Place I have been - Crave Singapore 2010 - Sizzling Kelong

As part of a series of event organise for some of the F1 delegates and those related to the event, Chef Tan Yong Hua from Pearl River Restaurant was invited to cooke up a buffet style feast for over 20 delegates, event organisers from SPOC and the rest of us from the Kelong.

The preparation started at 2pm and delegates started arriving from 4pm. Chef Tan and his assistant - a first year student Benson(I hope I get his name right!) from ITE started preparing from 5pm till about 6pm.

I am not a fine dining person. I am a Kopitiam (coffee shop) and make sure my coffee and tea stay within 80cents (lower end of price for Kopitiam to foreign visitors reading this blog) kind of person. In my first up close experience with a world famous chef (people who watch TV will know he is one of the Chef in 《名厨出走记》), I discover Chef Tan is as humble as approachable as friendly as anyone can be. I feel comfortable talking to him...relaxing even. I hope that we can have more opportunity working together next time.

The delegates are put to task in fishing for the ingredients for chef Tan to cook from the Kelong fish farm. Chef Tan exercise his professional judgement in selecting the correct size Groupa, delegates have to re-fish if the fishes being netted failed to pass his stringent requirement!

Apart from sashimi, grill fish, prawns, mussels, Rose Mary (Kelong owner) also provide rice, mee goreng, bee hoon to ensure that the buffet will be a great success!

During the event, representative from the Fourth Estate also explain how wine can compliment seafood to make it taste better! Example, white wine can bring out the taste of sweetness in Seafood. I am not an expert in this area so if there are any opinions about this, feel free to write in the comments.

This write-up will be categorised under Places I have been.

Kelong Tour Updates

Have anyone heard of Linzhi "Po Pi Bao Zhi Fen"? I am given two boxes of such powder free of charge. I am told that this is supposed to be a great but expensive tonic. Being a greedy pig that I am, I start taking them immediately. However, there is a curious side effect...I keep having to "LS" at night (LS is diarrhea) but feeling very good during day time. Weird!

Anyway, I have revisited the Kelong the other day and the Lady Boss has kindly shown the group several interesting stuff! This is an update post from the original Kelong Tour article.

During the tour, we saw how the fishes upload at Changi Point is monopolized by a family (down with cartel I say) of trader.

Cartel is bad because fishes by local fishermen or Kelongs are force to sell to this Cartel at a ridiculously low price but at sell to the logistic or other middleman at twice the price, who sold to the restaurant at twice the price and then to us at twice the price again!

A fish sold by the fisherman for say 16 dollars could become 64 dollars by the time it reaches us!

After viewing the upload, we went to the Kelong and witness the feeding session for Cobia and Tiger Grouper. Oh there are lobsters in the Kelong too...but it seems that lobster feeds on the crap that flow around in the sea and do not need feeding (they are omnivorous scavengers...same as Cockroaches).

After the feeding session, climb up onto the Kelong to witness how the nets are lower and rise. On a good night the high power lamp is able to attract up to 800 kg of fishes. These fishes are then used to feed the fishes in the fish farm. On a bad night, the lowest record is 8 kg.

After the tour, enjoy a good meal of Nasi Lemak and Otah (from this otah factory) and drinks before leaving the Kelong to Singapore.

This Kelong tour will be categorised under both educational tours and Farm/Nursery tours.

If you need transportation services to visit this place, please refer to our product listing page.

Educational Tour

Places listed here are suitable for both Adults and Children. We are a strong advocate of life long earning and we believe that it is through exposure and seeing new things can we continue to fire our curiosity.

For Children, as quoted from a paragraph in early childhood curriculum written by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore Senior Minister of Trade and Industry and Education

"The child who has his curiosity ignited in his early years, who develops an excitement about learning and interacts easily with others, will have a headstart in life. Let’s give every child a headstart."

We hope that this blog can achieve this lofty objectives.

Alot of factory tours venues will also appear in this educational tours section as factory tours usually come with guides. So feel free to follow the links below and see what interest you!

For locations with a (worksheets) hyperlink, it means that worksheets are available for download. Be patient, the number of locations with worksheets will increase over time. It is a time consuming process to write and cross-checked the answer.

1)   Pizza Hut Kitchen Tour
2)   Mushroom Farm Tour:- Mycofarm
3)   Fire Station Tour
4)   Fire Station Heritage Tour
5)   Haw Par Villa
6)   Newater
7)   Marina Barrage
8)   Japanese Occupation Series - Part 1 - Battle Box
9)   Japanese Occupation Series - Part 2 - Ford Factory
10) Japanese Occupation Series - Part 3 - Changi Chapel
11) Kelong Tour
12) Wheat and Mushroom farm:-Kin Yan
13) Ointment and Balm factory:- Fei Fah
14) Chee Cheong Fun Factory Tour:- Leong Chai Kee
15) Sand Quarry
16) Land Transport Authority (LTA) Gallery
17) Air Force Museum
18) Yakult Factory
19) Gardenia Factory
20) Hay Dairy
21) NTU Chinese Heritage Center
22) HDB Gallery
23) Youth Olympics Learning Center

24) Sime Darby Cooking Oil
25) Hydroponics Vegetable Farm Tour
26) Singapore City Gallery
27) Science Center Kitchen Lab
28) OpenNet Gallery
29) Philatelic Museum
30) Theory and practical of Traditional Chinese Medicine
31) Radio Station Visit
32) Gems and Jade Factory
33) Chinese Opera Museum
34) Birdnest Warehouse
35) Crocodile Farm
36) Grass Jelly Factory
37) NUS Museum
38) ArtScience Museum
39) Lorong Halus Wetland
40) Bio Diesel Recycling Plant
41) Alexandra Canal
42) Tiger Beer Brewery
43) Ion Sky
44) Malay Curry Puff

45) Chem Gallery at Jurong Island

46) Kranji War Memorial
47) Marina Bay City Gallery
48) Wan Qing Yuan Gallery
49) Coffee Factory
50) Fassler Salmon Factory
51) Peranakan Museum
52) Pastamania Doughwork (worksheets)
53) Lab Work for all
54) Otah and Soon Kueh Fty (worksheets)
55) Home Team Gallery
56) Reflections at Bukit Chandu
57) Tampines Changkat Butterfly Garden
58  IRAS Gallery
59) Birdnest Factory
60) NTU Bio Science Lab
61) Tai Hua Soya Sauce

Farm/Nursery Tours

Unknown to many (both Singaporeans and otherwise), Singapore has a rich and booming farming culture. Alot of the farms are not opened for visiting, but enough are.

In this section, I will present to you the farms I have visited and what you can do there. If nothing else the rural area the farms situated at will give you a nice break from the omnipresent concrete jungle. Just sit back and listen to the sound of the birds and insects and see the Sun light filter through the leaves of the trees.

BTW, alot of the farms visit at educational in nature, so please do not be shocked to find some similar links over at the educational tour landing page.

1)   Wheat and Mushroom farm(Kin Yan)
2)   Vegetable wholesale in a farm (Kok Fah Technological Farm)
3)   Sing See Soon Flower Nursery
4)   Orchid Farm (Orchidville)
5)   Kelong Tour
6)   Animal Resort
7)   Mushroom farm:- Mycofarm
8)   Farmart
9)   Bollywood Veggies
10) Dragon Fruit Farm
11) Hay Diary
12) 181 Seafood
13) Hydroponics Vegetable Farm
14 Prawn Fishing
15) Mainland Tropical Fish Farm

If you are aware of any new/interesting farms. Please inform us through the comments below. If you have photos of such places, you can also send in to us (Please ensure you have the rights to the photos). Acknowledgment will be posted.

Kelong Tour

Good day to all. Today is the third day of Chinese New Year. Singapore is finally stiring back to life. After 2 days of non-stop visiting it is time to get down to work!

After thinking for some time, I am going to do a overhaul of the navigation system, similar to the sitemap. The areas will be grouped as warehouse tours, factory tours, Farm/Nursery Tour, Educational Tours, Temple Tours, Church Tour, Products for sale that offer substantial benefits to mankind and side tracks.

During any festive sessions, I may then create a page to link those places together to give you a nice shopping or touring experience.

Of cos this revamp is not going to be overnight, so in the meantime, if you find any broken links or some slight confusion, please be patient.

Okay, before I start the revamp, let me introduce to you a floating Kelong( vs slited Kelong) found right in Singapore water.

This Kelong tour offer participants opportunities to see a real Kelong, floating fish farm, live lobsters rear in the sea, fishing, eating on Kelong, sales of freshest seafood, or even a nice romantic night dining on the Kelong and see the sunset....Beat THAT!

To get to the Kelong, one will require a bumboat ride to the Kelong. The bumboat pick up point is off Changi Point. As the owner of the Kelong is not always on the Kelong (only the workers), booking with Richard Yap is strongly encouraged to avoid disappointment.

Guide will be provided on the Kelong. For the simplest tour (intro to Kelong, live fishing + buying of fresh seafood + Nasi Lemak + visit to 1 kelong) it takes about 2 hours and cost $16 dollars excluding BumBoat fees. The more complex one such as dinner and visit 7 Kelong in  day will cost more.

In the picture below, you can see the Kelong and Fish farm. However, on the day the photos were taken, the fishes and lobsters have been used for APEC meeting, this make the Kelong appeared quite empty.

I have written an updated article on Kelong Tour. Take a look here!

This Kelong tour will be categorised under both educational tours and Farm/Nursery tours.

If you need transportation services to visit this place, please refer to our product listing page.

You can also purchase a list of Top 40 Must Visit Places in Singapore with Sample Itineraries at the Donation/Payment Details page.