Like many Singaporeans, I’m a huge lover of Japanese cuisine, in particular sushi and sashimi. Like most, too, I seldom get to eat it to my heart’s content due to the exorbitant prices of Japanese food locally (not that it’s much cheaper in Japan itself, or so I’ve heard).
Recently, however, upon recommendations by several people, I headed down to a wholesale seafood factory in the hinterlands of Woodlands to get some raw salmon to make my own sashimi salad for dining in the comfort of my own home and boy, was I impressed.
Fassler Gourmet is an unassuming little factory in the middle of a Woodlands industrial estate and I actually had trouble locating an “entrance” because what I assumed to be the backdoor for transport or something was actually the shopfront.
The selection on the day I went was pretty impressive. For customers who actually head down (I understand the factory also does wholesale as well as catering for and delivering to events and functions), there is a little cold room (which is so amazingly frosty that they actually have a set of parkas for people to wear in and, being the foolhardy youth I purport to be, I trudged in dressed in a t-shirt and berms and promptly exited after two minutes) which serves a surprisingly large range of frozen seafoods at cheap prices.
I cannot remember the list exhaustively (although for those interested, the official website has a pricelist of their products) but I remember seeing scallops, octopi, seaweed and several different types (and portions) of fish, all de-boned and packed. I got myself a bottle of baby octopi (marinated in the gravy you get at restaurants) for S$4.50, which yielded almost twice the amount of octopi you can get for that amount at sushi bars, and shared a huge bag of salmon pieces with a friend that cost S$10 for 1kg (an impressively heavy amount that lasted us several meals).
For those who don’t want wholesale-ish seafood, the outlet also offers sliced and neatly packaged sashimi for those who want to be able to eat it on the spot. These ready-made bento boxes of sashimi cost slightly more (500g cost my friend and I S$18) but they’re still way cheaper than at restaurants and come sliced and ready for instant consumption.
The quality is really good, too. The salmon slices we bought tasted fresh and had a thick, meaty texture (instead of the limp, soft, almost-mushy salmon slices you get at “budget” Japanese eateries) and the baby octopi I had were large, chewy and fantastic with the marinate gravy. The fish might not be as amazing as the top grade sashimi you’d pay hundreds for at restaurants but they’re definitely better than the average mall range of eating outlets.
While the prices might still not be cheap enough to make Japanese dining an everyday occurrence (and I’m pretty sure they never will be), it sure beats undergoung heart-stopping swipes of credit cards every time one visits a Japanese restaurant. Highly recommended for those looking for a fix of seafood products and are willing to put in some effort in the kitchen.
Take note, though. Fassler only accepts cash or cheque.
Fassler Gourmet
46 Woodlands Terrace (for those heading there by public transport, take bus number 964 from opposite Admiralty MRT station and stop when you see the Old Chang Kee factory building and walk down the street)
