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

An oasis of blue, with a glimpse of gold. Royal China. There are places which you will proudly recommend to your friends when they want suggestions for food, and I raved about the best dim sum before. Indeed, my fond memories of the exquisite Chinese-tapas still lingers in my heart. My perennial return was long overdue.

But perhaps it was my mistake not to check with the restaurant before going, that I didn’t realise they had a special dim sum menu for the Chinese New Year period. With just a selection of 12 different dim sum, all priced at $6.80++ instead of the normal price, I did feel being rip-off, but that’s Chinese New Year for you, and it was my fault for not checking beforehand.

In place of the usual red roe on top of the steamed minced pork dumpling with abalone ($6.80++, usual price $4.80), we had tiny abalones instead. Right, the siew mai was up to standard, but I’ll not say the same having pay two dollars extra for the tiny abalone on top.

From the outside, the steamed prawn dumplings with black moss ($6.80++, usual price $4.80) looked the same. The exotic ingredients kicked in with the addition of black moss (fa-cai), an ingredient that is never missing from Chinese New Year menu. I certainly understood the significant of the auspicious ingredient, but I must admit that there wasn’t any enhance in the flavour of the har gau.

The Crispy prawn rolls with sesame ($6.80++) was one of the item which I did not try before, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Fundamentally prawn roll with mango, fried crispy with the sesame stuck on top. A dip into the mayo dressing completed the whole taste.

My love, the Baked barbecued pork puff ($6.80++, usual price $4). Royal China’s rendition was very good, with golden butter flaky skin and juicy red char siew. The only problem, this was exactly the same without any addition of “exotic ingredients” and I had to pay almost three bucks more for it.

Total bill was $43. 90 for 4 dim sum, 1 appetiser, and of course the other charges. Was I disappointed by the second visit? Certainly, counting by per piece, it’s close to $2.60 each, even more expensive than Yan Ting. But you can’t fault them for the quality in dim sum, it’s just that I’m sore over paying more than usual for my char siew sou. Will I go back again? Certainly, I still have good impression of them even though this was a bad experience.

And one more thing which I was not pleased about. For those of you who had been there, you’ll know that in their middle seating area, it used to be square tables with the nice white chairs. But they had removed them, and placed round tables with ugly brown chairs instead. I presumed this was done to increase the seating capacity,  but the different furnitures was certainly not pleasing to the eyes, and the seating arrangements were not comfortable at all. After checking with a friend who went after the cny period, it seems everything is back to normal.

One thing’s a definite. We will find out the next time I revisit the place.

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: 6338 3363

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