Cuisine & Wine Asia dimsum feature: Si Chuan Dou Hua @ Top of UOB Plaza

I skipped Day 2 – Wan Hao @ Marriott – of the Cuisine & Wine Asia dimsum tasting. Why? Cos I was resting to starve prepare for Day 3 which had two dimsum sessions back-to-back!

The first session on Day 3 was at Si Chuan Dou Hua located on the top floor (60th storey) of UOB Plaza. The view of the city from up here is simply stunning! Although specializing in Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese dishes are available too. Its weekend brunch buffet offers an amazing 100 items of Sichuanese and Cantonese delicacies.

Just some of the cold appetizers we sampled!

Although we tried only 40 out of 100 dishes, it was still a lot of food! My favorite part was actually the cold appetizers which delighted and tempted my palate into wanting more!

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Cuisine & Wine Asia dimsum feature: Hai Tien Lo @ Pan Pacific

I love dimsum. So it was an immediate “yes” when Leslie asked if I was game for a dimsum marathon session! For their May/June 2009 issue, Cuisine & Wine Asia magazine has a feature article on dimsum. 5 food bloggers, or “food paparazzi” as coined by feature writer Jackson Sim, served as tasters for 6 dimsum sessions that took place over 5 consecutive days in March. Besides Leslie and I, the other tasters are Hungry Cow, ladyironchef, and Camemberu.

Kicking off our dimsum marathon was Hai Tien Lo on level 37 of Pan Pacific Hotel. Even before we were wowed by the food, we were already blown away by the breathtaking view of Marina Bay, the Singapore Flyer, and the Singapore city skyline.

Special steamed crab meat & shark's fin with Jin Hua stock wrapped in dough

Currently helmed by Master Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo has long been a name synonymous with fine Cantonese cuisine. The most impressive dish we sampled must be the dough-wrapped crab meat and shark’s fin in stock. I love the paper-thin, silky dough and sweet crab meat, as well as the light but flavoursome stock that’s infused with the natural goodness of Jin Hua ham and dried scallops.

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我们的星期六夜晚…… [Our Saturday evening……]

After visiting Jaime La Nourriture’s lovely blog, I’m now very inspired to blog in Chinese too! Problem is, I haven’t written in Chinese for more than 10 years. It’ll be good practice to brush up on my very rusty Chinese, heh! Ok, here goes……

Fried mixed vegetables with rice, S$8.00.

星期六了，我和老公都没特别节目。我又不想煮晚饭，于是我们便到惹兰红山中心吃晚餐和逛超市。

老公：哎，我们真uncool!　星期六晚上没去cheong，却跑来这种只有uncle／auntie来的地方！

我：有什么办法？我们以“升级”做uncle／auntie了！

Translated:

It’s Saturday. Hubby and I had no special plans. I didn’t feel like cooking, so we went to Jalan Bukit Merah Central to eat dinner and shop at the supermarket.

Hubby: *sigh* We’re so uncool! It’s a Saturday evening. We didn’t go clubbing, yet we’re at this kind of place frequented by uncles and aunties!

Me: What to do? We’ve been “promoted” to being uncle and auntie!

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Pu Tien (Vivocity) – Deep-fried duck with yam & ice bittergourd

Remember how much I was raving about Putien? Heh, I couldn’t get it out of my head, so when I was at Vivocity this week for some shopping, I had to return to Putien!

Deep-fried duck with yam, S$15.00.

As I was alone, and wasn’t very hungry, I didn’t order any noodles or rice. Since I love duck and yam, naturally I tried one of the signature dishes, deep-fried duck with yam!

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Pu Tien Restaurant (Vivocity)

Homemade beancurd, S$8.00.

After the previous night’s not-so-satisfying dinner, tonight’s dinner was like manna from heaven! Well, ok, maybe exaggerating a little, but we really enjoyed every dish we ate!

Putien makes their own tofu. Fresh, firm but super smooth, the tofu was divine! The tasty brown gravy was of the right consistency: not too thick but sticky enough to coat each golden tofu ingot.

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Crystal Jade Kitchen (Ngee Ann City)

This place really doesn’t need any more endorsement; it’s filled to full capacity nearly all the time, so much so that they have a queue number system!

It was only 12pm on Saturday, and already, the restaurant was full. But we didn’t mind waiting as we were first in the queue.

Steamed pork rib in black bean sauce, S$3.50.

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Outram Park Roasted Meat

My love for the roast meats here goes way back to when it used to be at the now-demolished Outram Park HDB estate. I remember my mom ordering a whole roast duck for special occasions.

Roast duck.

Now, it does a roaring business at the refurbished Chinatown Complex. A minimum 10-minute wait during lunch or dinner is the norm, longer if those in front of you in the queue are tar-powing multiple packets or ordering for big groups.

Unlike most roast meats stalls, they don’t have noodles on the menu, just rice. Just what makes the roast meats here so popular?

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Soup Restaurant (Paragon)

Please pardon the slightly grainy and off-color photos! The result of dim lighting plus neglecting to fiddle with the camera settings (too hungry!), they don’t do full justice to the food.

Samsui ginger chicken, S$14.80 (small).

I’ve been wanting to check out this famous dish for ages, but somehow have not gotten around to doing so. Well, I’m glad we finally did!

Beautifully presented, the samsui chicken tastes as good as it looks! The way to eat this cold dish is to dip a piece of chicken in the ginger sauce and then wrap in a piece of lettuce leaf. The combination of succulent chicken, tasty ginger dip, and refreshing, crunchy lettuce makes it oh-so-addictive!

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Ah Liang Ipoh Hor Fun

Fried wanton Ipoh hor fun, S$3.00.

This stall was a serendipitous find that’s surprisingly good! We were here to grab a quick meal and were wondering what to eat when I spied some tables having these irresistible-looking fried wantons and Ipoh hor fun.

My hunch was right! The golden, crispy wantons were delicious! Instead of minced pork, they were stuffed with a bouncy paste of minced fish and chicken. Tastier and smoother than the conventional pork version!

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Lei Garden Restaurant (Chijmes)

Happy belated birthday, Singapore! Yep, our tiny nation celebrated 43 years of independence yesterday. And tomorrow is mom-in-law’s birthday! So, the family had a celebratory lunch today at the elegant Lei Garden, a name synonymous with exquisite Cantonese cuisine.

Daily soup, S$28.00 per pot.

Starting things off on a cold, rainy day was a tummy-warming, slow-cooked soup. A Cantonese specialty, 老火湯 (literally “old fire-cooked soup”) is achieved by simmering various ingredients for at least 3 hours, resulting in a “sweet”, clear, nourishing broth.

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