Where to buy the Best Pen Cai in Singapore with Takeaway Delivery for Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner | CNY 2023

Poon Choi Bowl (Source: Ajinomoto Malaysia)

The Ultimate Pen Cai Treasure Pot for DIY Guide

The Ultimate Pen Cai Treasure Pot for DIY Guide is a long-form article discussing how to make your own DIY pot. The author covers the materials needed, tools, and steps in detail. It is a comprehensive article that provides a lot of information.

How we found the Best Pen Cai in Singapore - Criteria

Before CNY comes around, most of our grandparents and parents are already preparing to buy the ingredients for Pen Cai. But how do we know if the ingredients are good, and where can we find the best Pen Cai Sets in Singapore? In this guide, we'll show you how to find and order the best Pen Cai in Singapore, and where to find the best ingredients to add in event you have extra guests.

Quality of Premium Ingredients

For any special dining event, you must bring out the best ingredients. For this classic cantonese treasure pot, there's a treasure trove of ingredients. Some of the best recipes in Singapore include the following ingredients:

  • Fatt Choy, or Black Moss

  • Whole Dace Fish

  • Pork Knuckle

  • Hokkaido Scallops (dried scallops or fresh scallops)

  • Fried Fish Maw

  • Roast Pork Belly, or Roast Duck

  • Soya Beancurd Knots and Lotus Root (for Vegetarian Pen Cai)

Delivery Options

Executive Chef Recipe

Dining In At home with Pen Cai - The 'Wonder Pot'

How long does it take the restaurant to prepare a Pen Cai dish from start to finish?

The average time it takes to prepare a Pen Cai dish from start to finish is around 10-20 minutes, but if you take into account the time it takes to soak your sea cucumbers, it takes 2-3 days. Frozen Sea Cucumber is an option, but they lose their Umami flavour when thawed. Dried Sea Cucumber is a traditional approach, but it retains the unique sea-water saltiness. 

Pen Cai is made from a variety of ingredients including vegetables, tofu and meat. The pot usually contains water with some other seasonings such as ginger, garlic or red chili. The dish is cooked by boiling the ingredients in a pot with water, then simmering it on low heat for an hour or two until all of the ingredients are cooked and marinated with the intermingling of flavors. For a mini pen cai like this one from Delishar, the cooking time may be shorter as it's a single serving. 

Mini Pen Cai Dish (Source: Delishar)

Origins of Pen Cai Singapore

Pen Cai is a Chinese cuisine that originates from the Walled Villages in the southern parts of China, including Guangdong and Fujian provinces. Legend has it that when the Emperor and his men fled the capital to the southern parts of China, the locals welcomed them by providing them local seafood cuisine. However, because they lacked normal cutlery and plates, they served the seafood in giant washbasins. Today, the tradition carried over to Singapore where it has been considered as one of the most popular dishes for celebrations at restaurants.

MICHELIN Guide to Pen Cai Ingredients Selection

Want to have a Michelin-Star quality dish? We have reached out to some of the winners of the Michelin awarded restaurants to find out what their secret is. IT turns out that one of their secrets is where they source their ingredients. Keep reading to find out where they get their top Pen Cai ingredients from.

Choose your Selection of Seafood Ingredients

Pen Cai Dish (Source: Straits Times, Hua Ting)

While there are many providers of fresh ingredients, reunion dinner demands the freshest selection of ingredients. Having a meaningful get-together is the best time for you to show off your culinary skills and refined tastes. Below are the ingredients you must pay attention to, and at the end, we will show you where you can get all these top tier ingredients in Singapore.

Sea Cucumber

Frozen Sea Cucumber

Besides being a phallic symbol, the sea cucumber is a luxury worth sharing. Make sure it's soaked for a couple of minutes (up to an hour or so) before cooking. 

Shop Sea Cucumber

 

Baby Abalone

Chuen Jia Fu Baby Abalone

Baby abalone is one of the most expensive seafood ingredients that you can get in Singapore. There are only a small amount of restaurants and hawker stalls which sell this ingredient, but it does not come cheap.

An average can of baby abalone might cost as much as $20- $50, whereas the large adult pieces can go up to $150 or more depending on the size, region and quality. But most often for Pen Cai, baby abalones are used.

Learn how to buy the best braise canned abalone here

Shop Abalone

Dried Scallop

Dried Scallop

Dried scallops are also a popular ingredient to use in Peng Cai. They have a strong and distinctive flavor that can be quite overpowering if used in excess, so it is best to use them sparingly. Be sure to also soak them before cooking them.

Shop Dried Scallop

Dried Oyster

Dried Oyster

Dried oysters have a strong umami flavor, so they require some soaking before they are placed in the pot.

Shop Dried Oyster

Fish Maw

Dried Fish Maw

Fish maw is a type of seafood that is found in many different Asian dishes. Fish maw has been used for centuries to help the digestive system, assist in replacing collagen, and as well as being an ingredient in many dishes. Fish maw is boiled with water, and the resulting broth can be used for cooking or eaten as a soup on its own.

Fish maw has many different names in different cultures, but they all refer to the same ingredient. Fish maw is known as “Hae-ko” in Korean, and “Mafura” in Japanese.

Shop Fish Maw

Chinese Mushrooms

White Dried China Mushroom

Chinese Mushrooms have an earthy flavor that is often used to enhance the flavor of dishes. If you buy them dried, soak them for roughly 30mins to an hour to soften them before cooking.

Shop Dried Chinese Mushroom

Glutinous Rice

White Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice is a type of short-grain, sticky rice that has been cooked and then soaked in water. It is often used in Asian desserts such as this one because it can form a chewy, elastic texture when cooked.

Shop Glutinous Rice

Where can you get all these ingredients? For the cooking ingredients, the best place to get them is from Teck Sang. They are the leading supplier of ingredients for some of the most iconic restaurants in Singapore, such as Tunglok and Canton Paradise Group. They are located at 10-11 Hong Kong Street, and during the Chinese New Year are open 7 days a week from 8:30am - 6pm. If you want to make pre-orders or skip the queue, you can order your ingredients online at www.tecksangonline.com.

If you're short on time, you can also purchase a pre-made Pen Cai Set from Pan Seas, one of Teck Sang's subsidiaries. Click here to shop for Seafood Pen Cai. 

How do you make a Pen Cai for reunion dinner? - Best Pen Cai Recipe (Singapore Edition)

How do you make a Peng Cai video?

Peng Cai or Pen Cai has several different recipes out there. In the video below is one such recipe from one of Pen Cai restaurant in Singapore.

Related CNY Dishes

To celebrate Chinese New Year, Pen Cai is just one of several celebrated dishes for family reunion. There are a few others you must try such as:

  • Prosperity Salmon Yusheng
  • Fish Maw Soup
  • Prawn Noodles
  • Beef Noodles

FAQ

What is Pen Cai?

What goes well with pen cai?

What is CNY Peng Cai?

Where to buy Pen Cai, or place a Pen Cai Order in Singapore?

When should I eat Peng Cai?

Tags

  • Pen Cai Singapore 2020 Delivery
  • Best pen cai takeaway singapore
  • pen cai restaurant singapore
  • Cheap and Good Pen Cai Ingredients Singapore