A friend suggested to me one afternoon that we go to this new (not so new) place for dinner.
He had seen it on socials, he said, and it seemed pretty interesting, especially the orh luak that looked great on the video and which was highly recommended.
What made this place unusual, however, was the location.
I mean, you would expect a place that serves Cantonese cuisine- Yue cuisine in particular- be in a shophouse, a shopping mall, or even a residential neighborhood.
But no, Dudu Cantonese Yue Cuisine sat right smack in the industrial canteen of an industrial estate, and by that, I mean, a canteen in the middle between Eunos Avenue 5 and Eunos Avenue 6.
Surrounded by businesses dealing with the likes of Wood Products Trading, Door Enterprises, Kitchen Design, Building Materials Ltd, Glass Mirror Merchant, and Fluid Engineering, this was one canteen that was as industrial as it could be.
But it is in this 'hood that Dudu holds her charm.
We got there in the heat of a late afternoon, and when I say heat, I really mean heat.
It was bright, it was hot, the sun glared as we crossed the road near Paya Lebar Square to the industrial area of Eunos Avenue 5, but, the place itself, to my surprise, was cool.
It was a bit of blur on our part when we arrived.
See, we hadn't known that walk-ins were not quite the norm in this place, that instead of wandering into the place and asking for a table (like we did) reservations- especially families- were highly recommended.
As it was, we were left to find our own table, which, after wandering about many tables with reserved tags on them, thankfully, we scored, managing to share a table with another couple who had come by earlier, and were looking through the menu trying to decide what to eat.
Us, we went towards the counter where my friend joined the queue, and there we stood, looking through the very same menu.
There were actually very interesting dishes to choose from, amongst which I looked at the Signature Salted Egg Chicken Wings with Corn, the Cantonese Curry Beef Brisket, the Creamy Prawn with Corn, the Dry Steamed Pork Ribs, and the Baked Yellow Croaker Fish with Lantern Chili.
I had totally no idea what the last dish was.
And I still don't.
I don't know what Lantern Chili is.
I also don't know what a Yellow Croaker Fish is.
But there were so many dishes that looked fascinating.
Like Salted Egg Chicken Wings with Corn, and the Creamy Prawn with Corn.
But this evening, we decided to go for dishes we felt we wanted to try, and so ordered Beef Strips with Japanese Sauce, the Crispy Orh Luak, and the Dried Starfruit Pork Ribs.
What's surprising is that I don't have a picture of the Dried Starfruit Pork Ribs.
I don't know why.
I thought I'd taken pictures of all three, but no, I only have that of the orh luak, and the Beef Strips with Japanese sauce.
Maybe by that time I was getting really hungry, our order having got delayed by almost a good 20 minutes, and it was near to an hour when our food finally arrived.
It didn't help that I had already been feeling peckish, and the couple whom we shared a table with- whom had ordered after us- had had their food arrive before ours did.
It didn't help that I had been peckish to begin with, and the couple in front- both whom had ordered after us- had had their food arrive. The only good thing was being able to appreciate the dishes they'd ordered, and for us to know what else we could order next time.
So, the wait was long.
Thankfully, however, the food was good.
A bit small, the portions- I had thought there would be larger ones- but the way them dishes were made simply had you satiated after just a couple of bites and you didn't really need more.
I liked the Pork Ribs.
At first I had thought they would be served like how it's done with bak kut teh, big sized ribs all, but no, they had been cut so small that it were easy to pick up with chopsticks. What's more, so soft, and so tender were they that the meat just fell off the bone.
Flavor wise, they gave me hints of sweet and sour pork, only richer, more savory, less of the thick starch, less of the sweet.
Would've been nice to have more pieces of the starfruit inside the dish though.
Havent seen them fruits around the fruit stalls for a while.
When it came to the beef strips, I actually had no idea what the Japanese sauce of the dish is made of. My taste buds weren't able to decipher it, and Dudu doesn't seem to be the kind of place one can ask, so let's just leave it at that.
But the beef strips were tender and soft, there was a delicate feel of chew, and I particularly liked the onions and bell peppers that were mixed inside along with it. At first bite it does make one think of the typical black pepper beef plates one finds at zichar stalls, but this is way richer, way more flavorful, classier, and definitely has that warmth of rounded flavors only a claypot can bring.
The biggest and most pleasant surprise this evening had to be the orh luak.
A lot has already been said about it, so I'm not going to add more, but oy, trust me when I say that the orh luak- served in a very hot pan- was truly, genuinely, one of the crispiest I have had.
Ever.
So perfectly made was it that I don't think there was even any flour, and had there been, I probably wouldn't even have known- not when the flour was fried so crispy, and so lightly crunchy that it felt like you were eating bits of pancake crumbs snuck together.
The orh luak too came with lots of oysters.
Not small ones, but huge juicy ones that actually did burst out in your mouth when you took a bite.
I didn't have that many of them oysters this evening.
Most I gave to my friend, concentrating on the crust and crisp of the flour pancake instead.
It's been a while since I had these oysters but I remember them still.
Chances are, I'll come back another time to try more of the food.
I want to try the Golden Nest and the Signature Salted Egg Chicken Wings with Corn.
Maybe the Haha Mee or the Kampong Shredded Chicken too.