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

Fifteen days. As we ushered into the Chinese new year, this time, our cow friends. The date at Straits café, cong-er and feng-er indulged for the finest feast. It has been the longest time since cong-er remember the last time she had lo-hei, and the first time for feng-er to try Poon Choi. The rabbits, the goat, and the pig. Triple harmony.

The finest. All in one pot. The best to start a brand new year. A traditional Chinese new year delicacy, Poon Choi ($198 for 5 person), composed of many layers of premium seafood, meat and vegetables. Abalone, shark fin, scallop, sea cucumber, prawns, Chinese sausages, duck feet, roasted meat, mushroom, fa-cai. A total of 14 ingredients, & 6 hours of effort. A symbol of wealth and prosperity, the abalone and shark fins in the middle. The whole taste was simple divine! Sea cucumber, or Hoi sam, a secret for our ladies to stay eighteen every year.  Although the roasted pork wasn’t crispy anymore, but the meat was brought to another level after immersing in the pot with the other ingredients. And not to mention the Chinese sausages, which had the normal red colour ones, and the darker coloured, liver sausages. The duck feet was there in place of goose feet; my first time trying it. Without being overly salty, the gravy absorbed the essence of all the top ingredients. Worth its weight in gold.

The Prosperity Yu Sheng, with the vibrant colours, that so reminded us of the joy and happiness during the festive season. Every year without fail, the auspicious Chinese salad will present itself. Tossing the vegetables, the aim is to attain a higher high, just like our life. Wishing Gong xi fa cai, Nian nian you yu, all the lucky greetings for our family and friends. With a choice of salmon or ikan parang, Straits cafe rendition comes in $38, $48 and $58 for its small (2-4 person), medium (5-7 person) and large (8-10 person) portions respectively. All buffet at Straits cafe with the exception for high tea, includes free flow of Fa Cai Yusheng.

After the new renovation of the restaurant during Oct 2008, Straits cafe reopened amidst much fanfare, with the contemporary design and transparent windows which allowed natural lighting to fill the restaurant, and for those interested, people-watching as well.

By order, one will usually start with the salad counter, with some appetising greens to clear the palates before moving on to the savouries. Not that I care anyway, the temptation to resist the desserts were too much for me. Those pretty, petite sweets, we started taking photos of them first, of course. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the pork belly for my stomach to begin on a light note.

Another great appetiser, the chicken salad was just as refreshing as any green salad. The slightly sweet and sour Thai sauce, enhanced the chicken, making it a welcoming starter.

The cold seafood station which has the likes of fresh oyster, cold crabs, squids, and prawns. You know Singaporeans being Singaporeans, the likelihood that they attacked the most expensive food in the buffet is palpable to all. And with fresh oysters, it definitely helps.

Special praises must be reserved for the chefs whom consistently cooks up each bowl of the infamous Straits café Nonya laksa. For that day, there’s also the bak ku teh available. There will changes everyday, with wanton mee, satay been hoon, lor mee rotating, alongside the mainstay laksa.

The infamous Straits cafe Nonya laksa. A bowl of this local favourite, was enough to justify the popularity and status of this dish to the restaurant. Nonya laksa comes slightly sour sweet, with rich and strongly spiced coconut gravy. However, the oilyness of the laksa meant that not everybody could accept it. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Jumping from the local dimension, we found ourselves in the Japanese era. The sushi platter was easily another favourite of diners there. Within minutes of a new plate brought out, the platter looks sad, not that the sushi wasn’t good, but because everything was finish.

Well to quote somebody, the tofu wasn’t photogenic. Indeed.

The freshness of the Sashimis were maintained by keeping them inside a transparent closet, to minimise the contact with the air. Also to let people take as little as possible! Well, just her mischievous thought, I’m sure the chefs would be more than happy to let you have your fill of sashimis.

Lo-and-behold! The key player for Straits cafe’s dessert counter. Without a doubt, the Durian Pengat definitely was the one we were eagerly anticipating. Well maybe not we, since i’m not a durian lover. The D24 durian smell was so evident that we would have wager our fortune betting on it. I’ve two spoonful, since almost everybody says it’s so, so good, and the sight of people taking a few of the shooter glass at one go, it’s certainly in the bag.

Moving on from the durian pengat, we have the equally famous durian cake. But after tasting the strong D24 durian in the pengat, I found the taste for the durian cake relatively subtle and light. And it’s a good thing since i’ve no qualms finishing the cake. This might not be the case if i’ve start with the cake first before the pengat.

The macha mousse had one of the strongest macha taste, and it’s good for the macha lovers. Most places scrimped on the tea leaves to cut cost obviously, but the generous fulsome mousse definitely surprised us.

We heard good things about their cheesecakes, however the signature New York cheesecake was nowhere in sight.The blueberry cheesecake was there to save the day. Between the boundaries of the heavy cheesy purist favourites, and the light airy rendition, I’ll say it’s somewhere in the middle. And the best part, you can have as many slices as you want!

There are some who boomed and come of age later than others. The Mandarin orange cheesecake was our reward for being adventurous, not giving up without another walk to the desserts counter for the New York cheesecake. Instead of that, we found ourselves with this new cake, in celebration of our Chinese new year. But, the dessert disappointed us as the cheesecake was rather crumbly, not as firm as we thought it will be, and the mandarin oranges were too sweet, which we suspected that it had some help from the sugary syrup.

On first sight, the ice cream bar looks just to be an ordinary one, featuring the likes of your Walls, and Kings ice cream. But boy we were wrong. The black sesame and raspberry gelato were great, definitely not your cheap ice creams. And my favourite, the vanilla bean flavour!

I must say I’m impressed with the variety and spread of the buffet, given the pricing and the location of the restaurant, it’s good that Hotel Rendezvous recognised that they can’t position themselves against the high-end buffets with the likes of The Line, Melt the world cafe. But by bridging the distance between the expensive and the cheap buffets, Straits cafe provided a good alternative to those who wanted good food, without spending too much.

My thanks to Christina, the marketing communication manager of Rendezvous Hotel Singapore, who invited me for the food tasting session. And also my dining companions, who provided me with great knowledge of the food, good company and fun. A n early happy Chinese New Year to all of you!

Straits Cafe
9 Bras Basah road
Rendezvous Hotel Singapore
Tel: 6335 1771

Per-Chinese New Year Buffet Dinner (16-23 Jan)
Adult $45

Reunion Buffet (24 Jan)
Adult lunch $42, dinner $58

Chinese New Year Festive Buffet (26-27 Jan)
Adult lunch $42, dinner $52

(28 Jan-9 Feb)
Adult lunch $38, dinner $48

“Do you take him as your husband, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow… With that I proclaimed you as husband and wife!”

The wedding bell struck, and the loving couple proceed on happily with their dinner celebration. Or so they thought. Picture this, the wedding ballroom was full of family, relatives and friends. All around was smiling faces. Then came the horror. Dead sharks, plenty of them with blood stains still fresh from the wounds, laying everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the stage.

100 million sharks are killed a year, 63 million for their fins alone. Yes, you, you, you and you. All of us are guilty of being a murderer. And the real cause for their destruction, the demand for shark fins, a Chinese delicacy, always present during weddings and festive occasions.

Loveshark.sg is a local organisation set up to raise public awareness about sharks and the practices threatening their survival in the wild, with the simple ‘No Shark Fin‘ pledge. Alternatives to shark fin soup includes fish maw soup, or the vegetarian shark fin soup which we had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant for the loveshark media dinner.

We started off our meal with the prosperity yu sheng. A messy affair it was, scrambling to take photographs, while holding the chopsticks to stir for our first lo-hei of 2009. And of course, the auspicious greetings wishing one another, good health and fortune.

So green, green. So bright green, green. The Caltrops with hairy mushroom represents all of the superficial view of greens equal vegetarian. Caltrops and water chestnuts are cousins, while i’m not a fan of neither, i agreed that the caltrops were full of crunch, and i enjoyed the hairy mushroom, or better known as monkey-head mushroom.

The element of fire, fiery red. All of us mistook it for red chili where it’s actually red bell pepper. The spicy pan-fried vegetarian fish was actually bean curd in disguise. The meticulous wrapping of the seaweed around to make the dish bearing a closer resemblance impressed.

The most creative award for the night goes to the fresh mushroom with asparagus. Serving in the form of a ice cream cone, several different types of mushrooms were stuffed inside, and voila!

The fruity almond rolls were my personal favourite of the 9 course vegetarian meal. The aroma of the jack fruit and banana held within the almond rolls escaped to our nose. Fried crispy outside, juicy and fruitful inside. Also there’s the Otak-pretender which came along too.

The apparent crowd favourite, stewed chestnuts with golden fungus. The bite of the golden fungus, was chewy and there’s also the hairy mushroom here.

Capturing the essence without using any real meat, that’s what all vegetarian dishes strived to do. I thought the veg meat managed to do just that. The light sauce for the meat, with the cucumbers and tomatoes, dipped in the famous chicken rice chilli.

Welcome to Malacca! The signature chicken rice balls, that originated from the Malaysian state. Except this was rice ball without using any chicken oil in the cooking process.

The legendary Tian Shan Xue Lian right before our eyes. For centuries, pugilists had been vying for the magical healing medicine. Well of course, this wasn’t the real Tian Shan Xue lian, with osmanthus in the pudding.

The 9 course set dinner served 10 people at $358++, from Lotus Vegetarian restaurant. This is a food tasting session organised by loveshark.sg, so i’ll like to thank Jaki for inviting me, to have the chance with meeting the nice people from their various organisations, and of course, the food bloggers whom I’ve read their blogs for a long time, but this being the first time i saw them in person. Support Loveshark.sg! Say no to Shark Fin!

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Lotus Vegetarian restaurant
Quality hotel level 2
201 Balestier road