60. The number could refer to almost anything; age, weight, people, money, time – Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant on the sixty level of UOB plaza. 100 – a century figure of dishes at weekend lunch, offering dim sum, tea and Szechuan cuisine. 38.8 – the unbeatable price of under forty dollars. Numbers are magic: they tell a thousand things too.

Salted Duck Gizzard

The kidney, I have to say, was lovely: chewy and pinkish-coloured, swelled-looking, with the clever use of spices covered the porky smell which made so many people avoided the delicious pig kidney.

The question of authenticity popped up during the tasting session, and Linda the director of SCDH was quick to point out although there were some minor tweaks of the dishes to suit local palates, the Chilled chicken in spicy bean paste was done exactly like the Szechuan favourite. The spicy bean paste caused a storm; hot, fiery, and simply so Szechuan!

SCDH served us many cold dishes for starters, and the Sliced beef and tripe in chilli sauce was one of them.

Chilled preserved cucumber with garlic and peppercorn

Century egg and mushroom in ginger sauce

Asparagus with sea moss

Abalone mushroom in sesame oil

At first glance, it was not difficult to mistaken the Sliced duck in Teow chew style for the more commonly seen drunken chicken. Thinly sliced, I could never resist duck meat!

This one caught me by surprise – the crispy chicken puff. I wasn’t expecting something so, small and tiny, to be so good. The crispy fried skin had chicken within: it was a reminiscent of cream puff, except the pastry was fried instead of baked, and the fillings were chicken instead of cream.

Perfect. One of the best carrot cake I’ve had; every bite was flavourful with radish. The only correct thing to make a good carrot cake is to just add more radish, it’s so simple, yet many fail to get the gist of it.

The purist would protest at the sight of the Steamed siew mai with quill egg. The additional of quill egg was an innovation, and credits had to be given to the chefs for experimenting with different ingredients.

Glutinous rice roll with pork floss wrapped in banana leaf

No, it definitely wasn’t St Valentine’s the last time I checked. Nonetheless, the heart shape was pretty enough to gorge at -  Pan-fried shredded yam pancake with waxed meat.

I ain’t a big fan of mince meat balls, but the Steamed beef balls with seasonal vegetables won me over with the chewy and bouncy texture.

I eyed the golden dumpling, not knowing what to do. Should I, or should I not? I took up my pair of chopsticks, and dove right in, secretly praying in my heart: Sharky, rest in peace, you’d not die in vain. Steamed shark’s fin and chicken dumpling.

Steamed onion roll with butter

Si Chuan chilled noodles: hot & spicy

Despite the scary-looking-thick-oily-layer of chilli, the Dumpling with chilli oil was surprisingly, not that spicy. I had called the fire brigade to be prepared to put out any fire, and after one tiny nibble of the dumpling, it was safe. And I ate some more, of the thick and generous filling, which almost busted out of the dumpling skin.

This one was interesting. The Pan-fried fish pancake with parsley, the crispy firm pastry-like texture was evident, but I couldn’t quite make out what actually constituted in the fish pancake.

For the best creative award, I presented to you the, Pan-fried sweet corn pancake. The inclusion of sweet corn in a dim sum was a first for me: needless to say, it worked. The sweet corn, like its name, enhanced the sweetness of the pancake.

Steamed mushroom and vegetable bun

Pan-fried minced prawns roll with seaweed

The Steamed prawn dumpling, or Har gau, had fresh succulent prawns, but I found the skin slightly too thick from what I had in mind.

Instead of the streetfood in Szechuan, SCDH decided to upmarket the Fried pumpkin cake by scoring on presentation and refining it. The delicate-lovely-looking miniature pumpkin; it was too pretty to eat.

Sour and spicy Beancurd

If there was one memorable dish I had to choose from SCDH, it had to be the Steamed lotus paste bun with egg yolk.  The egg yolk within the lotus bun, oh my. It was indescribable. The combination of lotus paste and egg yolk, was akin to mooncake, with a bun skin.

Braised beef noodle soup

There was the omnipresent fish roe on the Siew mai, the dim sum staple.

Fish balls porridge

Balancing my chopsticks, I took a glance at the noodles. This should be easy, I thought. I grabbed some noodles using my less-than-perfect chopstick skills, and slurped the tan tan noodle. The world seemed to froze in time; I took another mouthful of noodles, putting in as much as my mouth would fit. The noodles, how should I put it: bouncy, springy, smooth, well it seems my vocabulary would be exhausted soon. It was good!

Homemade beancurd with wolfberries

We had the following desserts: herbal jelly, mango & pamelo cream, glutinous rice with coconut milk, almond cream with fungus, chilled strawberry jelly, chilled coconut & jackfruit cream, red bean paste with lotus seed, and yam paste with ginko nuts.

The special pairing of different tea and exquisite dim sum has long been a forte of Si Chuan Dou Hua.

Si Chuan Dou Hua has certainly opened up my narrow view of Szechuan cuisine; the impression of only hot and spicy food is wrong, there are many more variety available. Linda, the director of SCDH, who hosted us for the tasting session. And I have to conclude that Linda was the best host among the 4 restaurants which we had went to; her passion for food, and her warm & friendly smile, made our meal more enjoyable.

The 40 items which we tried for the tasting session were part of their weekend lunch which had a mind-blowing 100 items, priced at another unbelievable figure $38.8. My appreciation to Linda for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read my fellow food blogger review:
Catherine @ Camemberu here
Leslie @ ieatishootipost here
Julia @ Aromacookery here

Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant
80 Raffles place
#60-01 UOB Plaza
Tel: 65356006

ps: I think this is one of my longest post ever, can anyone tell me which other post is longer than this?

The Angel on my right says she is innocent and pure. The Devil on the left rebuts, she is gullible and inexperience. A simple play of words, show the different perception of people. The same word could mean two totally different thing. Naive, is all about the absence of artificiality, in a good way.

Rather than a vegetarian restaurant, the owners of Naive know exactly how human perception is, most people tend to associate vegetarian with distasteful food, so lets just call them the first meatless restaurant.

Tofu is always a staple in the meatless cateogry, and it was no surprise we had it for the Golden Oats ($8.80). Essentially crispy deep fried soft golden tofu with oats and fragrant leaves. I didn’t get to try much of this, but it was a good rendition of the cereal prawn. The tofu was a fitting replacement with its crispy texture and soft interior going well with the oats.

Not the best in terms of the looks department, but the Penang Rendang ($9.80) was better than expected. Pan-fried mushroom on bed of greens. Red, hot, and spicy.

When red riding hood ($7.80) meets the big bad wolf. How apt. It was almost like the real deal. Imagine sweet and crispy,and instead of pork you get beancurd. Sweet & sour pork wannabe? This is even better than some of the ones I had before.

The ladies man. He have all sorts of tricks in his bag, and can please all of you. Battered organic oyster mushroom ($9.80). If you have been avoiding fried food for a while now, because of the double damage; unhealthy fried food and too much meat. This is the one for you.

Tangy and refreshing. The mango tofu cake ($12.80) was all about that. Slightly sweet, slightly sour. Crispy skin, soft body. Talk about contrast.

With a cheesy tag line like mega in taste, and mini in size, the Mega mini mushroom ($10.80). While I ain’t a big fan of Sze Chuan cuisine, one bite was enough to tell me the flavourful spicy szechuan sauce.

Enchanted forest ($12.80). Indeed, I was smitten by her charming ways, her strong perfume smell of wolfberry, her strong and wilful texture.

From the braise, you would certainly associate it with cooking for many hours. Yes, but somehow for monkeyhead mushrooms, it does not turn soft. We were expecting the meat-lookalike to be tender, but instead it was still rather tough in texture. Heartwarmer ($13.80)

I always love to order garlic rice when I frequent Japanese restaurants. They are so oh-so good! And I think the same could be for Naive, their Oliver twist ($3.80). Instead of the Japanese pearl rice, we have the fragrant Thai rice, with a olive twist. And I agreed, so good it can be eaten on its own.

Naive promises to offer healthy food without compromising on taste. And I will like to say they did it. I never knew vegetarian, or rather, meatless could taste so good. However, prices are rather steep given the small portions. And their main courses are all monkeyhead mushrooms.

I’ll like to thank Hungrygowhere.com for inviting me to the food tasting session. And to Naive’s owner Phyllis for hosting and educating us for the healthy yet delicious food.

Naive
99 East Coast Road
Tel: 6348 0668
Website here

Soya beans are scientifically proven to have many benefits, personally i’ll like to think that bean curds from soya beans help to beautify the skin, because they are so so smooth and velvety! I always had my fix of bean curds from Soyako whenever i visited Bukit Timah food centre since its so near to my place.

I haven’t try the famous Yong He soy milk at Geylang, so there isn’t any board to compare against. But i like Soyako’s rendition, silky to the esophagus, and furthermore there’s a plus point, it’s freshly made on the spot!

Soyako
116 Upper Bukit timah road
#02-166 Bukit timah food centre
Tel: 9733 1107