I REMEMBER having gone to this restaurant only a few times during the 1980s, when I wanted a break from Choon Seng.
Its advantage was that it was located on the water's edge and you could see the twinkling lights in Johor on the horizon while you dined.
Its premises now at the Marina Country Club are bigger and the crowds are smaller, so it feels a lot less cramped than the old place.
But there is still no air-conditioning, and instead of the sea, you look over the club's swimming pool.
Service has not improved from the old days either.
During my dinner last week, two people had to share a finger bowl, and nobody refilled our tea cups after we had drained them.
Thankfully, the cooking, too, was still the way I remembered it.
The chilli crab ($35 a kg) came in a thick gravy that was rich with egg. But it could do with a wee bit more chilli and ketchup for more kick.
The crab was meaty but a bit tough, a sign perhaps that it was overcooked. But there was plenty of roe embedded under the shell.
The famous mee goreng ($5) was a small serving and the prawns were not very big. But it boasted a fabulous flavour, with plenty of what the Cantonese call wok hei (literally 'wok breath'), a slight smokiness that came from frying in a red-hot wok.
And the crispy baby squid ($9) was simply fabulous. It stayed absolutely crispy right till the end of the meal.
The sticky, dark sauce, which had an interesting tang to its honey sweetness, tasted a bit overpowering on its own, but mixed with the shredded lettuce that lined the bottom of the plate, it was perfect.
The serving was small, but enough for two people.
Going to this restaurant is like taking a trip back in time.
Travelling along Punggol Road, you find the brightly lit three-lane road transform suddenly into a single-lane one once you leave the HDB flats behind. It is the old road that leads to the old seafood restaurants, unchanged and still unlit at stretches.
But it is a trip worth taking if you are looking for some nostalgia. And go quick, because it is not going to stay that way for long.
Ponggol seafood (old Ponggol Hock Kee)
600 Ponggol Seventeenth Avenue
(S) 829734
Tel: 6448-8511
Open: 11.30am to 2pm, 5.30 to 10.30pm (Mondays to Fridays); 11.30am to 10.30pm (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays)
Food: *** 1/2
Service: ** 1/2
Ambience: ** 1/2
Price: The three dishes plus a mixed vegetable cost $59.95. There is no service charge.
