Cooking with seafood is a delicate process. While it requires both meticulous preparation and the right techniques, working with quality ingredients is also paramount in the execution of the perfect seafood number.
Here in Singapore, we often find ourselves limited to the measly seafood selection at chain supermarkets (no offence NTUC). Sometimes, sourcing for the freshest seafood can be more challenging than cooking itself. This is why we’ve taken upon ourselves to uncover a list of places to buy the best of seafood. These 7 honest-to-goodness places are guaranteed to sell you only the freshest seafood. In fact, for Ah Hua Kelong, Eating Crabs, Emporium Shokuhin, and Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro, some seafood can be bought or delivered live!
1. Song Fish Dealer Pte Ltd
The super ulu location may not be as convenient as your Giant or Cold Storage. However, the fresh and extensive range of seafood sold at wholesale prices make the visit to Taman Jurong worthy. At Song Fish Dealer, you can have your seafood cleaned and cut any way you like, a unique service that has since become a strong incentive for customers to make the commute here. If we can’t convince you to make the trip, you can locate the other outlets of Song Fa or simply opt for delivery. The highlights of Song Fa will be its black cod, king crab leg, lobster, rohu, shark fillet, tuna loin.
Song Fish Dealer
Address: 19 Fishery Port Road (retail showroom)
Opening Hours: 8 am – 5 pm (Mon-Sat), 830 am – 12 pm (Sun & PH)
Tel: 6777 3939
2. Ah Hua Kelong
Situated amongst the hipster vendors at PasarBella is Ah Hua Kelong, a wholesale seafood business founded by a pair of 25 year-olds. The duo takes pride in delivering only the freshest of seafood from their fish farm, which can also be conveniently ordered online (delivery is free with a min order of $40).
Fish is only hauled up on the actual day of your delivery to ensure optimum freshness. Ah Hua Kelong’s highlights include the barramundi, pearl grouper, live mussels, flower crabs and seabass.
Picking out fresh seafood isn’t exactly second nature to us millennials so major props to them for providing an informative guide on the indicators of freshness too!
Seafood that can be bought or delivered live: clams, mussels, and crabs.
Ah Hua Kelong
Address: #02-K2 PasarBella, 200 Turf Club Rd
Opening Hours: Mon to Thu, 1 pm-930 pm; Fri to Sun 12 pm -10 pm
Tel: 8655 3074
3. Tekka Wet Market
This vibrant, two-storey wet market located at Little India is possibly the largest and most iconic wet market in Singapore. Housing over 284 tenants, expect to find a good handful of stalls selling fresh ocean catches at Tekka. This is also where you’ll experience bargaining – a quintessential aspect of the authentic wet market experience. The better the vendor knows you, the lower the prices. If you are a first-time buyer, put on your sweetest smile and maybe bat your eyelashes a little. For the guys, try flexing a little and see how far that gets you. Be sure to look out for squids, snappers, salmon, tiger prawns.
Lee Yit Huat Trading is one of the stalls to check out. They are known for their bountiful array of seafood, including squid and stingray. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper the seafood here can be. Tekka is open until late afternoon, so you have the luxury of sleeping in and avoiding the jostle with the morning marketing crowd.
Tekka Wet Market
Address: 665 Buffalo Rd, L1 Tekka Centre S210665
Opening Hours: Daily 6.30 am-5 pm
4. Eating Crabs
This one’s for all crab lovers out there – Eating Crabs is an online seafood retailer founded by seafood enthusiasts. They go to great lengths to ensure that their crabs are of utmost quality by conducting stringent quality checks. They specialise in bringing in mud crabs of varying sizes from reputable suppliers and also euthanise, clean and shell the crabs before delivery. Now there’s one less worry. You won’t have to kill and clean your own crab at home.
Apart from crabs, they also offer a range of fresh Canadian oysters, sea bass, green or blue mussels and prawns of all varieties.
Seafood that can be bought or delivered live: oysters, mussels, clams, lobsters, and crabs.
Eating Crabs
Opening Hours: Daily 9 am – 6 pm (4pm last order)
Tel: 83337436
5. Emporium Shokuhin
This new Japanese supermarket at Marina Square has its own in-house, live seafood market with fresh imports from Japan, US, Australia and Europe. Armed with 22 specially-designed water tanks that house over 20 variations of live fish and shellfish, chances are you will be able to find what you are looking for at Emporium Shokuhin.
Oyster lovers, this is also the place to get your indulgent fix – Emporium Shokuhin has over 10 live oyster varieties freshly imported from countries like France and Canada. If you find the traditional, rowdy wet markets and giant warehouses too overwhelming, you can now shop for all your favourite seafood at this gourmet supermarket – all in the comfort of air-conditioning without compromising on quality.
Oysters aside, keep a look out for their Alaskan king crab, Dungeness crab, abalone, flounders, Japanese saba and Boston lobsters. Delivery is also available for those who prefer shopping from the comfort of their homes.
Seafood that can be bought or delivered live: crabs, oysters, lobsters, and more.
Emporium Shokuhin
Address: 6 Raffles Boulevard, #01-18 Marina Square
Opening Hours: Daily 8.30 am-10 pm
Tel: 6224 3433
6. Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro
This cosy neighbourhood fish market and bistro is dedicated to bringing in only the freshest of seafood. Greenwood Fish Market and Bistro specialises in importing cold water fish from the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.
The staff here is well trained and extremely knowledgeable. They’ll dish out recommendations and cooking tips to ease you into the seafood-buying process. They also have a bistro section; you can choose to bring your buys home or have their in-house chef prepare it for you on the spot. Highlights include its smoked Haddock, swordfish, mahi mahi, tuna steak and live Boston lobsters.
Seafood that can be bought or delivered live: lobsters and oysters.
Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro
Address: 34 Greenwood Ave
Opening Hours: Daily 11 am-1030 pm
Tel: 6467 4950
7. Senoko Fishery Port
For the benefit of those who have no idea what Senoko Fishery Port is, this one’s for you.
A familiar name to most, the Senoko Fishery Port, unlike our local wet markets, only roars to life when the sun is down. Open from 2am-6am, be prepared to stay up if you want to snag the freshest ingredients at this wholesale fish market. As this is a wholesale market, you can expect an extensive range of seafood; from fish to squid to the ever indulgent lobster and even guitar sharks at bargain prices. Do also check out the stingray, shark, sea bass, tilapia, red and white snapper.
For those keen on exploring the market, you can find an informative guide to Senoko here. Do remember to bring your ID to exchange for an entry pass at the security post in order to gain access to the market.
Seneko Fishery Port
Address: 31 Attap Valley Rd, 759908
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun, 2 am – 6 am
Tel: 6257 6721
So the next time you’re on the hunt for fresh seafood, do check out the aforementioned places. You no longer have to be confined to the limited range at your nearest supermarket or settle for anything less than fresh. Apart from obvious health reasons, the quality of the seafood you use does make a world of difference to your final dish.
(Header image by crystalcovesingapore)
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