PUTIEN lychee pork + rice (莆田荔枝肉) ($7.80)!
PUTIEN Singapore — Lychee Pork (荔枝肉), the signature Fujian-style sweet-sour pork with lychee, served over rice. $7.80 single-portion.
Lunch — PUTIEN’s signature 荔枝肉 (Lychee Pork) + rice at $7.80. The Michelin-starred Fujian chain’s most famous dish. 😋
What was on the table ($7.80):
- A black donabe-style claypot of Lychee Pork (荔枝肉) — chunks of deep-fried pork scored with cross-cuts so they curl up to look like lychee shells, in a dark red sweet-sour sauce with tomato wedges, a whole peeled lychee floating in the centre, garnished with chopped scallions.
- A small bowl of steamed white rice on the side.
PUTIEN (莆田) is the SG-based Fujian Heng Hua cuisine chain that earned a Michelin star — single-restaurant story scaled to 80+ outlets globally. Originally from Putian city (Fujian province, China), specialises in Heng Hua regional dishes that you can’t find at other SG Chinese restaurants.
Lychee Pork (荔枝肉) is the chain’s most famous dish — a 100+ year old Fujian heritage recipe. Pork shoulder is diagonally cross-scored so when deep-fried, the meat curls up + opens its scored surface, mimicking the bumpy lychee shell texture. Then tossed in a sweet-sour vinegar sauce with fresh lychee, tomato, and water chestnut.
The dish makes literal sense of the name: pork that looks like lychee, eats with lychee. The actual peeled lychee in the centre is the chef’s wink at the diner — a reminder that the dish title isn’t metaphor, it’s both.
Sweet-sour balance is the test — too sweet = generic sweet-sour pork, too sour = unpleasant. PUTIEN’s version leans toward the fruit-forward sweetness (the actual lychee + tomato sweetness, not just sugar), with a tangy vinegar undercurrent. The sauce coats the pork without going gloopy.
The score-and-fry technique creates the textural showstopper — the scored surface gets ultra-crispy after frying, the inner meat stays tender. Every chunk has both textures in one bite.
At $7.80 single-portion = the budget way to try PUTIEN’s signature dish without the family-meal commitment ($15+ for the full-portion shared version). Worth it specifically to taste the Lychee Pork technique.
Total: $7.80.
Overall: 4.1 / 5. Lychee Pork technique was the textural standout (crispy curls + tender inside), sweet-sour balance leaned right, fresh lychee was the playful touch. Will get the full portion next visit with BB. 😋👍🏼
