared that this was actually the best way to cook it – medium rare, and quickly, to trap the meat’s umami juices.

The beef contained a natural marbling of high-quality fat that worked wonderfully with the deep flavours from the beef. The texture of the beef was really tender and resembled a fine steak. Sandwiched between two pieces of toasted bread, the dish was a hands-down winner for beef-lovers!

We’ve come to the end of our Phoon Huat Deli tour, but for a full menu of their fine ingredients, you can visit their online shop. Speaking of the range and quality of the seafood and meat delicatessen that Phoon Huat Deli has, we think it’s a pretty bold and original move. Hopefully, there would be some plans to evolve into the larger accessible market in the future.

 

Phoon Huat Deli

RedMan at Star Vista,

1 Vista Exchange Green, B1-14/15 Singapore 138617

 

Daily: 10am to 10pm.

Website: www.phdeli.sg

 

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Images and write up by @chowbaccas

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