1006 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA   USA
Phone: (215) 922-3288

My name is Chuck Bluestein. I created this site. I have eaten at Singapore restaurant every week for many years. They have the most delicious food I have ever eaten and I have tried eating at many places. One dish that I liked a lot was the Sesame Herbal Duck. I had never tasted duck before, but I loved this fried fake duck. 

From then on I would have duck added to different dishes that I have had there. I have tried every dinner at this restaurant. Over the years I would tell people how much I lived this fake duck. They would always ask me if I ever tried the real duck and I would say "No." So I went to a buffet where I could try a little of everything. So I tried some real duck and it was not as good as the fake duck. It was greasy and others say that about the real duck.

So I was not missing a thing not having tasted the real duck. The fake duck was better. Some people, like me, like a lot of sauce. So I got the Curry Hot Pot. It is in a bowl of delicious sauce. I consider these foods to be gourmet foods. When I got the Curry Hot Pot, I told them to add duck and walnuts. I had another dish of theirs before that, that had walnuts in it and I loved them. The above dish became my favorite dish. They called it Charlie Hot Pot. Charlie Chaplin is famous in China and they can pronounce it as Cha Lee very easily.

So I could just come in and order Charlie Hot Pot. They are very friendly and go out of their way to make sure you can have something just the way you like it. I read a review of an Indian restaurant, where they got annoyed if someone asked for something different. This desire for you to be thrilled with the food has caused Peter, the owner, to constantly experiment with improving his dishes.

Once I took my next door neighbor there with her kids for Thanksgiving. They had awesome tasting fake turkey. They have fake meat, poultry, fish and fake birds nest. I forgot to mention that the Sesame Herbal Duck that I had there is very healthy. It contains the now famous wolfberries (goji berries) that are high in vitamin C and antioxidants.

Actually I was a distributor for a company with Chinese herbs and this one was known to have many benefits including making people happy. It also contains shitake mushrooms and ginkgo nuts. It also contains Shanghai greens (bok choy). I later learned from a U.S.D.A database website that this is food is actually good for certain health problems (under Natural Cures).

Later they created the Cashew Herbal Duck and I love that also. The Curry Hot Pot has lots of great foods not listed on the menu like potato, eggplant, fake pork and more. Another favorite that is mostly fake meat is the Sizzling Black Bean Beef. They pour the sauce over the meat at your table and the sauce sizzles as it hits the hot plate.

My grandfather was rich and had an acute sense of taste and I inherited that sense of taste from him. So we would eat out around 4 times a week when I was growing up. So life to me was to look at all the foods they had and get whatever I wanted. When they would not have an item, I did not like it. That never happens to me at Singapore Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant in Philadelphia. While growing up I tasted filet mignon in a restaurant. For the next several months I always got that. Of course I would still pick different vegetables to go with it for variety.

Another favorite of mine and many others is their General Tao's Chicken. I have eaten there with different friends and we would share our food so they could taste everything at the table. They always liked everything at the table and were glad that I convinced them to go there. Also I feel that I am better at telling other Americans about this food since English is my only language. 

When I would first go there, they had only one floor. Then they moved down the street where they had a second floor so they could have private party celebrations. Before that they could not have private parties since that would mean closing it down to others for the night and they would not do that to their regular customers like me. The second floor has karaoke.

Over the years I have met and talked to many fascinating people there. One time I talked to a woman who only eats raw food, but figures that it is OK to treat herself occasionally with gourmet vegan food. Another time I talked to a great looking woman there that was studying to become a rabbi! One time I talked to the owner of Essene Health Food Store eating there at Singapore Restaurant. Essene is the premier health food store in Philadelphia which has vegetarian buffet style food there ($8 a pound) all the time at 4th and Bainbridge Streets.

I love their foods so I do not care about all their awards, but they are proud of them. If you have been keeping up with the news then you know that meat increases your cancer risk and plant foods protect you against cancer. They contain thousands of phytochemicals. Over 900 have been identified so far. Curry Hot Pot contains curry. The main herb in curry is the tumeric which makes it red. Tumeric contains the phytochemical, curcumin. Click on it to see the research with it and cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

They have:

• Magic of veggies, the illusion of meat-- 1999 Philadelphia Weekly

• Award of Distinction-- 2000/2001

• Unusual South Asia Kosher Food-- Zagat 1997

• Best Vegetarian in Chinatown-- Zagat 1990

• Excellent-- Zagat 1997

• Best Vegetarian Restaurant-- Seven Arts 1997

• Excellent Vegetarian Artistry-- Gerald Etter 1995

• Best of Philly 1993-- Philadelphia Magazine

• Tasty, Healthy and So Fresh-- Jim Quinn 1993

And this list goes on. I wrote this October 2008 so that others can also enjoy the best tasting food that I have tasted. I have eaten Charlie Hot Pot hundreds of times and there was not one time that I was not amazed at how good it tastes. They have brown rice, which is a whole grain unlike rice, and it is much healthier for you. I have an article about it under Health Related Articles.