Duck — Brad’s preferred choice of meat.

That’s the best way to describe my love for duck. While I’m a big fan of kurobuta pork, and there are many people who always rave about the marbling of the wagyu beef; I find it harder to say no to duck meat.

Many friends have told me about the famous braised duck rice at Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Eating House, which is located right at the end of the winding South Buona Vista road. It’s kind of difficult to remember the name ‘Lim Seng Lee’, so my friends always call it the Pasir Panjang Duck Rice.

I have to admit that I seldom eat the Teochew braised duck, and I blame everything on the roasted duck. Every time I step inside a hawker center, I will tell myself to have braised duck rice, but somehow my head will always turn back and ogle at the roasted duck. It’s kinda, sorta, almost impossible to resist roasted duck, especially the drumstick. So you see, it isn’t my fault that I hardly have braised duck rice.

The braised duck meat at Lim Seng Lee appeared to be very ordinary, but in a good way. It was tender, smooth and very pleasing to the palate — I can eat this for lunch everyday!

There’s just something comforting about having braised duck meat with a bowl of porridge and an egg. It makes me feel better already! Among the places that I tried before, Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Eating House definitely serves one of the best braised duck rice in Singapore.

Do you prefer braised duck or roast duck? And all my fellow duck lovers, please tell me where can I find the best Braised duck in Singapore?

Hawker Food Review
Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Eating House
38 South Buona Vista Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6475 9908

Pu Tien Restaurant has been quite impressive in the Singapore Food scene. They have expanded from their original branch at Kitchener road to five other outlets within a couple of years. The other Pu Tien restaurants are strategically located in popular shopping malls like Marina Square, Tampines Mall, VivoCity, Jurong Point, and there’s even a Pu Tien Buffet restaurant at City Square Mall.

I have been wanting to drop by Pu Tien restaurant for dinner ever since I heard that they are a very affordable place for a good Chinese dinner. When I eat out with my friends, we tend to stick with Western food, or check out other cuisines. like the usual Japanese, Italian or French food.

I’m not sure if it’s the same case for you, with the exception of Dim Sum, I usually only have Chinese food and zichar dinner with my family, but not my friends. All this is about to change with our dinner at Pu Tien Restaurant.

Why don’t we have the Deep Fried Duck with Yam ($15)? One of my friends suggested.

It was a good choice. Held within the shattering crisp of the yam, was the most incredibly moist and welcoming duck meat. It’s a brilliant idea to coat a layer of yam around the duck.

The Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic ($12 for half chix) was golden and crispy to the tooth, with the meat retaining the moisture and sweetness even though it was deep-fried. The portion was a little small though.

“Brad, you need to check out Pu Tien restaurant soon. They have one of the best sweet and sour pork in Singapore!”

Ever since then, I have been waiting from the start of forever to go Pu Tien restaurant just for their sweet & sour pork. I could hear the drum-roll when I stretched out to grab a piece of the pork. It smelt good, and there’s lychee too! Emotions took over as I ignored my friends and concentrated on what’s supposedly the ‘best sweet & sour pork’

I wasn’t sure if it’s because I had too much expectations of it, but Pu Tien’s Sweet & Sour Pork ($10 for S, $15 for M) wasn’t what I was looking for. It was not bad, slightly better than most of the sweet & sour pork that I’ve had before, but it was definitely not the best.

Half mee sua, half bee hoon, apparently Pu Tien restaurant’s Fried noodle mee sua ($6) had an identity crisis. We were left wondering about a few possibilities: a) we ordered bee hoon instead of mee sua, b) the waitress took down a wrong order and got us the bee hoon instead, and c) the mee sua was supposed to taste like bee hoon. Not that it mattered actually. We enjoyed the moist and wet mee sua that came with a good mixture of ingredients

Pu Tien restaurant is a good place for families. The prices are slightly higher than what you’d pay for zichar, but it is still very affordable for a meal in a restaurant. If you are looking for a Chinese restaurant for a simple family dinner, Pu Tien restaurant may be just the one.

Restaurant Review
Pu Tien Restaurant
1 Jurong West Central 2
#02-34 Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6795 2338

It’s a love-hate relationship with Dempsey; you either rave about the place, or you hate it being overcrowded, over hyped, and over priced. I used to be the latter, but that was before I paid a visit to Dempsey, and you ought to admit, despite the crowds there, there’s still plenty of places to check out, and who could resist the lush atmosphere?

The first dish is always of utmost importance; how the meal will eventually turn out – depends on this humble appetiser. You may think its not a big deal, but according to scientific researches done by Dr. Bradley, the first dish will usually dictates the mood for the upcoming dishes; humans are emotional creatures. Almost everybody else felt that the Rock shrimp tempura ($15) was ordinary, but I on the other hand, totally love it! It was a shrimp rendition of my favourite sweet & sour pork, and I wiped the whole plate clean since everybody was saving their stomach for the rest of the food.

Without further ado, let me introduce to the one-that-you-have-been-waiting-for, Sashimi of course, Mango sashimi ($29) to be precise. There was mango, avocado wrapped together with three kinds of fish in thin rice paper.

The Carpaccio ($25) was delicious. Thinly sliced, laid in the pool of savoury yuzu sauce; it was squeaky-fresh – it seemed to be swimming in the plate.

When we dine out, people usually want to try out some of the restaurant’s signature dishes. And the Tuna pizza ($22) was one of them at Zento. If skinny pizzas are your kind of thing, then this would be it. Raw fresh tuna on top of the oh-so-thin dough, crunch, crunch, the pizzas were gone!

I always have a thing for prawns, especially deep-fried ones. Naturally, I like the Volcano ($25) pretty much, with the focus in the middle of the futomaki. But some didn’t take quite well to it as they felt that the freshness was gone after the deep-frying process. Alongside the shrimp tempura, there was smoked salmon, avocado and crabstick too.

The combination of seven skewers ($48) was the perfect showcase of the different ingredients, and of course, it’s for sharing! Most of them were pretty decent, but if I were to choose one, I’ll go for the separate tasty foie gras ($15) instead.

The sushi rolls had fascinating names like fantasy, rainbow, and even monkey roll. But we had the Green river ($30) instead. Toro, eel, avocado and plum paste, with seaweed powder on the outside.

After the rounds of appetisers, yes, all the food you saw were just starters to warm us up. The first main course was the Roasted marinated duck breast ($48), and it was indisputably the best. The first impression of the duck was from a conversation when we saw the photo of it in the menu.

“Ah! they served char siew rice here too!”

The photo of the duck in the menu looked exactly like char siew rice! Anyway not many places serve duck, and do it well; the duck meat was done just nice, retaining the tinge of pink beneath the charred skin.

I love prawns, baby! Big, big prawny prawns. The Jumbo shrimp tempura ($42) was dazzled with the sweet and slightly sour pineapple sauce, and there was wasabi fried rice alongside too. Jumbo in size, great in taste, and a huge hole in the pocket too!

We weren’t expecting any surprises from the chicken since it’s a done-to-death item. And the Roasted spring chicken ($38) turned out to be what we expected, just chicken.

Besides the duck breast, I also enjoyed the Chilean seabass ($45). The miso-infused flavour was subtle, bordering on bland, but it actually enabled us to taste the sweetness of the fish.

I could almost hear the cat say, “purrfect!”

Every main course at Zento is paired with different types of rice, the same goes for the Rack of lamb ($45) which comes with almond raisin rice. Lets just put it this way, for the price, we’ve had better elsewhere.

We pointed to “the most expensive main course” on the menu, the Wagyu stripped loin ($75). We had it done medium, but it came slightly more at medium rare.

“Do you have stomach for more?”

It was towards the end that this simple question was posed to us,  Well we were glad that we did, otherwise we would have miss out on the amazing Crunchy spicy tuna handroll ($12). It was O-M-G. Instead of the typical seaweed roll, they used soy paper as a substitute, maybe we shouldn’t call it a substitute because it’s definitely a better option than seaweed. The soy paper simply dissolved when it touched our mouth; every bite was so good!

Most of the folks were stuffed by now, but how can we say no to desserts? So another dessert-holic and me tried most of the ones available; we started with the Coffee parfait ($12). It was frozen custard made with cream, with ice-cream texture minus the melting part.

We lamented about the quality of the chocolate within the Chocolate lava cake ($16). It could/should have been better. Nonetheless, you can’t go wrong when there’s icy cold vanilla ice cream together with the warm chocolate lava.

Dyana, the co-owner of Zento advised us against ordering the Green tea creme brulee ($12) but we decided to try it anyway. The taste was, forgettable, which explained why I couldn’t recall how it tasted like.

There was a period of time long long ago where the fried ice cream at the old Tiong Bahru food centre was in the rage. They called it the Tri colour fuzzes bomb ($14) here. and rightfully so. Underneath the crispy fried skin was cold ice cream. I was fascinated by the fact that the ice cream didn’t melt during the frying process.

* * *

Zento was quite unlike any other Japanese restaurants that I went to before, stepping inside you probably won’t know it’s a Japanese restaurant until you see the menu. Contemporary and chic design, with bold and innovative creations in their menu. My appreciation to Hungrygowhere.com for the invitation to the food tasting session, and Dyana for her warm hospitality.

Zento Asian Global cuisine & Sushi Bar
18B Dempsey road
Tel: 6474 0378

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 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

There are a few things in life which you can never forget. Your first love, the first time flying on a plane, the wonderful taste of food, and of course, my first visit to the prestigious 6 Star St Regis Hotel, and not to mention, the most expensive and excellent dim sum that I’ve there.

I can never forget the taste of Peking duck after trying it for the first time a couple of years back. The perfectly crispy skin with a thin layer of fats beneath. Yan Ting’s Crispy Peking duck ($60 whole duck) served with traditional condiments arrived within minutes after making our order. Instead of wrapping in the typical pancake, the chef decided to use flour skin instead.

Like the usual practice for Peking duck, the remainder of the meat was done in other methods. The one that we had was diced duck meat, which came across as salty. It would be a great compliment with a bowl of white rice, but other than that, there wasn’t much hint of the duck meat. I wondered where the rest of the duck meat actually went. And the second serving ($27) came at a cost of 3 bucks per head.

While I didn’t try any “San Bei Ji”, or claypot chicken with basil & golden garlic ($20 for medium serves 4) before, the rendition here was satisfying. The fragrance of the meat announced the arrival of the dish, the chicken was tender, with some fatty meat and the tasty sauce was the icing on the cake, or rather chicken.

The question mark on my face was evident when I couldn’t figure out what the vegetable on the table was. I was told, the Dou Bei ($26 for medium serves 4) was the superior cousin of the more common Dou Miao. An expensive plate of greens this was, for the seemingly average taste of the vegetables.

We also tried the Crispy garlic pork ($28 for medium serves 4). The pork ribs were crispy, and had a strong garlic taste. The dish also came across as a tad salty. Nonetheless, we dutifully whipped clear the plate of the ribs.

I can never forget my penchant for cod fish. Taking a bite of the Deep Fried Cod Fillet coated with Crispy Cereal ($28), the fish immediately melt-in-the-mouth, with the cereal giving an added crunch. There’s barely enough for all of us a piece each.

I ain’t a big fan of scallop, so this line could be pretty bias. The Pan Seared Scallop filled with Shrimp Mousse ($32 for medium serves 4) was big in size indeed. However, the scallop was overwhelmed by the strong shrimp mousse taste.

I can never forget my mother’s rendition of French bean. I’m of the belief that simplicity is beauty. Using garlic to stir fried the vegetables can always bring out the fragrance of the garlic without covering the freshness of the greens. So I was rather sceptical initially when i saw the Wok Fried French Bean with Minced Pork and Chilli ($20 for medium serves 4). But it did proved me wrong with the wok hei of the beans. And the minced pork didn’t complicate the taste.

Instead of the typical deep fried prawn with mango, the Deep Fried Prawn filled with Fresh Mango ($36 for medium serves 4) came with a twist. Prawns and mangos were wrapped in beancurd skin, and deep fried. To be frank, I dislike beancurd skins, especially those served during dim sum. But this one was decent, the mango could be sweeter though.

With the name Chef Chan Signature Baked Spring Onion Chicken ($28 for medium serves 4), the dish certainly was bundled with expectations. You can’t go wrong ordering the signature dishes, or so it seems. The chicken was plain ordinary, and definitely didn’t warrent the hefty price tag.

I can never forget the best char siew sou ($1.8 per piece) I had before, from Yan Ting of course. Dim sum is not served during dinner, but we made a request to the manager, who to our delight, agreed to ask the chef to make it for us specially. Maybe we were saddled by the huge expectation that we had, but we are guessing it’s most probably because of the shorter baking time, that the char siew sou didn’t turn out to be as good as before. Nonetheless, it was good of the restaurant to do it specially for us, and I’ll be back again for it.

Total bill was $362.85 for 9 person, after a 25% discount using the Astor card. This came up to about $40 per person, which was totally cheaper than what we expected. And if we didn’t drink tea ($40), and no desserts ($48), the add up will probably be around $283 or $30 per head. With the ambience of the place, the prestige of the restaurant, and the decent quality of the food, the price was definitely reasonable. I’ll definitely be coming back for their dim sum, Yan Ting IV. There are a few things in life, which you can never forget after all.

Read about my dim sum visit to Yan Ting here
& Yan Ting snowskin mooncake here

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

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

I was pleasantly surprised when i knew that Jia Wei also served Chinese dim sum, so my companion and i couldn’t stop helping ourselves to some dim sum even though we were full having the oriental Christmas feast. A quick glance at their dim sum menu shows that almost all of them are priced at $4 per basket, a very reasonable price for a good Chinese restaurant.

The first to arrive on the dim sum platter, the siew mai ($4 for 3) was exactly what you’ll expect, fresh prawns with lean pork. The bigger-than-normal size also added brownie points to the overall taste. A staple.

While some will come across being overly dry and too oily, Jia Wei’s rendition of the fried prawn dumpling was well done. Fresh crunchy prawns wrapped in the midst of the crispy dumpling skin.

With dim sum mostly fried and steamed, it is common to see them coming in golden brown colour. But how about green colour? That definitely caught our attention and made our imagination ran wild! We were guessing the ingredient used to produce the green, was it pandan? Nope! The skin was actually naturally infused with spinach. No artificial colouring used! There was fresh prawns as usual, topped with a piece of scallop. I presented to you, the steamed spinach prawn dumpling with scallop!

Somehow or rather, mango and prawns always go well together, perhaps it’s the combination that brought out the unique taste. So the chef sticked to the winning recipe, and created this fried prawn & mango roll. The only hitch, the mango fruit was too sour!

For my regular readers, you’ll definitely know that i love my char siew sou ($4 for 3). Ever since i had my best char siew sou, i’ve been on the lookout for worthy rivals, and sadly, this one couldn’t match what i had before. While the char siew within was very sweet, the pastry could be more flaky.

As with most steamed prawn dumpling ($4 for 3), the main problem would usually be on the skin, since most places definitely used fresh prawns (well if the prawns aren’t even fresh, then simply get out of there!). Again, we see the continuation of crunchy prawns, enveloped within overly thick skins. You could even see the tearing of the translucent skin from the picture.

The Chinese restaurants always seemed fascinated by XO fried carrot cake ($12 for one portion). I mean what’s so special using XO to fry your carrot cake, when we couldn’t even taste the XO? Right, the one here, was very eggy, done exactly how i love it. If i were to see this as a normal plate of carrot cake, i’ll certainly rate it very high. Unfortunately, this was a serving of XO fried carrot cake, which meant that it had a high price tag of $12! Speaking from this new revelation, it was totally not worth the price, and i’ll rather order another three basket of dim sum instead.

When i tell you about BBQ platter, naturally you would assume there’s definitely char siew and roast pork, or even roast duck right? We thought so too, but it turned out that Jia Wei defined BBQ platter ($26) differently. It came in the form of char siew and soy sauce chicken. The char siew was fine, tasted sweet and it’ll be better if was slightly more charred. The soy sauce chicken was decent, but i still preferred roast chicken. And i didn’t get to eat roast pork, which was what i originally wanted to eat!

Towards the end, my companion and i were very full from all the food. But we couldn’t missed Jia Wei’s signature Peking duck, so we had a sampling portion of it instead. With the crispy skin, the duck meat was good, but not there yet. It’s only when you ate it together with the layer of fats which made the whole taste divine. Oh yes, with the slightly sweet sauce too!

Jia Wei’s dim sum is above average given the ones that we tried. While its not a whole picture of the dim sum served, we covered the basics, and the rest should be not too far away. For the price it’s rather reasonable since its a 4 star hotel restaurant, and i’ll go back to try the rest of the dim sum next time.

Read about the Oriental Christmas menu at Jia Wei here.

Jia Wei Chinese restaurant
Level 2 Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel
50 East Coast road, Roxy Square
(Opp parkway parade)
Tel: 6340 5678
Note: This was an invited food tasting session

Noodles and rice are the staple in our Asian context, while the Caucasians live on their bread, try telling the older generation that there isn’t rice for dinner and you’ll get the answer from their reactions. There are many different kinds of noodles; the Japanese ramen, soba and udon are especially popular. And then there’s the Korean noodles, and of course, our Chinese noodles.

And among our Chinese noodles, there are many types with wheat flour based ones like lamien, vermicelli, and the thick noodles. For their egg base counterparts, there are the thin noodles (you mian), and the mee pok which are commonly found. How about bamboo noodles?

I was given the opportunity for a food tasting session at Tai Shek Hei. The boss John See, and his wife Amy invited me for lunch to try out their speciality, bamboo noodles. Tai Shek Hei had recently just opened a month ago at Joo Chiat road, just directly opposite the Dunman food centre.

So you might ask, what’s so special about bamboo noodles? The tedious process in making the noodles from dough using the bamboo machine specially created by John. I didn’t get the chance to see the noodle-making process that day because they had already made their batch of noodles the previous days. The chef will normally make about 200 servings of noodles each time, and usually every two days they will make new ones to ensure the freshness of the noodles.

My friend and I had a quick tour around the kitchen and John explained the concepts behind Tai Shek Hei to us.The staff are all from China, thus might have difficulty with their English when taking orders.

Tai Shek Hei has got very simple furnishings, with the artwork depicting the joy of the chef in making the noodles, adorning the wall. What i like about the place is its unpretentious feel, coupled with the soothing music, provided an cosy environment which was unlike other typical Chinese restaurants.

Speciality Tobiko dumpling bamboo noodle ($6.80)

In Hong Kong, they actually preferred the soup version of the wanton mee to the dry one which is more popular in Singapore. The speciality Tobiko dumpling bamboo noodle was one of the most springy noodles i ever tried before. The noodles were so springy that they literally “bounce” on your tongue.

We also tried the dry version of the bamboo noodles, with equally good results. Although some people might find it expensive, given there’s only four dumplings with the bamboo noodles, but you can’t compare it with the normal wonton mee, for one, the noodle’s really good, and the process in making them was certainly not easy.

The Tobiko dumplings would redefine the dumpling experience. Their dumplings were packed fully with ingredients like shrimp, meat, water chestnut, tobiko (Japanese flying fish roe). One bite of the dumplings was all it need to let the essence of the fillings sinked into your month.

Speciality fried tobiko dumpling ($4 for 4)

Besides the dumpling soup, Tai Shek Hei also got the fried version, which i felt that was even better than the soup one. The crispy wonton skin was a delight to bite, you can hear the crunching sound. And just for the information, the wonton skin was also made with their own machine.

The fillings were the same as the soup version, shrimp, meat, water chestnut, tobiko (Japanese flying fish roe).

Chives & egg pancake

Personally, I didn’t like chives as i found the taste too strong, but for food tasting sake, i tried one of them. The chives dumpling, or pancake as they called it here, was fried until golden brown, with the green chives inside shining though the translucent skin.

There’s plenty of juice from the chives which came rushing out when we took a bite. I think this one’s good for chives lovers, with the crispy golden brown skin and the juicy chives. But for me, I still can’t accept it.

Honey Gourd ($4)

We had a sampling portion of the honey gourd, which was an innovative dish on the menu. Gourd which was bitter in nature, when paired up with the sweet honey, gave a balanced taste of sweet-bitterness.

Fried honey dew

Another inspiration of Amy, this was created on the day we went, so we got the opportunity of trying it first-hand. They provided a bowl of ice water, to soak the pipping hot fried honey dew into it, before eating. The idea was to prevent customers from burning their toungue.

And also the contrast of fried hot honey dew when come into contact with the icy water was apparent. But i found that the chili padi which was part of the ingredients overpower the sweet honey dew taste. A creative idea no less, and we shall wait for the chef to refine it.

Roast Combination ($10 for small)

Not many restaurants are honest with their customers, but Amy frankly told us that their roast combinations got mixed results. Their roast pork was not up to the grade, and they had since removed it from the menu. Leaving with the roast duck, char siew, and soy-sauce chicken.

The soy-sauce chicken was actually the better one among the trio, with Amy proudly saying that’s the one that can brave the test. My first taste was a tad dry and hard, but thats probably because i got the breast meat. The other parts of the chicken were fine, smooth and silky.

The Char siew was average, although not juicy and tender enough, their rendition’s still passable.

I thought that the roasted duck was all right, nothing fantastic, but i had eaten worse.

Cod ($8 for small)

We rounded off our meal with the cod which i thought was reasonable at $8 for a small serving. The fish was fried to crispy golden brown. It’s difficult to judge the freshness of a fish when it’s fried, but I have no complains about the cod since i always like them.

All in all, Tai Shek Hei has got really excellent bamboo noodles, one of the best i’ve tried so far. I think it’s worth a try, even though you might complain it’s too expensive, but hey they are a Chinese restaurant after all. The menu is still in-process, as they are still testing and trying some new dishes, while removing the inferior ones. The items are a case of hits and misses, with the tobiko dumpling noodle, and the chives pancakes worthy mentions.

The PRC staff might not be adapt to communicating in English as yet, but they are busy learning the basic terms to cope with the need. Service is still slow as the new entrants are still coping with the F&B experience, but things are getting better with each day. I’ll like to thank John and Amy for inviting me to try their bamboo noodles, and I’ll go back again for them when i’m in the area next time.

Tai Shek Hei
283 Joo Chiat Road
Tel: 6345 5095
Disclaimer: This was an invited review