Chong Qing Grilled Fish DIY Home: Spice Up Your Home Meal With Sichuan Cuisine

If you love spicy and fish, you should definitely try kao yu. Kao yu is a grilled fish dish that is marinated with more than 20 herbs and spices and charcoal-grilled to perfection. These piping-hot piquant grilled fish are sure to satisfy any spice fiends and is perfect for sharing among larger groups.

Sudden cravings for some Sichuan cuisine struck me and whilst I was looking through the Hawkers United Facebook group, I chanced upon Chong Qing Grilled Fish. With a total of three outlets islandwide located at Bugis, Mosque Street (Chinatown) and Serangoon, this no-frills restaurant received much fanfare for being the first in Singapore to introduce Sichuan authentic charcoal-grilled fish.

A marketing video of theirs titled ‘DIY@home with CQGF’ caught my eye. The video featured a DIY Warming Kit where you can warm the dish up.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with them, I managed to contact the branch in Serangoon and landed myself with their Family Bundle Set (S$60) which consists of a Large Sea Bass Grilled Fish, a dish of meat, a plate of vegetable and four portions of rice. Unfortunately, their heating tray was unavailable, so I was unable to immerse myself in a true DIY Warming Kit experience.

However, they did inform me that the grills should be back in-stock end-June, so don’t worry!

With seven tantalising flavours to choose from, I landed myself with the spicy fragrant flavour in medium spiciness. I appreciated the fact that the fish and broth were packed separately, with the individual containers being tightly sealed to prevent spillage.

They were slightly cold upon arrival, so I went ahead to heat them up in my microwave. I poured the broth over the fish and left it to sit for a while so that the intense-looking orangey-red gravy could be infused into every inch of the grilled fish.

The meat of the fish was easy to eat, soft with relatively few numbers of bones. The flavour of the broth though was slightly flat and one-dimensional. There was nothing much to rave about, in my opinion. I wasn’t wowed by the flavours because it was missing that distinctive aromatic fragrance from the spices that would give the grilled fish that additional oomph factor.

The Double-Cooked Spicy Pork Slices, also known as hui guo rou, refers to a Sichuan dish of spicy seared pork belly. The dish fell short to me as the pork belly slices were slightly over-cooked, resulting in tougher bites. It was rather dry and tough, with the only saving grace being the savoury, slightly sweet and spicy sauce.

The Stir-Fried Dou Miao was stir-fried till a fragrant bright greenness that went down easily. The pea shoots were crunchy and lightly seasoned with soy sauce; I would have preferred it to be garnished with some garlic just to bump up the flavours of the dish, though.

With that said, this light and subtle dish perfectly complemented the lip-numbing flavours of the kao yu.

I, for one, am slightly disappointed with the food today but I would like to think that perhaps I caught them on the wrong time or maybe it would have turned out so much better if I were to have it dined in. Nevertheless, with the government announcing that all eateries can welcome dine-in customers, I am certain that there would be improvements in the quality of food.