[Tasting] Abundance of Happiness, Prosperity and Auspicious Lunar New Year at 金叶 Goldleaf Restaurant Katong Square

Goldleaf is a household name in Singapore and is an establishment that's widely known for its Taiwanese porridge. But I didn't realize that it has been in Singapore since 1971. Wow! Previously, it was located in Orchard but its current location is at Katong Square.

a mural of its original location

building exterior

entrance

Still hunting for a restaurant to celebrate CNY this year with your loved ones? Let's take a peek at Goldleaf's 2020 Lunar New Year menu:

credit source: Goldleaf

Let's start the meal with a boisterous toss to prosperity and good fortune with the Goldleaf Reunion Abalone Yu Sheng. Done in traditional manner, and the sauce had just the right amount of sweetness.

团员捞起 Goldleaf Reunion Abalone Yu Sheng

ready

收到!

huat ahh!

let's eat

Next, we tried the Fish Maw and Crabmeat in Superior Broth that's available in the Auspicious Set. Broth was flavourful and warms the tummy. Loved the strands of crabmeat in it too.

Fish Maw and Crabmeat in Superior Broth

蟹肉鱼漂羹

We enjoyed both types of fish served in the CNY menu; the Deep Fried Seabass in Sweet and Sour Sauce (from Happiness set) and the Steamed Red Snapper in Hong Kong style (from both the Prosperity and Auspicious sets).

We had good sized fish and the steamed red snapper had a natural sweetness to its firm flesh. Loved the parts with oil. Yums!

Steamed Red Snapper in Hong Kong style 港蒸红鲷鱼

However, my favourite fish vote went to the Deep-fried Seabass in Sweet and Sour Sauce. Lovely knife work on the fish, which allowed the fillet to curl beautifully upon deep-frying. Crunchy batter, meat that's well cooked and matching sauce with a good ratio of sweetness and tangy. I will gladly eat the whole fish! But no lah, must share ok...especially during CNY.

Deep-fried Seabass in Sweet and Sour Sauce 酸甜金目鲈

how to resist?

Another auspicious dish to eat during the New Year, would be the prawns so that everyone could 笑哈哈. The word 'prawn' in Cantonese has the same sound as laughter.

The premium Sauteed Prawns in XO sauce had such a homely taste that makes one want to suck on the prawn shell till all flavours are gone! It was that good.

Sauteed Prawns with XO Sauce

XO 酱炒虾

But, the Golden Cereal Prawns was also a scene stealer! It had a rich savoury taste with a touch of spice. And yes, I took a spoon to scoop up those delicious cereal to eat by them spoonfuls. Well, you'd be doing the same right? Right?

Golden Cereal Prawns 黄金麦片虾

pardon my dirty nail, but look at the prawn size!

Don't forget to eat your greens too! Lucky us had the Braised Broccoli with Scallops. I love scallops and broccoli. Two of my favs!

Braised Broccoli with Scallops 西兰花带子

Another dish that would please the older folks, would be the Mei Cai Kou Rou (梅菜扣肉) which is a traditional Hakka dish. The pork belly was well-braised although slightly lighter in colour and the flavours from the mei cai was simply awesome. Brings back memories with ah ma.

Stewed Pork Belly with Mustard Greens 梅菜扣肉

awesome rustic flavours

For the finale, we tried the Stewed Taiwanese Noodles with Crab Meat. It had genial flavours with a hint of sweetness. I liked it with some chili padi.

Stewed Taiwanese Noodles with Crab Meat 蟹肉炒面

For dessert, we had the Yam Paste with Gingko Nut and Goji Berry, or also known as Orh Nee (荔浦芋头). Doesn't taste oily and sweetness was just right.

Yam Paste with Gingko Nut and Goji Berry 福果芋泥

I've enjoyed the traditional homely taste of the Lunar New Year dishes at Goldleaf. Thank you Kris for the invite and Karen, Goldleaf Restaurant for hosting the dinner. Special thanks to the my foodie gang; Ivan, Rachelle, Alvin, Tiara, Hence and Tracy.

Goldleaf 金叶

Address: 86 E Coast Rd, #01-02, Singapore 428788
Website: https://goldleaf.com.sg/
Contact: 6344 1735
Business Hours: 
Mon to Thurs: 11am–2:30pm, 6–10pm
Fri to Sun: 11am–2:30pm, 5:30–10pm

[Taiwan] 李仔哥 (Lee Zai Ge) 爌肉飯 @ Xinyi Road, Puli Township, Nantou

After our good stay at Sun Moon Lake, it was time to head back towards Taipei. We went to visit Puli Wine Brewery and we got hungry thereafter. It was almost 1pm before we stopped by this shop that Sam, our local guide suggested. Braised pork rice for lunch? Yes please.

shopfront

It feels like a hometown eatery where parking space is limited and by the roadside. Lucky us, we managed to find a spot within walking distance to the shop. They have seats upstairs so one need to place order at the counter downstairs for food and drinks, make payment and then get a table upstairs. There are washrooms available upstairs and differentiated for males and females.

Mostly uncles and aunties were seen in the shop. Local tourists, they seemed. Sam mentioned that they have a special off-menu item called tui ku rou 腿裤肉 (leg pants meat?), or maybe they meant the upper limb meat. Not quite sure but Sam warned us that this is one piece of fatty meat!

Was seriously thirsty by the time we got to this shop. Partly due to the alcohol tasting at Puli earlier. Keke. The drinks was nice but the tiny tiny fen yuen (flour balls) makes it really hard to get to the liquid. Ugh.

wintermelon lime with fen yuen

Very quickly, lunch is served. We ordered fried pork ribs rice, braised pork belly rice, one dried preserved vege braised rice and two specials of fatty meat rice. Side dishes of braised items and stir-fried lettuce. The lettuce was the only greens amongst the browns.

lunch for 5 pax

Had a quick question for our guide as to why the braise sauce in Nantou, southern of Taiwan, is so light. For Hokkien or Cantonese style of braising, usually we will use the dark soy sauce and the colour would be much darker. He pondered, and answered. He also does not know why! So, if anyone could help enlighten, please send an email to purplerain@gmail.com. Thanks!

腿裤肉 (fatty meat) braised rice

Surprisingly, while there were plenty of fats for the meat, it wasn't cloyingly oily. It was just soft collageny goodness. The meat was also rather lean in the sense the fats were all on the skin part. Yummy with the bamboo shoots. Worth ordering.

李仔哥爌肉飯

Address: No. 326, Xinyi Road, Puli Township, Nantou County, Taiwan 545
Website: https://www.facebook.com/%E6%9D%8E%E4%BB%94%E5%93%A5%E7%88%8C%E8%82%89%E9%A3%AF-146746108713498/
Contact: +886 4 9298 3496
Business Hours:
Daily: 6am to 3pm

[Taiwan] Lu Sih An 麓司岸餐坊 手創料理 @ Sun Moon Lake

Visited in May and the weather was generally hot in Taiwan. First time visit to Sun Moon Lake and was eager to try some of the local eats here. Lu Sih An was recommended by our local driver so we decided to give it a try. This restaurant serves Ita Thao food.

restaurant facade

interior

From the framed medals on the wall, the place/Chef seemed to be an award winning one! The TV in the restaurant had food programmes featuring its restaurant on loop.

menu

There's set meal as per normal in a Chinese restaurant, or one could do ala-carte. We picked a couple of items based on guide and shop's recommendation as well as our own preference. Or rather, our own inquisitiveness to try the new foods!

The prices are for mid-range dining and the interior feels like my hometown restaurant. It is airconditioned and seating were comfortable. We were there before 630pm and there were about two other tables occupied.

The lady staff/boss was pretty humorous. There is a dish that our guide requested for them to prepare earlier. It is the shop specialty of deep fried sharpbelly fish. Thanks to Wiki, now we know that sharpbelly fish is a type of wild carp.

Specialty - Crispy Fried Sharpbelly Fish 酥炸奇力鱼 @NT180

It is salted and deep fried along with seaweed. Quite addictive, but one needs to watch out for some sharp protruding bones. Tasty and goes well with beer. But we did not do beer that evening because too full from pre-dinner snacks.

To warm our tummy, we had soup. Oh my. The soup pot was huge! We had bowls after bowls of the warm soup. Down-to-earth flavours but too bad the clams were not as sweet as I had expected.

Miso Soup with Clams and Mixed Mushrooms @NT480

Did I tell you how much I love the vegetables in Taiwan? Well, I do! Especially those variants that we can't find in Singapore/Malaysia. Adding a touch of exoticness into our food intake. We ordered Guo-Mao which is a type of wild fern. Not sure why the vegetable is named like a cat but it has a tongue numbing effect when eaten raw. Maybe it was because of this that we got the saying of "the cat got your tongue?" Hmm, points to ponder. The stir-fried vegetable was soo good!

過猫 Guo-Mao Vegetable Fern @NT120

Because we were at Sun Moon Lake, we gotta order a lake fish to try! Steamed version. About SGD21 for one steamed fish. It is abit like tilapia though not muddy.

Steamed Sun Moon Lake Fish @NT450

Oops, forgot to mention we did order an appetiser. Since it was bamboo shoot season, we ordered a baked bamboo shoots with cheese. Its Chinese name is Baked Beauty Legs? So funny.

焗烤美人腿 Baked Water Bamboo with Cheese @NT250

We also ordered wild boar meat on hotplate but that's the one dish that was least likable (for me). It was sprinkled with some herbs that not only masked out the taste of the meat, it tasted something like those bitter powder medicine that you had to pour onto your tongue.

Dinner for 6-pax

Our driver, Sam was so nice to order dessert for us. Goreng Pisang. Joking, but indeed it was a banana fritter type of dessert. Looks lovely and tasted crispy and sweet. Banana taste was minimal. Kids would love this!

signature dish of fried banana 麓司岸の焦焦者 ·@NT250

麓司岸餐坊 手創料理

Address: 號, No. 108文化街, Yuchi Township, Nantou County, Taiwan 555
Website: http://www.lusihan.com.tw/
Contact: +886 4 9285 0451
Business Hours:
Daily: 11AM - 230PM, 530-830PM
Close on Sundays

[Taiwan] Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 Sights and Eats Part 1

First maiden visit to Sun Moon Lake and it was a great decision to get the hotel with lakeview.  The area of our stay was at Ita Thao (伊達邵). Stayed for one night at Hu Yue Lakeview B&B and the per night cost was about $172 per room. The size of the room was huge and pretty comfortable.

view from room

living room

bed

bathroom

The room came with complimentary boat ride (2 tickets) as well as breakfast for the next morning. As our time at Sun Moon Lake was rather limited, we decided on the last boat ride (no-disembarkation round trip) from Ita Tao pier to Shuishe and back.

boat tickets

We went down to Ita Thao pier (伊達邵碼頭) soon after check-in, in order to catch the boat. But since the ticket did not indicate the boat company nor number, we were unsure of which boat was ours. Am guessing that it is any boat as long as the captain is around. Just ask around. The captain asked if we would like to get any of those famed grandma's tea eggs and he could order it ahead of time so that we could get some of those without having to leave the boat. Didn't take up his offer as we were too stuffed and wanted to save stomach space for dinner.

boats awaiting

captain's view

reaching the end of half the trip (this was the place for grandma's tea leaves egg)

The boat puttered along the lake gently and the captain would introduce some nuggets of information in Mandarin. He would also point out some of the spots along the way but most of the time, I couldn't catch where he was indicating to.

The boat stops for about 5 minutes while the rest of the passengers who would like to roam the other side, were free to disembark. For us who would like to return to Ita Thao pier, need to take the same boat back as this was the last ride for the day.

captain having his smoke break

sun is setting, time to head back

lighthouse with 3 lights

The round trip boat ride was done within 45 minutes. We were in time for some snacks before dinner!

to measure the lake water level

panoramic view of Ita Thao Pier

have you heard about the legend of the white deer?

We scouted around the area near our B&B to see what we could find. Most eateries were not open and the area has few visitors during our time of visit.

alley near our hotel

snack time!

We spotted a shop selling xiao long bao (小笼包) and decided to give it a try. Friends ordered a lu rou fan (卤肉贩) and chilled bamboo shoots too. It was the season for bamboo shoots during the May period.

boiled and chilled bamboo shoots

It was novel, eating the boiled chilled bamboo shoots. The shopkeeper showed us how to peel off the outer layers and just eat the inner shoots with mayonaise. Who would've thought simple chilled bamboo shoots matched so well with mayo? Yums!

braised pork rice 卤肉贩

pork dumplings 小笼包

sour spicy soup with dumplings 酸辣汤

The xiao long bao was nice and served piping hot. The sour spicy soup wasn't really spicy but it has the right tanginess. The shopkeeper advised us to add a tiny bit of the chili oil on the table to lift up the flavours. We did and it was like super hot! Just one tiny bit will have your tongue burning but it was a good burn. Goes off after a short while.

Was really amazed by how we could do dinner after this snack. There were 5 of us and we ordered enough for at least 3 pax full meal. That meant, our stomach was supposed to be half-full.

Dinner venue was at Lu Si An 鹿司岸餐坊 which one had to make reservation first. We didn't pre-reserve but we did drop by to inform the restaurant staff. She suggested we come early for dinner as the other slots are all reserved.