[Media Invite] Bountiful Spring Reunion - 20 January to 09 February @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel

With Lunar New Year just round the corner, let me show you what Food Capital under the helm of Executive Chef Jackie Zhang, together with his dedicated culinary team, has prepared for us.

But first thing first, there's an "Early Bird Discount" for Lunar New Year Eve Reunion Buffet Dinner and Fa Cai Yu Sheng Takeaway. Enjoy 20% off when you reserve by 5 January 2020. Hurry!

Fa Cai Yu Sheng

Let's start the year right by having a platter of this auspicious dish. Salmon or Abalone? Your choice.

mega sized Yu Sheng

huat ah!

Enjoy Lunar New Year Festive Buffet early, from 20 Jan onwards right till 9 Feb 2020. Available for both lunch and dinner at $68++/$88++ respectively.

Lunar New Year Eve Reunion Buffet happens on the 24 Jan 2020. Dinner: $98++/ $138++ (includes free flow of bubbly, house wines, soft drinks and juices).

Indulge in bountiful treasures pen cai, lap mei fried rice with seaweed crumb, stir-fried prawns with chili and curry leaves, yam paste with gingko nuts, dumpling with osmanthus honey and more.

festive decoration

pen cai (盆菜)

And I'd take a glass of M Wine red with the savoury flavourful food. Let's start with the salad aka the Yu Sheng. Traditional flavours and not too sweet. Lovely crunchy crackers in it.

Fa Cai Yu Sheng (发财鱼生)

M Wine Red

Next up, one could enjoy the cold seafood section from the buffet. And, the de-facto for me? Oysters, of course! Juicy, plump succulent oysters...so yummy!

plump, juicy oysters

One could pair it with a variety of sauces, ranging from sweet spicy to a bit spicier. Nothing too overpowering and the highlight, was indeed the lovely flavourful oysters. So satisfying.

fresh oysters and spicy sauces

After which, let's nourish our body and soul with a bowl of hot ginseng chicken soup. Boiled with seawhelk, chicken and bamboo pith, the soup had a slight bitterness to it that's attributed from the ginseng. Flavourful and felt awakened after that bowl.

ginseng chicken soup

Then, we moved on to the main highlight that was the pen cai. Noticeably, the ingredients for the pen cai included prawns, sea cucumber, abalones, roast pork, roast chicken, dried oysters, dried scallops, mushrooms, black moss (fa cai) and vegetables.

sea cucumbers

Here's a portion of the bountiful treasures of the pen cai. Flavourful plate with many treasures indeed.

bountiful treasures of pen cai

For the chili prawns with curry leaves, its pretty much localized flavours and with the prawn texture remained slightly crunchy.

chili prawn with curry leaves

To usher in the Year of the Rat, the fish has been transformed into a "Squirrel" 松鼠. I shall not comment on whether it is cute or not, but the fish was superb! Thought it was squirrel fish at first (in keeping with the theme) but Chef revealed that they used grouper as its meat was more suitable for this dish. Don't miss this dish if you see it!

"松鼠" 石斑鱼 (sweet and sour squirrel shaped grouped fish)

sweet and sour fish with pine nuts

Oh, if you still have stomach space (dessert space is separate, of course), I'd recommend the roast pork. I don't know how they did it, but the skin crackling was real good. Roast pork and yellow mustard combo ftw!

roast pork, char siew and roast duck

Another dish that's synonymous with Lunar New Year would be the lap mei rice. Or, is this a Cantonese tradition? Not so sure but my sis cooks this for us when we are in hometown for CNY.

Lap Mei Fried Rice with Seaweed (臘味炒饭)

End the meal with Lunar New Year dessert such as steamed nian gao, osmanthus jelly, yam paste and gingko nuts and many more. My favourite dessert was the carp shaped mango jelly. Refreshing after a heavy buffet meal.

steamed nian gao (蒸年糕)

mango carp jelly

pomelo sago in coconut milk in cute egg shell

yam paste with gingko nuts

Lunar New Year cookies

Thank you Gilbert for the invite and Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel for hosting the dinner. Special thanks to Chef Jackie and team for the delicious food.

Here's wishing everyone, an Auspicious and Prosperous Lunar New Year! Huat ahh!

Food Capital

Address: G/F Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, 392 Havelock Rd, 169663
Website: http://www.celebrateatgcw.com/cny2020
Contact: 6233 1100
Email: dining.gcw@millenniumhotels.com
Business Hours:
Daily: 6.30am to 10.30pm

[Media Invite] Celebrate Lunar New Year 2019 @ Amara Singapore

Come celebrate the Lunar New Year at Amara Tanjong Pagar. Enjoy festive Royal Set Meals from Silk Road, where their team of chefs from different regions of China are ready to whip up auspicious and tasty dishes during from 21 Jan to 19 Feb 2019, and for reunion dinner. Call +65 6227 3848 for more details.

On 5 Feb 2019 morning (11.38 am), there will be lion dance performance so come on down with your loved ones to enjoy an energetic show to usher in the New Year.

roaring for Lunar New Year~

Was invited to sample selected dishes from Silk Road's Abundant Spring or Opulent Spring Set. To begin, we did the  捞鱼生 (lou hei) to toss for a year of abundance. Abundance of wisdom, good health and good fortune! Huat ah!

Prosperity Salmon Yu Sheng 大吉大利  三文鱼鱼生 

let's toss to good fortune and good health!

The spicy sauce for the Yee Sang at Amara gave a stronger flavour to the salad and an interesting change from the typical sweet plum sauce.

yee sang

The Braised Pumpkin Soup with Superior Fish Maw was sweet, smooth and flavourful yet light on the palate. Loved it.

Braised Pumpkin Soup with Superior Fish Maw 招财进宝  金瓜鱼鳔羹 

lovely soup

And I heard that there is a tradition where Chinese eats dumpling on Lunar New Year. Dumplings signify wealth. Let's eat alot of these! The dumplings had minced meat fillings and tasted good with black vinegar.

饺子 (dumplings)

dumplings with vinegar and fried garlic

Soy Baked Sea Perch with Spinach in Bonito Sauce 年年有余  日式焗鲈鱼 (from Opulent Spring Set)

Gosh, if you see the Soy Baked Sea Perch on the menu, please do not hesitate to order it. We had a sampling of it, and it was fantastic. A very good fish with texture that is similar to cod but firmer. Put a piece in the mouth and when you start to chew, there were bursts of delicious fish oils. Lovely.

delicious piece

Besides the celebratory dishes, we also sampled some of the dishes from Silk Road's ala-carte menu such as the Traditional Beijing Roasted Duck, Braised Pork Ribs in Black Beer and Lap Mei Fan (Fragrant Rice with Chinese Sausage and Mushrooms).

Traditional Beijing Roasted Duck  传统 北京烤鸭 

The chefs worked like clockwork in preparing the Beijing Roasted Duck. Slicing it efficiently, and placing it neatly on the plate before the next person moves to place it onto the crepe that has been brushed with sweet bean sauce and garnished with spring onions and cucumber.

slicing it up

Beijing Roasted Duck crepe

Braised Pork Ribs in Black Beer

We ended our main course of Lap Mei Fan (腊味饭 ) and Chef ordered a side of  辣子雞 (laziji or spicy chicken), a famed Sichuan dish. First time having the spicy chicken and it was so shiok!

Fragrant Rice with Chinese Sausage and Mushroom 腊味饭   

辣子雞 (spicy chicken)

The spicy chicken will sting at first and there'd be a slow burn that gets worse, before it cools off. Best part, it tasted of peppercorn hence we get the 麻辣 (mala) with a tinge of numbing effect. Eat one piece at a time and enjoy it with a glass of juicy red wine. Yummy.



For the sweet treats this year, Amara is showcasing beautiful cakes befitting the occasion. The Cherry Blossom Sugee cake was captivating with the 3D flowers. We heard that the Gold Ingot Fruit Cake is very popular for this season, hence do order early if you would like to get your hands on one. There is a 20% off festive goodies for selected cards. Please enquire directly from the hotel.

Cherry Blossom Sugee Cake

Gold Ingot Fruit Cake

Cheesecake

Lychee cake

assorted

poached pear

My favourite dessert would be the cheesecake. It was not too rich, yet it was 'enough' to satisfy some cravings.

Thank you Lindy for the invite, Chef Charles for your insights and Amara Hotel for hosting the dinner. Keep up the good work!


For enquiries, please call +65 6879 2607 or email fnb.sg@amarahotels.com

Here is the link to Amara's Lunar New Year Dining promotion: https://singapore.amarahotels.com/a-propitious-reunion.html

Makan Makan Jalan Jalan @ Petaling Street 茨厂街 Malaysia

Did a staycation in Petaling Street (茨厂街) over this CNY period. Stayed at Hotel Geo (3 star) for 4 days 3 nights. It's pretty close to the Pasar Seni MRT, hence one could venture to nearby KLCC or Pavilion too! Central Market is within 5 minutes walking distance, as with Petaling Street.

MRT ride to Pasar Seni

Hotel Geo (Triple room)

Hotel check-in was 3pm. The room cleanliness need vast improvement as the floor was still dusty and the mini-fridge was sitting in a dusty cupboard. Heck, we even found empty wrappers of previous occupants instant noodles in one of the cupboards...

Due to heavy rain, we spent first day having fast food for late lunch. The only food outlet connected to Hotel Geo is Texas Chicken. For CNY, they were having the Spicy Szechuan flavour. Pretty good, as far as fast food goes...

Texas Chicken

Ventured out to KLCC and chanced upon Lion Dance performance. Just nice for CNY!

During CNY period, lots of foreign workers had their off-days as well and KLCC seemed to be the spot for them to hangout. The mall was very crowded.

There was such a thing as 'premium' toilet in KLCC for one of the level. Its entry fee was RM2. Tried it and can't say the experience was good. The toilet was crowded and yes, there was an attendant located in the toilet and there were moisturizers for the hand after washing. But that's about it. I didn't loiter in the toilet to use the hand cream. The toilets at other levels do not have entrance fee.

KLCC night view

water fountain show

The water show was of Bollywood themed in the initial before playing Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On'.

In the mall, there's Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts going for RM14.90 for 3 selected flavours. That's less than SGD2 per piece.

For breakfast, we ventured to Tang City Food Court but my favourite beef noodles stall Kew Yee was closed for CNY. Had to make do with prawn noodles soup was the lam meen was sold out too. For CNY, expect food prices at foodcourts and hawker centres to be up-priced by about RM0.50 to RM1 per bowl.

prawn noodles soup @RM7.50

After breakfast, it was a stroll along Petaling Street to suss out stuffs to buy.

Petaling Street

Apparently, there's a Family Mart and of course, we went in to take a look. More like, we went in to enjoy the air-conditioning. Prices for a matcha latte or coffee were exorbitant. Korean products in this Japanese convenience store was too pricey. For example, a packet of 330ml banana milk drink (Bingrae) costs RM5.80?! Good thing was, there's soft-serve in-store and the flavours were cheesecake and matcha. So interesting, so I tried the cheesecake flavour.

Cheesecake and Matcha soft-serve from Family Mart @$M2.90 per cone

Walk along the alleys and you'll come across the famous vendors for soya bean and also muah chee. Often times, one would see a queue at the Kim Soya Bean stall. The soya bean stall is now at the third generation. On weekdays, you'll likely encounter the second generation and on festive periods, you'll see the younger ones manning the stall. The beancurd (tau foo far) is delicious too with its smooth as baby skin texture and fragrance of soy bean when taken warm.

queue for Kim Soya Bean

The most disappointing lunch went to the Kim Lian Kee Hokkien Mee 金莲记福建面. We tried in the afternoon for lunch, and ordered the famed black hokkien mee and a ying yong 鸳鸯 (mix of fried beehoon and hor fun, cantonese style).

Kim Lian Kee Hokkien Mee 金莲记福建面 (Medium @RM23)

The hokkien mee looked decent but once you pick it up with a chopstick, one sort of knows that the noodle was not braised enough. The noodles were dry and not separated. Ingredients wise, there were pork slices, cabbage that tasted a tad raw, pig liver and lardo. The main chef was around but unfortunately, he did not fry our plate. It was done by his foreign talent assistant.

al-dente lukewarm noodles

The ying-yong was more well-fried and tasted as per expectation. The small squids were pretty unique.

ying yong 鸳鸯 (small @RM11)

Kim Lian Kee had two outlets within Petaling Street. One with the old sign-board next to the porridge shop, while another is larger with upstairs air-conditioned seating. We were at the older (original?) shop but seated opposite at the bank area. The hygiene at this area was dubious and used plates were left on the table or chairs by previous diners. The afternoon crew seemed lethargic and we saw a plate of side-dish that looked like fried spring roll, and they asked us if we ordered it. We said we didn't and the staff just left the dish on an empty table. What?

Left unsatisfied, we bought some snacks from Fung Wong Bakery. The piglet siew bao (猪子包) was nicely sweetish savoury. Best eaten when it is still warm from the oven. RM2.50 per piece. Goes well with a cup of hot unsweetened tea.

 piglet siew bao (猪子包) @RM2.50

Other breakfast option in Petaling Stret, include the famed Hon Kee porridge 汉记靓粥 or Koon Kee wanton noodles. If you venture abit further, then one could enjoy the laksa and chee cheong fun.

Hon Kee Porridge is of Cantonese style and thus, the porridge was silky smooth. However, the porridge lacked 'depth' in its flavour and hence, add a bit of the soy sauce to 'lift' the taste. Lots of ingredients in the porridge and our favourite was the crispy fried intestines.

Hon Kee Porridge 汉记靓粥

crispy intestines and other porky parts

Interestingly, we found a Dong Teh Mun Market in Petaling Street. A distant cousin of Dongdaemun, South Korea?

Dongdaemun?

Stay tuned for Part 2, for better eats in Petaling Street.

Read more about previous experience at Petaling Street here.