I’m really excited that Chinese New Year is just less than two weeks away. It is the time where we get to catch up with our relatives and friends. And of course, the part that I’m looking forward to is eating lots of yummy food.

In recent years, more and more families are choosing to eat out because of convenience and ambience. There are also some that order Chinese New Year Takeaways from restaurants and hotels, to eat at the comfort of their homes. No matter where you are having your reunion dinner, I hope you will have a good time with your loved ones!

If you are still looking for a restaurant to celebrate the occasion, let me help you with some suggestions for Chinese New Year Dinner 2012.

Chin Huat Live Seafood

For a scrumptious seafood feast, go to Chin Huat at Sunset Way for their Chinese New Year Promotion. At $398++ for 10 persons, the set menu comes with Salmon Yu Sheng, Braised Shark’s Fin, Deep-fried Goby, Poached Live Prawns and Steamed Chicken.

105 Clementi Street 12
#01-30 Sunset Way Singapore
Tel: +65 6775 7348

Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant

This Lunar New Year, Executive Chinese Chef Sunny Kong of Mandarin Court Chinese Restaurant has put together 10 different signature menus ranging from the $98++ per person menu (minimum 2 persons) – which features Salmon Yusheng, Braised Shark’s Fin, Steamed Sea Perch, and Braised Baby Abalone; to an extravagant $1,888++ meal for 10 persons, from 13 January to 6 February 2012.

From their Chinese New Year Takeaway menu, the prosperity Salmon Yusheng for 8-10 persons is available for $108, while the Pen Cai for 5-8 persons is $368.

333 Orchard Road Level 35
Orchard Wing Mandarin Orchard Singapore
Tel: +65 6831 6262

Man Fu Yuan

Over at Man Fu Yuan Intercontinental Hotel, there are 12 different options to cater to everyone’s tastes. The 6 course menu ($108++/pax) – with Yu Sheng, Shark’s Fin, Baby Abalone, Deep-Fried Sea Perch – is ideal for a family of 4.

Should you choose to celebrate your Chinese New Year Dinner Party at home, Man Fu Yuan also presents an attractive takeaway package which includes Pen Cai and Yu Sheng at $358 (DBS Credit Card promotion at $320).

80 Middle Road
2F Intercontinental Hotel
Tel: +65 6825 1062

Chinese New Year Eve, also known as Chu Xi: the day where families gather for reunion dinner.

Imperial treasure steamboat

What’s Chinese New Year’s Eve without steamboat?

On 22th Jan 2012, Imperial Treasure Steamboat at TripleOne Somerset has created special Chinese New Year set menus. For a family of 4, you can have the $328++ menu which comes with Lo Hei, Seafood, Prawns, Abalones, Scallops, Clams, and Desserts.

For those of you who are having an early reunion dinner celebration, the normal set menu for 4 persons is $168++.

111 Somerset Road, #02-21 TripleOne Somerset
Tel: +65 6732 8231

Keng Eng Kee Seafood

For a simple reunion dinner, head over to Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restaurant. There are two Chinese New Year Set Menus at $399 and $499 (for 10 pax). For smaller families, you can order from their Cze Char ala carte menu.

The last I checked, they are fully booked during Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1038

Paradise Inn

With 11 branches in Singapore, Paradise Inn is the ideal choice for your family reunion dinner. The casual dining restaurant serves good Chinese food at affordable prices.

23 Serangoon Central
#03-15 NEX Mall
Tel: +65 6634 4228

What’s there not to like about Chinese New Year when you get to eat traditional goodies like kueh bangkit, loveletters, pinapple tarts, peanut cookies, and bak kwa?

Yan Ting

One of my favourite Chinese restaurants in Singapore, Yan Ting at the St Regis is the place to go if money is no object.

Yan Ting presents several sumptuous set menus for Chinese New Year 2012. You can choose from the 8 course ($1088++/10pax) which has Salmon Yusheng, Braised Shark’s Fin Soup, Steamed Soon Hock, and Crispy Roasted Chicken; and the 9 course which has Double-boiled Shark’s Fin Soup, Pan-roasted Rack of Lamb, Crispy Peking Duck as the highlights.

There’s also the 6 course set menu at $98++/pax (min 2 persons) for smaller families. The Lunar New Year Dinner menus are available from 12th January to 6th February 2012.

29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis Singapore
Tel: +65 6506 6888

Singapore is a multicultural society, and one of the best things about living here is that we get to celebrate the different festivals like Deepavali, Hari Raya Haji, Christmas, and Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year – the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays – falls on 23 and 24 January 2012. The main highlight of Chinese New Year in Singapore is the Chinatown Celebrations. Every year, many stalls will line up the streets of Chinatown, and visitors can soak in the festive mood at the market.

Here are some photos that I took at the Chinese New Year Market in Chinatown.

I like Chinese New Year. It is the time where we go shopping for decoration items, new clothes and Chinese New Year food. It is the time where families get together for the reunion dinner. And of course, it is the time for us to indulge in Chinese New Year traditional goodies like kueh bangkit, loveletters, pinapple tarts, peanut cookies, and bak kwa.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Night Market
Date: 31 December 2011 – 22 January 2012
Time: 6.00pm – 10.30pm
6.00pm – 1.00am (Chinese New Year Eve)
Venue: Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street, Trengganu Street.

Ming Kee Live Seafood is tucked among a busy row of restaurants and eateries on Macpherson Road, and they are known for serving good and fresh seafood at affordable prices. Singapore is famous for our Chilli crabs and most people usually bring their overseas friends to popular places like No SignBoard, Palm Beach, Red House or Jumbo Seafood restaurant.

I have been putting off my visit to Ming Kee Seafood Restaurant as it is not very accessible. But my excuse came when my friends from New York were in town, and thankfully the food did not disappoint.

Many Singapore Food Blogs had written on Ming Kee Live Seafood and the Guinness Pork Ribs was highly recommended. Even though I have never had anything similar before, I must say Ming Kee’s interpretation of the Guinness Pork Ribs was excellent. It had a good proportion of fats to lean meat, and every bite was so good.

Almost every table at Ming Kee Restaurant that night went for the signature Triple Cooked Bee Hoon Crab, but we wanted to show the famous Singapore Chilli Crabs to our New York friends, so we gave that a miss.

Like always, deep fried man tou and chilli gravy are the best couple together. All my friends thought that the Chilli crabs ($58.5, 1kg/$45) were exceptionally good, but I felt otherwise, they were good but not great.

Some of the items that we had at Ming Kee were the Stir-fried bean-sprout ($8) with salted fish, and Sambal kangkong ($8). The vegetables were very well-done, and we particularly enjoyed the bean-sprout.

We were quite full by the time the Sea Grouper came ($114, 100g/$6) came to our table.

Steamed Hong Kong-Style, the whopping 1.9kg grouper was amazingly fresh, and meaty. I do feel that it is a little pricey to pay over a hundred bucks for a fish. After-all, you can get more crab and prawns for the same amount of money. However, if you are a big fan of fish, it is worthwhile to order it from Ming Kee Live Seafood.

Ming Kee Live Seafood is an excellent place for fresh seafood, and the prices are pretty reasonable. I will definitely bring my family back to try their other dishes.

Speaking of which, I need some recommendations for good Zi Char restaurants in Singapore, please leave a comment and share with us.

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
Ming kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6747 4075
// Closed during Chinese New Year from 3rd – 8th Feb 2011

Chinese New Year is one of my favourite holidays. It is the time to eat bak kwa, pineapple tarts, abalone and all the Chinese Delicacies. Although we are about more than 2 weeks away from Chinese New Year, many of the Chinese restaurants in Singapore are already fully booked for Chinese New Year’s Eve Reunion Dinner. For those of you guys who are currently planning for the CNY Dinner, please make your reservations as soon as possible.

Here’s a list of Chinese New Year Dinner Restaurants for 2011

Feng Shui Inn

The Reunion Dinner during Chinese New Year’s Eve is one of the most important meals for the Chinese. This is a time where everyone gets together for a meal to renew and affirm family ties. If money is not an issue, and you want only the best for your Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner — Feng Shui Inn at Resorts World Sentosa may just be the ideal Chinese New Year Dinner Restaurant.

For $1888++ for 10 pax, indulge in the seven-course Chinese New Year Dinner Menu which includes: Lobster Yu Sheng, Bird’s Nest, and the Braised whole Australia Abalone with sea cucumber. The other CNY menu at Feng Shui Inn is $2888++ for a table of 10.

Availability for Feng Shui Inn Resorts World Sentosa

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011): Fully Booked.
Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 11): 5.30pm – 7.30pm (Available), 8pm – 10pm (Available)

8 Sentosa Gateway Basement
1-M Crockfords Tower,
Resorts World Sentosa Singapore
Tel: +65 6577 8899

Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant

At Grand Mercure Hotel, Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant has 7 different Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner set menu to cater for every family. The Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Set menu starts from 14th Jan to 2nd Feb 2011, while the Lunar New Year Dinner promotion is available from 3rd to 17th Feb 2011.

For a family of 4, they have the Harmony 7 course menu at $308++ which includes Yusheng, shark’s fin, sea cucumber, sea perch, and scallops. For a table of 10, there’s the Bountiful Harvest 9 course menu at $698++ and it has the following: Yusheng, shark’s fin, abalone, garoupa, scallops, crispy chicken and prawns.

The Pen Cai [$308 (M), and $538 (L)] is a must-order. It has all the Chinese Delicay within a pot: abalone, scallop, fish maw, goose web, shark’s fin, prawn and Chinese sausage. Forget about the rest, just go for Jia Wei’s Poon Choi and the Prosperity Yusheng ($60++).

If you are staying in the East and still looking for a Chinese New Year Dinner Restaurant, Jia Wei at Grand Mercure Hotel is definitely a good choice. They also have a Chinese New Year Takeaway menu which has nian gao, yu sheng, pen cai and Buddha Jump over the wall.

Availability for Jia Wei Restaurant at Grand Mercure Hotel

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 11): 5pm – 7.30pm (Limited), 8pm – 11pm (Limited). Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 2011): Available

50 East Coast Road 2F
Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel Singapore
Tel: +65 6340 5678

Moi Lum Chinese Restaurant

Moi Lum Chinese Restaurant has two different Chinese New Year Dinner Promotion: the CNY Set menu starts from 22th – 28th Jan, and continues from the 3rd all the way till 20th Feb. They operate throughout the Lunar Chinese New Year, and the cheapest Chinese New Year Dinner Set Menu is $308 for a table of 10 pax, and $518 (10 pax) for the CNY Reunion Dinner. All their set menu include their signature dish: the excellent Majestic Roast Chicken.

Besides the dine-in option, Moi Lum has a very attractive Chinese New Year Takeaway Menu. The Poon Choi is $188 for 6 person, or $288 for 10 person, and the Prosperity Raw Fish Platter for lou hei is available at $48.

Availability for Moi Lum Restaurant

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011): Fully Booked.
Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 2011): Available.

38 Maxwell Road #01-01/02 Airview Building Singapore
Tel: +65 6226 2283

Ming Kee Live Seafood

The Chinese New Year Dinner set menu from Ming Kee Live Seafood will be available from the 10th Jan onwards. They have three different Chinese New Year Menus available (for a table of 8-10), with the cheapest being $398, and the other two are priced at $798 and $1398.

But if you prefer to order ala carte, go after the 9th Feb to try their famous Crab Bee Hoon ($45/kg), as well as the Guinness pork ribs ($12 for small). Ming Kee serves excellent seafood at reasonable prices — definitely worth a try!

Availability for Ming Kee Live Seafood

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011): 5pm – 7pm (Filling fast), and 8pm onwards (Available). They only serve the three special CNY Menu for Chinese New Year Eve Dinner

Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd- 8th Feb 2011): Closed.

556 Macpherson Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6747 4075

Seafood Paradise Restaurant

At $368++ for a table of 10 person, the Chinese New Year Dinner Menu from Seafood Paradise is pretty value since it includes Tuna Yusheng, Shark’s Fin broth, seabass, prawns, chicken, vegetables, and ribs. Do note that Seafood Paradise has different Chinese New Year Dinner promotion menu for their Defu Lane and Singapore Flyer branches.

Availability for Seafood Paradise Singapore Flyer
Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011):
Three Seating: 5pm – 6.30pm (Full), 7pm – 8.45pm (Full), 9pm onwards (Available)

Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 2011):
6pm – 7.45pm (Available), and 8pm onwards (Available)

Availability for Seafood Paradise Defu Lane

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011): Fully Booked
Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 2011): 6pm – 8pm (Available), 8.15pm onwards (Available)

30 Raffles Avenue #01-01
Singapore Flyer Singapore
Tel: +65 6336 5101

91 Defu Lane 10
Swee Hin Building Singapore
Tel: +65 6487 2429

Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant

For a family of four, I’d recommend Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant at Holiday Inn Atrium. The Joyful Treasures set is $368 for 4 person which includes Pen Cai (or Poon Choi) with the following ingredients: Lobster, Abalone, Shark’s Fin, Dried Scallop, Fresh Scallop, Sea Whelk, Dried Oyster, Fish Maw, Sea Cucumber, Jelly Fish, Black Mushroom, Sea Moss, Bamboo Pith in a pot.

The Yusheng at Xin Cuisine is topped with edible gold leaf flakes, and the Chinese Restaurant is also well known for their Roasted Suckling Pigs – be sure to try them if you are there for Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner.

Xin Cuisine also has a Chinese New Year Takeaway menu: they have a prosperity family bundle of pen cai, yusheng, suckling pig and nian gao for $800.

Availability for Xin Cuisine Restaurant

Chinese New Year Eve Dinner (2nd Feb 2011): 5.30pm – 8pm (Available), 8.30pm onwards (Available). Chinese New Year Dinner (3rd Feb 2011): Available

317 Outram Road 4F
Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore
Tel: +65 6731 7173

Please call the restaurants to check the availability and make your reservations for the Chinese New Year Dinner asap!

If you are planning for your company’s Chinese New Year Dinner celebration, or friends gathering for Lou hei, most of the restaurants (with the exception of Ming Kee) that I’ve mentioned will be operating throughout the Chinese New Year period (3th to 17th Feb).

For those of you who are already planning for Valentine’s Day Dinner, I will recommend some romantic restaurants in Singapore in my Valentine’s Day Feature which will be out next week.

A couple of weeks ago, the kind folks at Hungrygowhere invited me to join them for a food tasting session, and when I heard that they were going to Summer Palace at The Regent Singapore — I agreed immediately.

Among The Regent Hotel Restaurants, I have always wanted to try the Afternoon high tea at the Tea lounge, Basilico Italian Restaurant, and of course the Cantonese food at Summer Palace Chinese restaurant.

After a quick glance at the menu, we were very excited as there’s a long list of food waiting for us. The Media Degustation menu started us with the Dim Sum platter which included a Baked Chicken Tart with Baby Abalone ($9 per piece), Shrimp dumpling with Bird’s Nest ($8 for 3 pieces), Deep-Fried Yam with Garoupa ($5 for 3 pieces).

Baby abalone and bird’s nest with dim sum? Oh boy, it’s so extravagant!

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I felt that the baby abalone was rather out of place alongside the baked chicken tart. The savory-savory combination didn’t really work for me, but I like the shrimp dumpling with Bird’s nest. A morsel of the delicate bird’s nest was placed nicely on top the open-shrimp-dumpling, while I couldn’t really taste the fineness of the Chinese delicacy – it’s kind of nice to know that we just had something supposedly good. On the other hand, the Deep-fried yam with garoupa really opened up my mind. While I had Steamed grouper dumpling before, it was my first time having deep-fried yam with garoupa, and to be honest, I’ve never imagined that garoupa could actually be used as the ingredient for deep-fried yam balls.

The Braised Superior Bird’s Nest with Lobster and Gold Leaf at $88 per serving was expensive, but it was really worth every cent. I don’t know about you, but gold foil never fails to portray the luxurious feel to me. We could taste every strand of the bird’s nest with the chunky lobster meat, and together with the (literally) superior stock – this was the highlight of our dinner.

It was a shame that the Wok-fried Wagyu Beef ($68) was prepared in huge blocks. It’d definitely be a lot better if the premium beef was sliced thinner to showcase the marbling of the meat.

I was confused when the waitress read out the name of the dishes at machine-gun-like speed. Hold on a second, which is the scallop and spare ribs? Both of them looked rather similar to me! You know, deep fried food always appear to be the same.

Okay, so there’s the Crispy Scallop with fresh pear ($36 for the normal portion), and the Deep-Fried Spare Ribs with Shrimp Paste ($22 for normal portion). In case you are wondering, we only had a tasting portion of both dishes. By then, we realized that the Chef likes to play with many different contrasting flavor combined into one dish, and the Crispy scallop with fresh pear was the prime example of that. Broken down into three different components, there was ham on top of the meaty scallop with the pear and there was a surprise layer of powdered dried shrimp enveloped between the two.

On paper, the Deep fried spare ribs was like what the name suggested – something shrimp paste. But it was slightly more than that. The Deep fried spare ribs were coated with a layer of shrimp paste, giving it the luscious and fragrance texture. Inside, it was rewarding with the meat being juicy and so succulent.

I used to have crocodile meat when I was a kid, as it can cure asthma. Even thought Summer Palace’s rendition was wok-fried, the finely sliced crocodile meat tasted somewhat more like shabu-shabu. Have you tried crocodile meat before? Go to Summer Palace restaurant for their Wok-fried crocodile meat with spicy sauce ($40).

All of us thoroughly enjoyed the Eight Treasures Fried Rice ($26) that had ingredients like scallop, roasted duck, char siew, olives, brown rice, and dried shrimp.

I know It’s kind of early to have moon-cakes in July when the actual Mid Autumn festival is in September, but the folks at The Regent Hotel gave us a sneak preview of their new moon-cakes for this year. If you are keen to sample some of the mooncakes, they will be available at The Regent Singapore from the 25th August to 22th September.

It was quite hilarious that a few of us actually arranged a date during the dinner, to come back and try their dim sum offerings. We went back for the dim sum last week, most of them was pretty good, but unfortunately my camera was sent for repair and I didn’t manage to get any photos. If you had tried their dim sum before, check out my list of Dim Sum Restaurants in Singapore for other options.

Restaurant Review
Summer Palace Chinese Restaurant
1 Cuscaden Road 3F
The Regent Singapore
Tel: +65 6725 3288

It’s easy to fall in love with dining in the Marina Bay District. Superb view overlooking the Marina area and there’s the up and coming Marina Bay Sands at the heart of the area.

Restaurants at One Fullerton and the Esplanade area that offer the romantic view to couples are a dime a dozen, but it is as Clifford Pier that you feel truly special- there’s only one restaurant in the whole pier.

One on the Bund is a fine dining Shanghainese restaurant in Singapore that is located at Clifford Pier, an area that visitors to Kusu island will be familiar with. Gone is the ferry terminal, and in place is the current One on the bund.

Despite taking over the whole pier, it has retained the old architecture and added an oriental yet contemporary vibe to the whole dining area. Stepping inside the restaurant, it feels like you’ve been transported to a giant museum with high ceilings and exquisite adornments.

I heard about One on the Bund from all the media hype when it started operations back in 2008. Unfortunately there wasn’t much reviews online and I wasn’t really keen to venture here without any indicator on the prices of the food.

They have this huge main walkway leading all the way to the al fresco area at the back. Personally, that will be the best bet if you want to enjoy the night breeze over some desserts. The main dining hall uses traditional dining furniture, and there’s also a noodle bar, private dining area and a small dessert bar area.

With such a grand setting, I had a feeling that it’s gonna be good.

In every way, having Peking duck is like falling in love. I’d watch the chef slice the roasted duck skin one by one, and the anticipation always make my mouth water. Butterflies will gather around my stomach, and it reminds me about the feeling of guessing what the other party is thinking; more fats, thicker skin, more fats, thicker skin.

Best Peking Duck in Singapore

The Signature wood-fire roasted duck in Peking style (S$88, order in advance), I decided, didn’t need the Chinese pancake wrap. I found it to be a pity to put the meat and skin into the wrap when it tasted so good on its own. We were told to dip it in sugar, and it was the first time that we actually heard of this manner of eating peking duck. But apparently after some research online, it seems to be a common way of having the peking duck.

The fine sugar struck like glue to the layer of fats, and I don’t care what you say – this is the best peking duck in Singapore! With the presence of the sugar, the usual Peking duck sauce paled in comparison, and I’m really thankful that Ju, Catherine and Julia don’t really have the stomach for this – I finished up almost 3/4 of the whole plate by myself.

Oh my god: this-is-so-good! I am not kidding you!

If the kitchen is the stage, then surely the chef is the actor and we are the audience that will never be satisfied. More food, more food! The Eastern Sea Dragon ($48) or Braised Fish Fillets in a Chilli Broth is all about the showmanship. The stage was set when the staff brought out their tools and placed it on our table, with a rustic-looking stove, they prepared the water-cooked-fish live in front of us.

From afar, we could actually smell the Crispy Lamb Ribs ($48) and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing – with the thick, gamy lamb smell filling the air. What’s the difference between lamb and mutton? We actually debated about this while having the lamb, and from the quick discussion I came up with a conclusion: a) Lamb is a sheep less than a year old b) Older sheep is called mutton c) mutton has a stronger and tougher taste and d) I like lamb > mutton.

As part of the menu that we had, there was some Chinese pastries. But because I still wanted dessert, we ordered additional macarons, chocolate cake and tiramisu. One On The Bund a fine dining Chinese restaurant, but they also have pastry chefs weaving their magic with the lovely Western creations.

The others were astonished by how much tiramisu I had, the whole slab could easily fill 6 people. It probably looks smaller in the picture, but I can assured you that it’s absolutely gigantic! I don’t know about you, but I think $16 for such a big serving of tiramisu is totally worth the money.

* * *

This is the last part of a series that I’m doing on the waterfront restaurants in One Fullerton. I’ll like to thank Fullerton Heritage, and One on the bund for hosting this dinner.

One on the bund is a fine dining Shanghainese restaurant, and understandably there’s a premium price to pay for the lavish settings. If you are not into Chinese food, I’d suggest the unlikely – go to One on the Bund for desserts. Given that it’s a Chinese restaurant, their western desserts are surprisingly quite good. Bring your date to the romantic Clifford Pier, order some sweets and enjoy the view across Marina Bay.

Restaurant Review
One on the Bund Restaurant
80 Collyer Quay
Clifford Pier
Tel: +65 6221 0004

I’m eating at a much faster rate than I blog, and this is a problem when there are so many food places in Singapore that I want to blog about.

In the Singapore food scene, Lei Gardens Restaurant is known to be one of the best Cantonese restaurants, and it has been on my list of must try restaurants in Singapore.

They have recently undergo a makeover to freshen up the image of the restaurant. Having never visited Lei Gardens at Chijmes previously, I cannot comment on the changes, but the new interior is classy and contemporary, while retaining the touch of a Chinese restaurant. On my two visits, services were flawless, the staff members were polite and friendly, conscious of diners need yet not overly intruding.

Best Roast pork in Singapore

Friends who have been to Lei Garden always raved about their to-die-for roast pork, and now I finally understand why. Especially if the Roast Pork in question happens to be this one in the picture; succulent and tender pork with a crispy top that’s roasted to a perfect shade of golden-brown. Every bite was so good that I hated the fact that there’s only nine tiny cubes. Oh no, there’s only eight pieces left.. five.. three.. last cube! Seriously, this is the best roast pork ever!

I’m a big fan of dim sum and having been to many Dim Sum restaurants in Singapore, I was keen to try out Lei Garden to see how their dim sum would fare against the best dim sum that I’ve before.

Lei Garden’s menu has the standard dim sum items like Har Gau, Siew Mai, Cheong Fun, but unfortunately they do not have  my favorite Custard buns and Char Siew Sou.

Anyway, we ordered Steamed Pork Dumpling ($5.80), Steamed Shrimp Dumpling ($5.80), Panfried Carrot Cake ($4.80), Steamed BBQ Honey Pork Bun ($4.30), Baked Mini Egg Tarts ($4,30), Steamed Cheong Fun ($5.80) and Steamed Shanghai xiaolongbao ($5.80).

* * *

Most of the dim sums were fairly competent, but there wasn’t any particular one that stood out. In my opinion, Lei Garden’s dim sum are well-executed, they are definitely above average but personally, they probably are not among my top 5 dim sum restaurants in Singapore.

Tell me, which is your favorite Cantonese restaurant?

Restaurant Review
Lei Garden Restaurant
30 Victoria Street
#01-24 Chijmes
Tel: +65 6339 3822

Remember my suggestion to have Seafood for your Chinese New Year dinner?

Since there’s still a few more days before Chinese New Year ends, if you are still looking for a restaurant to toss Yu Sheng, Palm Beach Seafood restaurant at One Fullerton might just be the place. Instead of the typical salmon yusheng, we had the Alaskan King Crab Yu Sheng (S$58 or S$88).

My weekdays, by and large, are similar to the weekends of most people. I had a fabulous dinner on Monday night, attended my friend’s big night on Tuesday, and now we have a seafood feast on Wednesday. It’s probably going to be Japanese cuisine tomorrow, and Russian food on Friday. Okay, I am muttering to myself.

Anyway, a seafood feast sounds pretty good right? Chili crabs, sashimi, lobster, seafood platter. Have I got your attention? Good. Make yourself comfortable.

Lets try again: air-flown Hokkaido scallop, huge gleaming oysters, live poached prawns, fresh salmon sashimi, and the gigantic bamboo clam. That’s better. I could vaguely recall the oysters that I had, unprocessed and fresh. A wedge of lemon is all you need for the perfect oyster.

I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely order the Seafood Deluxe Combination ($23.00 per person) with a selection of five seafood items.

I don’t know if there’s anything special about Palm Beach’s signature Chili Crab ($4.50 per 100g), but I absolutely love it! My feelings for the Singapore famous dish very much depends on two things: a) thick and spicy-sweet chili gravy, and b) deep fried mantou.

The pincers were long gone by the time I was done with the deep fried buns. It’s easy to choose between crabs and mantou (with gravy) – I’d go for the latter anytime.

The award winning Double Baked Cheese Crab ($4.50 per 100g) reminded me of the baked cheese lobster that I’ve before, with its strong cheesy taste. Baked parmesan cheese and crab? Sounds like a winner! If you do not want to get your hands dirty, ask for help from the staff. Catherine got her crab de-shell the easy way.

I first had lobsters when I was a very young boy. Back then, I had no idea how much a lobster was worth. To me, it looked like a GIANT prawn. But what mattered then, was that it tasted good. As I grew up, I realized that lobsters are very expensive seafood, and they can be prepared in many different ways; baked, steamed, fried, sashimi, salad – whichever ways it pleases your palates.

The one that we had was very different from the ones I’ve before. Usually I’d go for either baked or salad lobsters, but we couldn’t miss out on Palm Beach’s awarding winning Coco Lobo – Australian Lobster with Vermicelli in Superior Stock ($16.80 per 100g). It came piping hot in individual claypot, with the lobster meat and vermicelli absorbing the essence of the flavorful stock.

Sweet and tangy, intense yet refreshing. It’s also not too spicy. The Honey Tangy Marble Goby ($7.50 per 100g) is fried till golden-brown: crispy and soft and appetizing, drizzled with just enough of the terrific sauce. Ju had the blissful look after she finished the dish – it was awesome!

* * *

This is the third part of a series that I’m doing on the waterfront restaurants in One Fullerton. I’ll like to thank Fullerton Heritage, Karin of Palm Beach Seafood and Gail for arranging and hosting this dinner.

From what we observed, most Singaporeans seem to dine in the comfort of the air-condition, while the tourists prefer the al fresco area with the waterfront view. Will you dine indoors or outside at the al fresco area?

Restaurant Review
Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant
1 Fullerton Road
#01-09 One Fullerton
Tel: +65 6227 2332

The most amazing thing about having a food blog, is knowing the other food bloggers. Besides the food blogs in Singapore, I got to meet up with the KL food bloggers during my trip up north last year, and when I went for a holiday in Australia during December, the good Sydney food bloggers hosted and brought me around for the best food in Sydney.

When Howard & Linda (eatshow&tell) told me that they were stopping-over in Singapore for a few hours before flying to Hong Kong, I knew that I had to bring them to have our famous Chili Crab.

It’s a tough decision trying to choose a place, since there’s so many restaurants claiming to serve the best chili crab in Singapore. I finally decided on No SignBoard restaurant because it has always been one of my family’s favorite place for crabs. As there were 6 of us, the staff advised that we probably need two crabs, so our second choice was the Salted Egg Yolk crab ($40 per kg). It was an irony since No SignBoard is famous for their white pepper crabs in Singapore, but I’m not a fan of pepper. Besides, I know I want the salted egg yolk, and I wanted it immediately. You know, like now!

Drop-dead gorgeous.

Look at that, the golden cluster of the salted egg yolk! I licked off the salted egg yolk coat on the crab pincers, and it simply disintegrated. The sauce reminded me of the salted egg yolk in custard buns, both equally as good but this one was slightly saltier, and very fragrant.

Hand over your passports, nobody leaves Singapore without trying Chili crab.

Photogenic it is not, but in the mouth, one struggles for words, and everything is forgiven. There’s different renditions of Chili crabs, with each claiming to be better than the other; so how do you actually define what’s a good Chili Crab? I like it slightly sweet, and spicy. I like to dip my beloved deep-fried mantou into the thick and awesome gravy, pour a whole bowl of it onto the white rice and finish everything.

Six deep-fried Mantou please, no wait, make it twelve. Okay, give us another six more. Oh those incredibly delicious, tiny devils.

Coming from a poor chili eater, I find the Sambal Kangkong extremely spicy. Herein lies the question: do we like sambal kangkong because it is hot, or do we like it hot so we like sambal kangkong?

Anyway, I like my sambal kangkong to be hot even though I can’t take chili very well. And the one here, is damn hot.

I’m not sure about you, but it seems to me that people always order Cereal prawns not so much because of the prawns, but rather they like the crispy cereals. I’m not going to talk about the niffy gritty part on how to peel a prawn, forget every single thing that I’ve said – just swallow the whole prawn.

Without a doubt, Chili Crab is the face and ambassador of the Singapore food scene, and No Signboard has the best chili crab in Singapore – because I like them. And no, we are not going to start the controversial debate on ‘where is the best chili crab in Singapore’. Whichever crab you like, is the best crab.

If you have hang around for long enough, you’d know that I’m not a big fan of steamboat, so it’s always an once-a-year thing for Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Most reputable fine-dining Chinese restaurants are probably fully booked by now; so instead of having steamboat, how about Seafood for Chinese New Year? Sounds like a plan to me.

Restaurant Review
No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang Road
Tel: +65 6842 3415
Daily 12pm – 1am

Oh Yanting, how I hate you!

I first know of Yanting one and a half years back, and I never looked back. ‘Where is the best dim sum in Singapore?’ this has to be one of the most-asked question for all the dim sum lovers out there, and whenever someone ask me this, I will replied without any doubt, Yanting. The best dim sum ever.

Being label as the best dim sum in Singapore by me, it has a huge billing to live up to, but be it quality of the dim sum, ambiance of the restaurant, service of the staff, or (to a slightly lesser extent) affordability of dim sum; Yanting is almost impossible to beat.

Prices have gone up for the Stir-fried rice roll ($6) with XO sauce, it used to be four dollars, but still, I like how it went with lots of eggs and beansprouts. You don’t like the usual steamed cheong fan? Trust me, you will like this stir-fried version.

Rather than skipping the Steamed prawn dumpling ($5 for 3) and make my friend regret not having it, I decided to be nice and it was a good decision. Define a good har gau: it should have fresh and crunchy shrimp that is enveloped by a layer of skin that has the just-right thickness.

If you’ve been hanging around here for a while now, you should know well how I feel about char siew sou, egg tarts, and custard buns – I’m absolutely in love with them. People always think of har gau and siew mai when it comes to dim sum, but for me, it will always be custard buns and Char siew sou ($3.6 for 2).

Sweet and savoury bits of char siew within the golden coat of buttery flaky pastry. Perfect. The best char siew sou ever. This humble-looking pastry is what every char siew sou should strive to become.

The Steamed pork dumpling ($5 for 3) comes with predominantly lean meat topped with a mushroom and fish roe, I enjoyed every bite of it. Come to think of it, even though I always complain that siew mai is boring, but I still order it every single time. Siew mai is still siew mai after all – it’s irreplaceable.

It was a toast between the Stir-fried rice roll and the Pan-seared Radish Cake ($3.20), but since we were in a good mood, we decided to order both. Okay, here’s the deal, put incredibility a lot of radish to make the cake, and pan-seared it until golden brown, there – a simple and good radish cake.

Fluffy, soft buns, with the sweetest and juiciest char siew you can ever find. Needless to say the Char siew buns ($3.20 for 2) – one of my favorite dim sum – disappeared the moment I finished taking a photograph of it.

Happiness comes in the form of a mini egg tart.

Don’t be fool by the dainty, cute appearance, this Egg tart ($3 for 2) is not just a pretty face; it has everything more than that. My hands trembled when I picked up the petite pastry, it was warm, baked straight out of the oven. I took a sniff, trying very hard not to finish it in a bite, and then came the magical moment. The wonderfully light and buttery pastry, a smooth and not too sweet egg custard filling which was good in its own right.

* * *

Yanting has the best dim sum in Singapore.

Restaurant Review
Yan Ting
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: 6506 6888

Yan Ting is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favourite restaurants in Singapore

Do you believe in fairytale? I do. The story of the Paradise group isn’t exactly a rise from the rugs to riches one, but it’s close enough. For someone who started off with a cze-char stall in the industrial park Defu lane, to a group of restaurants that includes the fine-dining Taste paradise, seafood restaurant Seafood paradise, and middle-range Paradise inn, doesn’t it sounds like a fairytale ending?

I have wanted to go to taste paradise for a very long time. But their original outlet at Mosque street does not serve dim sum, and so I waited until now for their new branch in Ion that has dim sum for lunch.

Having tried the most expensive xiaolongbao, and also the dirt-cheap-but-good ones in Nanxiang restaurant Shanghai; everything in between seem exceptionally ordinary to me. I know for a matter of fact there are people who love to pop a dozen of xiaolongbao ($3.80 for 4) into their mouth, but not me, one is enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, this, is the one you must try. I will go as far as saying Taste Paradise’s rendition is as good as the best char siew sou ($3.60 for 3) that I’ve so far, Buttery undertone of the flaky pastry, sweet and juicy char siew fillings, honey get your hands off the plate!

My dear, listen to me carefully for this is going to be very important, you need to have three for yourself, uh-uh, no sharing, and maybe that isn’t enough – make it six each!

I was contemplating whether to have the usual Siew mai & har gau ($4.80 for 4), we didn’t fancy having the former, thus only the latter was ordered. It might be a case of having too much dim sum, but the steamed prawn dumpling, unlike the char siew sou or custard bun, is just not sex-citing enough.

We also had the Steamed cheong fun with prawns ($5.20), it was some sort like a go-between, not fantastic, but not all bad either. Increasingly, it’s getting more challenging to get a good cheong fun. The problem lies with me, and me alone. Define what makes a good cheong fun: the rice rolls must not be too thick that it will stick to the teeth, nor can it be too thin that the roll breaks and expose all the ingredients. The fillings of prawn or char siew must be fresh, and the light sauce must be able to make the simple cheong fun taste good.

For someone who do not like yam except for yam cake, I always find myself ordering the Fried Taro puff ($3.60 for 3) when I’m having dim sum. This one was pretty disappointing, the fried crispy exterior was not too bad, but the yam fillings were too mushy for my liking.

I tasted Custard bun for the first time about one and a half years back, since then I only had it on just a few several occasions. I remember very clearly staring at the ordinary-looking bun, the kind of buns that you get from the neighbor coffeeshop, whatever it is, those that taste plain and boring.

Imagine my reaction when I torn apart a small corner of the fluffy-light bun, hot molten custard fillings flowed out like lava from an erupting volcano, I scrambled to save every single drop of the yellow-golden fillings – they are oh-my-god, so good! ‘Yummy…!’

Towards the end, we had a second round of custard buns and were deciding whether to have one more serving of the char siew sou or go for the Baked BBQ Pork Bun ($3.80 for 3). I had fond memories of this dish, but the one here wasn’t what I thought it was, instead of the bo luo bao texture, it tasted more like deep-fried bread. The char siew fillings were great, but I’d rather have the crispy puff pastry than the honey-glazed baked buns.

* * *

I have always insist that my favourite dim sum place is Yanting and Royal China, but now, we have a new addition to the list  for best dim sum – Taste Paradise. There’s a problem though, it’s affordable, and it’s right in the middle of town. I’ll probably forget about all the other dim sum, and just binge on the char siew sou and custard buns – they are that good! See you there!

Taste Paradise
2 Orchard Turn
#04-07 Ion Orchard
Tel: 6509 9660

Taste Paradise is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Looking back my archives, I realized it’s been a while since I last blog about dim sum. Actually, I have been putting off this post for very long, I wasn’t sure if I want to blog about it. Their famous baked BBQ pork buns and char siew sou were sold out, but I reckon you can do with some dim sum.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it almost impossible to resist Egg tarts ($4), not when they are baked straight from the oven. How can one ever be enough? I can easily have a dozen on my own!

I wanted custard buns, but they did not have that, instead we got Baked custard pastry ($4). Surprisingly it was quite good, the custard wasn’t the flowy lava type, but who cares? Sprinkled with icing sugar, the thin and moderately crispy pastry was a perfect re-enact when custard bun meets char siew sou.

For the life of me, I couldn’t remember when I started to like dim sum. Red Star introduced me to dim sum when I was young, but it’s Yan Ting that made me fall in love over again. Coming back, it’s hard to know what to say about Steamed pork dumpling ($5.60), I mean it’s siew mai, and how bad can it get? It’s pork and prawn, and they always taste good together.

It’s a different story for Steamed prawn dumpling ($6.80 for 4) all together. For har gau, it’s either very good, or very bad. I’m very particular with the thickness of the skin, it cannot be too thin, otherwise it’d cracked easily. But if the skin is too thick, it doesn’t taste good and get stuck the teeth easily. The har gau was fairly competent, but I cringed at the price tag.

Before I say anything else, I thought that it’s fair to tell you that I normally do not like yam, with the exception to yam cake and Deep-fried yam roll ($5.70). There’s just something which makes deep-fried yam so irresistible.

If you ask me to pick between steamed or fried carrot cake, the answer is obvious, I will definitely go for the latter. Why will anyone in their right mind choose the healthy steamed way over the sinful-but-delicious fried ones? Unless, there’s the steamed rendition taste really good, or there’s no fried ones available. In this case, it was a combination of both, Wah Lok’s Steamed carrot cake ($4.50) was pretty decent.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I’ll never order Steamed pork ribs ($5.60) on my own accord. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ll never come to appreciate chewing on tiny ribs with no meat, not unless you are talking about huge baby ribs. Now that’s another story all together.

* * *

Answering my own question, I will probably not come back to Wah Lok for dim sum again. Even though all the dim sum were pretty competent, but it lacked the draw without their char siew sou and baked char siew bao. And not to mention that their prices are much higher than what it used to be before. You know the good thing about being in town? There are plenty of better options in the same area.

How about you? What’s your favourite dim sum place?

Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant
76 Bras Basah road
2F Carlton Hotel
Tel: 6311 8188

It has been a long time since I last step foot here, my family used to refer Holiday Inn Atrium as “the black glass hotel”.

The air was sucked out of the room when the salad lobster ($9 per 100g) appeared; her sheer beauty took our breathe away, and for the next few second, we were wondering what to do, then one of us took a pair of chopstick and took a bite. And then the whole lobster was gone in a flash.

When in a Chinese restaurant, roasted pork is always a good indicator of the standard of the food. Unfortunately it was sold out when we went for dinner that night, but luckily we still had the suckling pig ($80 for half). Beneath the crispy skin, was the most delicious roasted pig ever, but it was the layer of fats in between that’s so sinful, but good!

I finally found a sweet & sour pork ($16) that’s good enough. I’ve been looking for one to satisfy the sweet-sour-pork-fan-in-me, and I must say Xin Cuisine’s rendition was done nicely; the crunchy pork was coated in the glossy sweet & sour sauce. The sweetness was further enhanced with the addition of lychee and apple instead of just the typical pineapple and cucumber.

And when we thought the salad lobster was good, the baked lobster with foie gras was even better. Thick, creamy mayonnaise sauce with generous chunks of foie gras, baked with the fresh, juicy crustacean. Just the thought of foie gras, and lobster, swoon! You get the idea.

Using the same sauce as the baked lobster with foie gras; the cod fish (not on the usual menu) was nicely seared on the outside and you could taste the freshness inside. We eyed it for a while and then we dug in. Removing the ginger garnish, I shoveled a corner of the fish into my mouth in one bite. The cod was perfect; it tasted good on its own, but it’s even better when we had it together with the sauce.

The Salted crusted baked Kampung chicken ($48 for whole chicken) was specially prepared in advance, and from what I understand, the difference between the normal bred chicken and kampung chicken was that while the former was caged up feeding on grains everyday, the latter gets to “run about” and exercise, which made the meat more tender and tasty.

And the main draw of the kampung chicken here was the infusion of the salted crusted into the chicken, and although it’s meant to be done this way, but we felt that it was slightly too salty for our liking.

First thoughts, the Braised 5-head abalone ($36) looks amazing. Drizzled with superior oyster sauce, there’s a reason why abalone is one of the top delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The abalone was braised until it was so soft, yet retaining a chewiness texture. It was good!

Since I had deep-fried ice cream before, I wasn’t so fascinated this time round. But still we couldn’t help not ordering it as it’s on the menu anyway. A split second into the pot of oil, was all it need for this beauty. Any longer and it would be ruin.

There was the chilled mango coulis pomelo sago ice cream ($10), and the chilled mango pudding ($6).

And since it’s the Mid-Autumn festival, we had some mooncakes too!

You like chocolate? You like mooncakes too? So how about some Mini snowskin mooncake with Champagne chocolate and pandan ($40 for 6 mini pcs)? Champagne chocolate centre with a pandan flavoured lotus paste – it’s one of those things that you either love it, or hate it.

On first look, I thought that this was the traditional mooncake with lotus paste, but it was not. Creamy moist custard filling is wrapped around a salted egg yolk and yum – I like custard! A sprinkle of edible gold flakes makes it irresistible, it’s a sin to eat something so pretty. Xin’s Mini special egg custard mooncake with egg yolk ($42 for 6 mini pcs)

The vibrant purplish blue snowskin made it very outstanding, and no, it’s not coloured flavourings. The blue pea flower was used to naturally infused and produce the beautiful colour. My family absolutely adored the Mini snowskin Peranakan mooncake with durian ($42 for 6 mini pcs); two mini mooncakes are definitely not enough for durian lovers.

My folks enjoyed the dinner of course; lobster with foie gras, suckling pig, abalone, I’m hungry now just by looking at the photos. I will probably go back to Xin Cuisine again, to try out their dim sum (it wasn’t available during dinner time).

My appreciation to Lynda from DBS, Cherylene & Seema from Eurorscg, and the Ivy & her staff from Xin Cuisine for the wonderful dinner. This is the third and final restaurant with DBS Foodster, my previous two dinner was at the Queen & Mangosteen, and Umami Japanese restaurant. You can find out more information about the DBS Indulge Series here.

Xin Cuisine
317 Outram road
4F Holiday Inn Atrium
Tel: 6731 7173

Weekends are the best time for dim sum, it is when everybody is free to have a long lunch, and what can be better than to yum cha?

My friend wanted to try the Beancurd prawn roll ($4.50), and I have never been a big fan of beancurd skin. Since a lot dim sum has prawns, we decided to go for the Char siew cheong fun ($4.50). The savoury light sauce always enhance the flavour of the cheong fun.

After trying so many different har gau ($4.50), it has somewhat become rather ordinary to me. I know it’s the dim sum queen; all right if you must, fresh crunchy prawns held firmly within translucent skins. But I’m indifference to it, at least for now.

I was craving for custard buns badly, and to my delight it’s listed on the menu; but the initial euphoria half evaporated when the captain said that it’s been replaced by the Baked custard buns ($3.50 for 3). So feeling half skeptical and half excited, we approached it. Judging from appearances, the baked buns look like those hard, baked pastry kind. We took a bite, and it was astonishing so soft! I would prefer those molten custard on any other day, but this was just as good!

Siew mai and har gau always come together in pairs, there isn’t one without the other. But unlike the har gau, I’m not so sick of Siew Mai ($4.50 for 4) since it has a combination of porky and prawny bite.

I’m insanely in love with Char siew sou ($4 for 3). The ones here reminded me of my old flame; the buttery crispy flakes, the oozing oh-so-sweet juice from the char siew. Delish! You know like they say, your first love is always the most memorable, if I’ve not had better before, I’ll say this is quite good. But then again, I’m biased against char siew sou.

The fragrant glutinous rice ($4.50) enveloped within the leaf; the salted egg yoke bursting through your tastebud with it’s strong and distinct taste, the little bites of chicken shreds, a pity the Chinese sausages were missing here. Almost perfect.

Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50) used to be a favourite of mine, but after trying several half-hearted versions, I’m leaning towards some of the better steamed ones that I had. Packed the carrot cake full with relish, lots of them. Then lightly-seared it until golden brown, leaving a crispy surface with soft relish beneath it. Sounds easy? Do one for me.

Actually I’m undecided if I will come back to Asia Grand for dim sum again. And it’s not because they are not good, the variety of dim sum available was very comprehensive. But the main reason was the existence of a better option just directly opposite them. I’ll probably drop by again for their Peking duck, which is definitely much cheaper than the one I had at Peach Garden.

Asia Grand
331 North Bridge road
#01-02 Odeon towers
Tel: 6887 0010

I’m pregnant. Or at least I think I should be. Otherwise how else do you explain the fact that I’m constantly craving for food? Of course guys don’t get pregnant, so there must be worms inside my stomach. Okay I shall stop here before the whole controversial topic gets out of hand.

Anyway, I’ve been craving for dim for some time now. Fine, I lie. I’m always craving for dim sum. For those of you who have read my blog long enough, you’ll know that char siew sou and egg tarts are among my favourite. But this time, I was actually pining for custard bun.

And that’s the only reason I come to Peach Garden!

I swear that they’ve the best Custard buns ($3.60 for 3) among the ones that I’ve tried so far. The molten lava custard flowed out when I poked a hole in the bun, with a hint of salted egg yoke, the yellow custards within the tiny, soft, pillowy buns were SO GOOD! We ordered two each, and still it wasn’t enough. I will come back to Peach Garden just to takeaway their custard buns.

We couldn’t resist not ordering the Peking duck, and the slight promotion at $48 instead of the usual $60 helped too. The crispy skin was thinly sliced and placed within the pancake; every piece was drenched with some sweet sauce, and served with spring onion. One piece each, definitely wasn’t enough.The second dish was done with the ee-fu noodle ($10), shreds of duck meat fried to greatly enhance the flavour of noodle, with the remaining of the duck in the form of two delicious drumsticks. Crisping on the surface with the legs and everything intact, coated golden reddish-brown. They look good. They smell good. I love duck drumsticks, they are so sinful, and good. I’ll take up the whole thing, gnaw it right to the bones and not waste every bit. Delicious.

The branch at Novena does not have their full dim sum menu during weekdays, so in the end we only manage to try about 5 dim sum. It was maddening that’s all we got when I’m craving for the whole array of dim sum. The beancurd roll ($3.60 for 3) was like the typical ones, prawn fillings wrapped within beancurd skin and seaweed.

In dim sum context, I crown Siew Mai as the king, and Har Gau ($3.90 for 3) as the queen. But somehow I do not enjoy eating Har Gau anymore, well it’s just prawn wrapped inside skin isn’t it? I know how much effort the chefs put in to make each and every piece of har gau, but still, I couldn’t help feeling that way. Give me my char siew sou, give me my egg tarts.

Honey, they shrink the phoenix prawns!

I remember the prawns on top of the Siew Mai ($3.90 for 3) here used to be much bigger. Well even though the prawns were downsized, but the siew mai was still prawny with a crunchy bite.

A messy affair. Always the case when we have the deep-fried prawns wrapped in vermicelli ($2.40 for 3).

* * *

It has been a while since my last visit to Peach Garden, and honestly I only remember them for the XO carrot cake ($10), and their wonderful custard buns. We didn’t have the carrot cake this time round since I felt that while it’s good, but it definitely didn’t justify the hefty price tag. I will come here, just for their custard buns (Nai wang bao).

Peach Garden
273 Thomson road
#01-06 Novena Gardens
Tel: 6254 3383

I’m craving for dim sum, and what better way to get everybody hungry with me, by blogging about dim sum! Char siew sou, custard bun, egg tarts, siew mai, give them all to me!

Crispy prawn dumpling, spring roll, pastry filled with smoked duck, beancurd sheet filled with shrimp, Sweet & sour wanton

Meet my love, char siew sou. We re-re-order this, and I ate the most of it since everybody was full from the other dim sum. But me? I couldn’t never say no to you.

Jellyfish with cucumber

Vietnamese vermicelli

Century egg porridge & Fish with conpoy porridge

Even though we had a lot of dim sum which came with prawns, but I enjoyed the Crispy prawn thoroughly; dipped inside the mayo sauce, it was good stuff!

Pan fried cheong fun with dried shrimp

The Spare ribs with spicy pepper and salt were excellent for the folks with heavy taste-buds. Almost of us found it to be too salty, but another friend was totally immune and it even tasted bland to her!

I had only high praises for the Har Gau during the last time I had it, however on this occasion, the har gau skin already cracked before we ate, it wasn’t good, and we’d made it known to the restaurant.

Among all the different baos available, I only had eyes for custard bun and Char siew bao. I was sorely tempted to get second helpings, if not for the other dim sum that we’ve not tried.

Meet the king of dim sum, Siew mai.

Carrot cake

If there’s another item which I always looked out for, it would be the Glutinous rice. The fragrant of the glutinous rice floated in the air when we opened the leaf; the saltiness of the salted egg yolk, the flavourful Chinese sausage, the tender chicken bits, everything added up for a very delicious glutinous rice.

The Crystal dumpling was similar to the soon kueh, but a pity there wasn’t any sweet sauce available that day!

Chicken cheong fun

If you are a regular reader of my dim sum posts, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of the Spare ribs on dim sum menu. And surprisingly the spare ribs here were quite unlike the norm – it was meaty!

Chicken claw

Spinach dumpling

Spicy wanton

Beancurd sheet with black bean sauce

Shrimp coated with mashed taro

Mushroom coated with shrimp paste

* * *

Wan Hao’s new weekday dim sum buffet is available during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only, reservations are a must. Prices are $36++ and they are having one-for-one promotion, which means that this unlimited dim sum buffet with 32 items to choose from, is available at a very reasonable price of $21 after taxes.

Even though there wasn’t any particular outstanding dim sum, but everything was pretty decent. And I believe if you are looking for a dim sum buffet, it will be difficult, if not impossible to find another place which can beat Wan Hao at such prices. And we are talking about a 5 star Chinese restaurant here, forget your Zhou’s kitchen, Dragon Gate; those places that offered dim sum buffet under $20. This is the cheapest deal you can get if you want to gorge yourself silly with decent dim sum, maybe other than Pine Court at Meritus Mandarin.

Read my previous visit to Wan Hao here, and the other dim sum posts here. And Catherine’s post on Camemberu, Maureen’s post here.

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

We searched for the button with the 37th label on it, and pressed. Zoom, the elevator, or I preferred to call it the express lift-off, shot up into the sky. Looking downwards as everything became miniature – we were so insignificant. I was actually quite scared when I took a peep. It shouldn’t be, since I’ve been to higher ground before, but still. It always happened. Ding, we reached 37th level, welcome to Hai Tien Lo.

The Steamed shrimp dumpling ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was pretty with the chopped celery giving it a tinge of green.

It must be short-sightedness, but it often occurred with carrot cake. Somehow I always missed out the word steamed, when I ordered carrot cake. So instead of my favourite fried carrot cake, we were surprised when they served a steamed rendition; but it was good! I like how the sauce brings out the flavour of the soft and nice carrot cake. Okay, the full name, steamed carrot cake with preserved meats ($3.90 per portion).

The Steamed pork dumpling with fish roe ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was a piece of art. The curvy lines, with her yellow outfit, topped with the pretty bright orange fish roe.

This was a special, they called it the dim-sum-of-the-week. Sophisticated yeah? It was essentially a shrimp with fish roe on top of a mushroom. An innovative way to do the overdone-to-death prawn in dim sum.

Surprise number two came in the form of pan-fried rice flour roll with crispy conpoy ($3.90 per portion). Well actually it’s not much of a revelation since I asked about the fillings beforehand. Or rather, the lack of fillings. I like the slightly char pan-fried surface of the rice roll with all the crispy toppings. The rice roll on itself was rather bland, but drizzled with the gorgeous sauce; it was good, no, it was tasty!

Since my favourite char siew sou wasn’t available, I just had to make do with the Steamed barbecued pork buns ($2.80 for 2 pieces). White fluffy buns, with sweet char siew fillings, what’s there not to like? I like it sweet, extra sweet please!

Instead of the usual prawn filling, Hai Tien Lo’s rendition came across as the Deep-fried sea perch wrapped in vermicelli ($5.40 for 3 pieces).

* * *

With the to-die-for magnificent view of the marina area, dining at Hai Tien Lo was definitely something that evoked the visual senses together with the taste buds. We chatted, appreciated the skyline, nibbled at the dim sum, drank more tea, and I’m so in love with dim sum! xoxo

Hai Tien Lo
7 Raffles Boulevard
37F Pan Pacific hotel
Tel: 6826 8338

I would have never imagine this; I froze at the mention of it, the sacred foie gras. And hold on a second, what were they saying, I thought I heard something like Juicy dumpling with foie gras. Wasn’t this supposed to be XLB, now where did the foie gras came into the picture?

Believe it or not, they actually contain the French delicacy within our XLB, well maybe just a morsel of it since there wasn’t any trace of the foie gras.

Fresh, is one of the word which has been over-used to describe food. How else would you use to depict the prawn within the crisp vermicelli, well maybe I would say juicy, succulent, and I ran out of vocabulary. Oh well. Deep-fried filo dough.

It was wet, a little moist inside, so I stuck my finger in, and poked it in a little further. I took a bite, beneath the crispy exterior, was duck shreds. Deep-fried yam croquette with minced duck.

Pan-fried radish cake

I was caught by surprise when they told me this was called the Deep-fried scallops with sugar cane. I was happily biting it off the sugar cane (read: I use it), thinking it was very prawny, and there they were, telling me it was deep-fried scallop!

Naturally I was amused, how could scallop taste like prawn? Ignoring that, the slightly-sweet-slightly-sour sauce was most excellent – it was refreshing. And the sugar cane added some brownie points to the whole artistic value.

May I introduced to you, ladies and gentleman, the scarce Harm Soei Gok, or Deep-friend traditional chicken dumpling. Honestly, I did not know about its existence before this, since many places didn’t served it due to the complexity and effort needed to produce it.

The whole, Shark’s fin within the soup, it was so big! With an equally flavourful stock, all of us agreed that the Double-boiled dumpling with Shark’s fin was a delight, well maybe not for the sharks lovers.

I liked this. I’m a char siew sou man. And I was disappointed when there was no sight of it on the menu. And then the baked fluffy skin pie with chicken and mango came. Having the same (or almost) crispy, buttery pastry skin, the interior of the usual char siew was replaced by chicken and mango instead. And the marriage of chicken and mango was a good one, those two totally complimented each other well.

Steamed prawn dumpling

How can one reinvent a dish already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either provide premium stuffing or reinvent the skin used to wrap the stuffing. For the steamed pork dumpling, they did neither but it was still a cut above the rest. The prawn was sweet and there wasn’t an overly-porky after-taste.

My, my. It was interesting to note, a mini version of claypot rice appearing in a restaurant. Call it a classic, the Mini pot rice with chicken was nothing mini in taste; the tasty Chinese sausages, the succulent mushrooms, and the tender chicken chunks. I had it a taste without any sauce initially, then I added some of the superior sauce that came along with it, and it did wonders – it literally enhanced the taste of the whole mini pot.

Phoenix eye dumpling

There was three different types of steamed rice roll served, but I just showed one photo since all rice rolls looked the same less the fillings. It was the standard-trio, scallops, char siew and prawn. And needless to say, most Chinese restaurants definitely uses fresh ingredients, so it was really down to the rice roll to determine the winner.

And I must say, Man Fu Yuan had silky smooth rice roll, and most importantly, they were not overly-thick.

Vegetarian dumpling

Scallop dumpling with pea shoot

I never liked beef balls, or for that matter, any type of meat balls. Just the sight of it made me full, I took a bite of the beef balls with bamboo pith, and unexpectedly, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. And there’s tripes at the bottom of the beef balls too.

It is a fine line between tradition and new, and I feel Man Fu Yuan balanced it very well. There are the traditional dim sum available for the purist who want their fix regularly, and not neglecting those who craved for innovation and excitement in their dining experience, the chefs played around with some other ingredients that are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.

This marks the end of the dim sum marathon, and I must say I’ve enjoyed myself very much together with the rest; chatting and enjoying the good food.  My appreciation to Sharon, the PR manager for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read my fellow food blogger review:
Catherine @ Camemberu here
Leroy @ Hungrycow here

Man Fu Yuan
80 Middle road
2F Intercontinental Hotel
Tel: 6825 1062

The beautiful, each piece: Oh-so-dainty, Oh-so-refine. Almost like art, delicately crafted.

O’ my dear, I love you so. Never in my heart, I stopped thinking of you. Miss sushi, and Miss tapas: both seemed to  be more popular than you, but I will always put you in the first place.

It was big, no, huge! This was, one of the many, different renditions of har gau we would see today. Essentially a har gau without the skin; the crab meat dumpling. It was prawny, with a nice bite – but crabby (no pun intended) it was not, well who cares?

Rather than an-overly-thick-skin, give me a dumpling without skin.

The well-admired Steamed Prawn Dumplings had an injection of carrot purée which only served to beautify the appearance of the har gau skin.

“We protested! We protested!”

The purist camp did a demonstration on the streets, crying for the restoration of the conventional har gau which they were so used to. But for the ladies; the boost in vitamin A. What was missing however, was the carrot taste.

The novelty. The inclusion of preserved vegetables was a brilliant stroke of art; the saltiness enhanced the flavour of the pork, which brought us to the question: why didn’t anybody thought of this before? Steamed pork dumpling with preserved vegetables, siew mai.

Now this was a not-so-simple bun that was bound to turn heads. Served piping hot, the bun seemed quite insignificant until you took a bite at it. Immediately, you would realize that you just had something very special. The bun itself was soft, fluffy and light as a feather while the fillings were so, so sweet and juicy. The Steamed kurobuta char siew pork fluffy bao, was the winner for the day.

The humble har gau did an open-faced sandwich; with shark’s fin on top. Luxury, it was, wealth, it symbolized, and prestige, it presented. Sorry sharky! Steamed shark’s fin dumplings with dried scallops and shrimp.

The tinge of pink, at the top of the tri-top; pretty and so pretty. Another piece of art we seen, at the gallery of Cherry Garden. However, the Scallop and spinach crystal dumpling did came across as slightly dry.

Truffled Essence Crystal Dumplings stuffed with Assorted Fresh Mushrooms. This, was a beauty; the translucent skin, the jelly texture, the array of mushrooms, almost perfect – but it was too large!

Prawn was the main lead, and mango was the second lead. There was the accompany of the green, hot wasabi! Netted rice crispy turnover. I held you, in my arms, into the late wee wee hour: without the wasabi! My dear, the netted rice crispy turnover.

And there was the famous XLB. The voluptuous folds, the goodness of the soup stock, everything, gushing out.

Like a peacock spreading his feathers, the netted rice crispy did a peacock effect: it caught everybody’s attention. Oh my, so beautiful, was this meant to be eaten?

And oh wait, there’s something hiding below the feathers; the netted rice crispy I meant. Ah, that’s the pan-fried chives and chicken dumplings!

Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of chives – I would leave the taste of the dumpling to your own imagination. This was, a piece of art! Why don’t we turn it upside down?

This was the umpteenth time we had a make-over of the har gau, they called it, Steamed Chinese spinach dumplings. The spinach, provided the lovely lines, just like how a painting adorned the wall. The egg yolk, provided the oomph, so, so good.

This, was a poisonous pear, for snow white. The wicked witch threw in some pumpkin, a pinch of jicama, stirred stirred, mixed mixed, and finally, some vegetarian ham.

Poof! With a wave of her wand, the deep-fried potato “pear” appeared. Crispy texture checked, mesmerizing appearance checked, vegetarian (snow white is on a diet) checked. Sticky innards (to stick the mouth together) checked. Everything was present, and OH, where’s the poison?

And we took a plunge, into the deep, deep blue sea. From the land to the sea, the Symphony of live pacific grouper prepared in three different ways. The first: we have a soup, grouper fish broth with ginger, onion and Silken tofu.

Steamed grouper crystal fish dumpling.  Was this a dim sum, or was this a fish? It was both, with a twist. Brilliant it was, bravo we shouted. Grouper fish meat inside a dumpling of the fish skin. It was beautiful, too beautiful to eat.

It was not all smooth-sailing, nothing was. As much as I loved the creativity, there was a snag. The use of fish skin, for the translucent was great for the eyes, but not for the mouth. It was chewy, and slightly fishy: non fish lovers, would say, no no!

Prawn and pork, were absent. I give you fish, fish for dim sum. The very first, I believed. Let there be more, say fish siew mai? This, surely, would be a great day for all the fish lovers.

One price, one fish, for the value of three. Worthy, indeed. Sautéed grouper fillet with asparagus, no parts of the fish were wasted, from the meat, to the skin.

I have always wanted to go to Cherry Garden. And I’m glad I finally did. It was a feast, for the visual senses. The dim sum, so delicately craft piece by piece, was an art, for all to enjoyed. Creativity was certainly in the air, the adventurous use of different ingredients, the details to attention for the tiniest things, the emphasize of making it look as good as it tasted. I’m sold. Praises, have to be reserved for the savvy and charismatic executive Chinese chef, Mr Hiew Gun Khong.

Cherry Garden has the weekend dim sum ala carte buffet at $45++ per head, which has a selections of 20 over dim sum, and other Chinese food as well. My appreciation to Kelly, the PR relations manager 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
Leroy @ Hungrycow here

Cherry Garden
5 Raffles Avenue
5F Mandarian Oriental
Tel: 6885 3538

Cherry Garden is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

The first of the many to come, Wan Hao Chinese restaurant at Marriott hotel.

Now what can I say? I totally love roast pork belly! The dish is often an indicator of the standard of a Chinese restaurant; Wan Hao’s rendition was nicely done – crispy top with a thin-and-nice layer of fats. “One cube definitely wasn’t enough”, I protested! But hey, there’s still thirty more dish to go!

Although I couldn’t exactly tasted which seven spices were use, but the combination was seductive to the palate, the Seven spices sea perch fillet.

And just before you are thinking Chinese restaurants are boring and served the usual-you-know-what food, the Hokkigai and salmon sashimi would certainly prove you wrong! Just look at the thickly-and-generous slices of the fresh sashimi. It-is-to-die-for.

For the tasting at Wan Hao, only Catherine of Camemberu fame and myself was present among the five of us. And she absolutely loved the Jelly fish with cucumber. Tangy and Q, it was a refreshing appetiser.

Like the no-smoking campaign slogon which asked you to say ‘No‘ to cigarettes, I could never say no to roast duck. My interpretation of a good roast duck: crispy skin with a layer of fats and tasty duck meat. This one had it all, and say it with me, Oomph-la-la!

Vermicelli with pork fillet. There wasn’t anything spectacular but this is just one, good, comfort food, which stood out among the delicacies we tried.

Beef tendon with white radish

In my humble opinion, Wan Hao has the best Ha Gau among the four places that we tried. All of them used top-quality fresh prawns, but what made the one here stood out was the the skin; some places would do it too thick, and some too thin – it was done perfectly here. Bravo!

I actually preferred the spring roll filled with smoked duck meat to the roasted duck. The smoked duck meat lived up to its name – the very smoky taste within the crispy spring roll.

While some people found that the addition of fish roe to the top only served as an adornment; I thought that it’s fine so long the tiny orange eggs wasn’t in excessive to overwhelm the taste of the siew mai.

I ain’t a big fan of asparagus – the word alone put me off; but I had to try this translucent pretty-looking asparagus dumpling, which tasted decent.

The sea perch fillet with garlic appeared squeaky-fresh; it seemed to be flipping on my plate! The golden mushrooms and tofu were integrated with the sea perch, and I love it!

I knew it was close. I could smell it. The strong alcohol scent. You can smell it from far away. The drunken prawns were as suspected, very strong in liqueur taste; the prawns were big and fresh. I must emphasized, the quality and freshness of the ingredients at Wan Hao was really what set them aside.

Bean curd sheet filled with shrimps

The presentation of the Scallop and asparagus with spicy XO sauce was faultless. Succulent and juicy scallop.

The mere presence of duck shreds greatly enhanced the flavour of the congee. And not to mention there’s sliced fish maw, squid too! All the natural goodness in the bowl of Congee.

It was sensational. Tender, let me tell you, the whole experience: the chewing and swallowing, we couldn’t speak. There was a lump stuck in my throat; I just allowed myself to quietly finished the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this.

I was struck in awe of the flavour and texture of the meat, this was certainly my most memorable and favourite dish of the meal. And I couldn’t bear to speak of its name, Kurabuta pork, all the way from Americaaa!

The meal was a late boomer. Just when I thought that the few dishes in front were all good, it got better and better. Or maybe they were saving the best for the last, either way, the Chilli prawns with crispy buns had the “made in Singapore” brand stamped all over it. Spicy, fresh, with the mini mantao bun to dip in to the sauce, it was a superb interpretation of prawns done in our local favourite Chilli crab. A Singapore classic.

I could not, believe how tender the meat actually was. It literally melted in my mouth – I know this phase sounded exaggerating and often over-used, but trust me, it’s true for the Beef tenderloin with black peppercorns. Oh my! I would gladly go back another time just for the kurobuta pork, chilli prawns, and the beef tenderloin alone.

All right, back to the basics. Not many places can do a mean version of the Ee-fu noodles. All of us agreed that this one was just right in terms of the oilyness and bite. Not too oily, not too dry, just exactly how we liked it.

For the first time, I was actually sorry to see the desserts coming – for it signalled the end of the wonderful meal. But Wan Hao dessert did not disappoint as well, the first to arrive, the Lemongrass jelly with lime sherbet was equally pleasing in aesthetic senses. Very refreshing, and a fine finish for us.

There was a big fan of the mango pudding among us, and he was right! I took a nibble without adding in any milk for the original taste; even eaten alone the smooth and creamy texture of the aroma mango was evident.

If you know me, you must know that I’m an anti-durian person. For the sake of sharing with everybody, I popped one durian mochi inside – the mochi was very sticky, the smell of the fabled durian king of the fruits wasn’t very apparent until I took a bite of it, and that’s when I say, Shit!

I love egg tarts, and I always questioned the fact why Chinese restaurants always do their egg tarts in mini sizes. And like the manager of Wan Hao put it, the small bite was just right, anything bigger it would be too much. Crisp golden brown pastry with equally good egg fillings.

* * *

I must admit, I’m impressed with Wan Hao Chinese restaurant. The freshness in the quality ingredients, with the management’s emphasis on this, plus the service of the staff, were all top-notch. I’m not talking about their good service because it was a tasting session, after we finished our meal, we went down to their bakery; the staff was very knowledgeable about their bakes and was very professional.

The 31 items which we tried for this tasting session was half of their weekend brunch buffet which had 70 items, priced at $55 per head. For the sheer quality and variety, the sum is fair, will I be back? Definitely, See you there!

I entered the Marriott hotel on an empty stomach, and I left with a full one; I’m a happy man. My appreciation to the folks from Wan Hao for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read Catherine’s review on Wanhao here

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

Wan Hao is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore