Singapore Zi Char in Fujairah!

Some time back, one of our Singaporean friends here in Dubai wrote his FB tat he had crab and all sort of zi char type food and it was worth the 5 hour drive to Fujairah.... I was sort of surprised to find that there is actually Singaporean style zi char in this part of the world.. and surprised to find that it is in the little state of Fujairah where the population is only 130,000.. (third smallest state in the UAE but has the second least population)

Anyway, our Singaporean gang, saw two new additions after a few of them left and they were all excited to have an outing together to eat Singaporean food.. so since there was an upcoming public holiday, we decided we will drive there for lunch.

Alas, one of our friends said it was too warm to drive tat far and din wanna join us.. we STILL forced him to go.. hahahaha.. by offering him a free ride there in the front seat of the car with air con blasting full blast at him:) So leh, he said OK lor.. I mean, I think it was better than staying at home and doing nothing:)

Before we went there, we were warned that it was very difficult to find the place. Another friend said he had tried to search for it once but to no avail.. Max looked up the map and took down the number to ask for directions...

We woke bright and early that day and decided to go to Mac donalds for breakfast before we start our long long drive there... according to Max, it will take about 1-1.5 hrs...

Me and Ace self enteratain by cam whoring while waiting for our mac donald breakfast..

My good son now eats a full mac donald breakfast liao lor.. cannot share anymore cos if we share, he will complain he is hungry very soon!:)

Fujairah has got lots of mountains.. only took a few pics since it is not very nice.. hahaha.. BUT nevertheless.. Fujairah is a mountainous region and thus is one of the places with the highest amount of rainfall in the whole UAE...

Our friends say these mountains are BOTAK mountains.. cos no plants, not trees... just plain rubble.. and the amazing thing is that in the middle of the mountains, I actually saw a small cluster of houses.. Gee, wonder who will live here in this literally HUANG SHAN YE LING...

But I guess maybe they are the people who are building things here or wat...

That is Ace pretending to SLEEP on the way there...

Finally we reached the restaurant.. and no wonder everyone says it is difficult to find the place! If you were to drive here and drive around looking for the signboard, you will NEVER FIND IT! Cos the entrance of the restaurant actually faces a little road in between two buildings... it is in an unobtrusive corner and you wouldnt find it unless you knew it was there and was looking for it there... Heng Max is smart and called for directions!

And it is so wonderful to walk in, see a fellow Singaporean and familiar Singaporean foods on display as the SPECIALS:)

We found out a few things about the place and its history chatting with the boss...

• Most of the clients here are Singaporeans or Malaysians and most drive many miles here to eat!
• Boss has been here few years already and she had followed her hubby here when he was sent here to work
• Her chefs are from Malaysia.. which is why they also have some malaysian dishes I have not seen or tried before
• Lao ban niang is from Tampines... easterner like me!:)

Anyway, it was a really warm day and so we ordered 100PLUS for Ace as a treat for surviving the long, hot journey cos I tell you hor, driving in that kind of heat is no joke.. I nearly DIED... I had to put my head in between the two seats in front constantly so tat I can have some cool aircon to cool me down.. if not I felt as if I was on fire!

And this is what we suffered for 3 hours for... hahahaha...

From top left: Xing Zhou Mifen (Veg), Salted Fish Fried Rice, Mai Pian Prawns, Furong Egg

From top left: Butter Chicken, Curry Fishhead, Fried Kangkong and some dish I dunno wat it is called;) It is a Malaysian dish of deep fried chopped kai lan leaves with stir fried stems and a sprinkling of yin yu on top.

Unfortunately, the main entree is CRABS.. hahaha but I din remember to take picture of it at all cos I was busy eating!:)

I think the food was so so.. now tat I can sort of cook, I think most of the vegeterian dishes tat max ordered like the egg, the xin chou mifen and the fried veg I can cook wat:) hahahahah.. And because I am not much of seafood person, I am happy not to eat seafood too:) So leh, if you asked me if it was worth tahaning the hot sun for the food.. I dun really think it was worth a 3 hour drive under the super duper hot sun... But as an excursion, it was sort of fun and I did enjoy myself :)

Max and Ace using the placemat to act as a photoframe.. as for the inside.. we tore it out so that Ace can use it to do his origami and not bug us throughout the long journey back.. hahahaha

We are Singapore! Ace holding a toothpick holder that has two merlions and the words SINGAPORE written on it...

I think even though the food was so so, it was just so so so nice to be in a restaurant where almost everyone who steps in is from your part of the world.. for a moment I felt more at home in the middle east and it almost seems compulsive to speak singlish and use singlish slangs loudly as we would in a hawker centre in Singapore!:) Happiness!:)

After the meal, we decided to drive back and stop by in International City to eat dessert as a reward to ourselves.. hahahaha... that is us waiting for the car to cool down before we set off:)

Dessert time! Mango ICE!

I sort of under estimated how large the portion of this taiwanese ice kachang will be.. I thought since there were many of us, no issue to order it and share.. alas, it was even bigger than Max's sort of big palm! Eat till heh heh chuan lor... cos we also ordered our fav peanut ice shavings and a mango ice...

After that, we brought our friends to the Chinese supermart here to buy stuff:) And then we shopped happily at the supermart and finally went home after that...

By the time we reached home, Max was totally shagged out cos driving such long hours under the super hot sun is no joke lor!

So will we go there again? I think maybe next year.. hahahaha.. or maybe might be a better idea to go in winter cos it is much more pleasant to drive in cool weather:)

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