[Tasting] Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang 李记串串香 @ 206 Jalan Besar

Was invited to a tasting session at Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang at its new outlet at 206 Jalan Besar. The brand originated from Chong Qing China with about 500 outlets and is renowned for its delicious skewers (串串) and hotpot. Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang flagship restaurant is in Chinatown Singapore since 2017.

For the uninitiated, its Jalan Besar outlet is just across the road of the famed pig's organ soup shop, and around the corner of the kopitiam with the well-known Amy Yip's buns.

interior

Was delighted to find out that one could enjoy private dining signature dishes by Chef Ng Sen Tio (黄胜潮) here. Now we can pair our comfort food with specialty Cantonese (粵) cuisine. Am liking this variety already!

If you prefer to dine in the comfort of a private room to celebrate special occasions, Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang at Jalan Besar has it.

hotpot with  soup bases setup

At Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang, one could do a single ($10), double ($13) or four flavours ($18) soup base. Looking at the price points, I'd say go for the four flavours soup base! 

Ahhh, but I need to tell you this first. My favourite is their 'Green Pepper Chilli Mala' (李记独特青一色锅底) soup base. Must order. However, need to top up $5, $3 and $2 respectively to the single, double and four flavours pricing to enjoy this.

For our hotpot's four flavours soup base, we had the following (arranged in the order of my preference~)

• 李记独特青一色锅底 Green Pepper Chilli Mala
• 三鲜鸡汤锅底 Chicken
• 番茄锅底 Tomato
• 麻辣锅底 （清油）Mala

Recommend to try the soup individually first before cooking and see which one you like the most. Let me know ya!

Let's take a look at the ingredients shall we? Starting with plates after plates of fresh looking produce.

梅花肉 Pork Collar @$8

玲玲卷 Ring Roll @$4

五花肉 Pork Belly @$8

油麥菜 Lettuce @$3

神仙牛肉 Signature Beef Slices @$8

肥牛片Fatty Beef Slices @$8

山药 Chinese Yam @$6

新鲜虾滑 Fresh Prawn Paste @$10

Of course, one can't leave without trying the skewers. Only 50cents per stick! Let's grab bunches of them!

香菜牛/猪肉 Beef/Pork with Coriander Skewer

土豆,海带,莲藕,冬瓜,西兰花 potato, seaweed, lotus root, winter melon, broccoli

秘制鸡肉 Special Recipe Chicken

Enough of the photo taking, and let's start cooking!

so hungry!

While waiting for the things to be cooked, let's fill our tummies with one of Chef Ng's Private Dining Dishes (私房菜) of Lobster Noodles. Impressive looking plate!

龙虾伊面 Lobster Noodle @$120 (1kg)

mine!

let's eat!

The friendly staff would enquire if you need any help with the sauces or if you prefer to concoct one on your own.

what would be your favourite hotpot dipping sauce?

For me, I asked for the shop's specialty and was presented with this bowl that seemed to have everything! I liked that the sauce wasn't too spicy.

shop's specialty dipping sauce @$2

I enjoyed in particularly the Signature Beef Slices (神仙牛肉) or should it be called heavenly beef instead? Haha! It is of a thicker cut, well marinated (spicy yes!) and gives a nice chew after cooking. Plenty of flavours. So good!

My favourite skewers would be the Corriander Skewer of Pork and Beef. Deceptively spicy too!

香菜猪肉 Pork with Coriander Skewer

香菜牛肉 Beef with Coriander Skewer

The best time to taste the Chicken (三鲜鸡汤锅底) and the Tomato (番茄锅底) soup again, was after all the cooking was done. Wahhhh... intense!

For dessert, we tried the 3 Treasures Dessert Platter which consists of a puff pastry, perched elegantly ontop a slice of watermelon and followed by a bowl of refreshing iced jelly topped with sweet hawthorn flakes.

三宝金典甜品 3 Treasures Dessert Platter @$8

delicious red bean and banana paste wrapped in pastry

Chef's recommendation is to have the pastry first, the fruit and lastly the iced bingfen jelly. 

iced jelly 冰粉 with hawthorn flakes

Overall, I enjoyed the variety and flavours offered at Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang plus there is now an option to order specialty Cantonese cuisine for celebrations and special occasions. Best of both worlds!

Thank you Jennifer of Jennifer Yeo Consultancy for the invite and Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang for hosting the dinner. Special thanks to William and Chef Ng for the delicious meal.

Li Ji Chuan Chuan Xiang 李记串串香

Flagship restaurant： 295 South Bridge Road Singapore 058838 

Operation Hours: 12pm to 12am 

For reservations, call 6221 9629. 

NEW Outlet： 206 Jalan Besar Singapore 208892 

Operation Hours: 12pm to 12am 

For reservations, call 6291 2289.

Afternoon Tea at Anti:dote Bar @ Fairmont Singapore

Realised that my last visit to Anti:dote was way way back in 2016. Read more about the experience at that time, here. My friend Wendy, wanted to do afternoon tea, so this would be a timely revisit.

Reservation was made a week in advance via the hotel website and received a phone call the day after, to confirm the reservation. Wow, that was fast!

Was greeted at the entrance by the friendly staff and gotten my Safe Entry detected and vaccination status verified. My table was right at the back where there were already a few other tables occupied.

view from my seat

Wendy had arrived earlier and decided on her tea. "Sweet Innocence", she said. The menu stated it as an exceptional composition of black tea and green tea, combined with a fascinating mélange of fresh Japanese flower blossoms and ripe tropical mango.

Sweet Innocence Tea

And what was I having? Long black, apparently. Hahaaa, afternoon tea without tea. Hmmm.

Long black

Chose the $58++ set which was without any amuse bouche. Once order is placed, the famed afternoon tea drawer is brought out fairly quickly. Staff will briefly explain each of the tier and its items.

An Afternoon Indulgence @ Anti:dote

Sweets

Sandwiches

What shall we start first? For me, it would always be scones first. Would be nice if the scones were warm when served.

peekaboo

Madagascan Vanilla Scones

Lemon Butter Curd | Devonshire Clotted Cream | Strawberry Marmalade

The scone breaks open easily by hand with a single twist. And yes, I spread it with copious amount of curd, cream and jam. Wendy was aghast, and asked, "Are you sure?" Yes, I'm pretty sure that I want all the tasty flavours together! Keke.

It was nice but I do wished for different scone flavours to contrast? Perhaps, can bring back the parmesan scone?

eating it anyhow I like~

Next, let's go for something sweet. First sweets we tried was the tea-cake, which was essentially a small piece of financier with caramel sauce and adorned with popcorn. 

Popcorn Caramel | Sea Salt | Tea Cake

The pop-corn made an interesting visual but it was rather soggy and once we got past that, I thought I tasted toffee / caramel. Decided that I quite liked this one, minus the popcorn.

like eating soft toffee~

let's sip some tea/coffee before we continue

Next, one of the sandwiches. First one, was the squarish 'bread' of smoked salmon, ikura, homemade lox and green apple. Hmm, isn't lox the same as smoked salmon? 

Smoked Salmon | Ikura | Homemade Lox | Green Apple

hmmm

Unfortunately, I didn't like the square salmon item at all as it tasted rather flat with prominence of salty taste. However, Wendy liked it hence, am not sure if it was just this particular piece.

Next, I tried the macaron that has the Nespresso logo. So pretty, this macaron!

Philadephia Cheese Cake | Macarons

too much force?

Loved the macaron. The cream cheese was lovely and overall, not too sweet. The sweetness were all from the shell. Let's push this up to top 3 favourites.

There is also a Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience, and August 2021 collab is Fever Tree x  Monkey 47 Gin. I was naturally curious and requested for such an experience.

There are 3 types of Monkey 47 Gin available; Schwarzwald Dry Gin, Barrel Cut and Sloe Gin.

Monkey 47 Gin

One may inform the friendly bartender if you have any preferences for the drink. Thanks to Debbie, I got to try some tasting samples of Monkey 47 Gin, as I am noob in this area.

Original or barrel aged?

Interestingly, the '47' in Monkey 47 Gin indicates the number of botanicals that went into to gin, and its alcohol content is at 47%. Whoa!

The original is colourless and hits you straight up on first sip. Sharp, sweet citrus-sy, spicy all at once. The barrel aged and Sloe Gin versions are deeper in colour, and sweetest would be the Sloe Gin. There are heavier woody, peppery, berries and sweet notes in these two. 

Made my choice and happy with Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin, served in balloon glass with traditional garnish of grapefruit peel, served with Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water.

Monkey 47 Gin with Fever Tree Tonic Water @$23++

top it up with refreshingly flavourful tonic water

top view

Thanks to Debbie, I had a delicious drink. Refreshing and with adequate alcohol strength. And, paired this with stronger tasting savoury food such as Coronation Chicken tart.

Coronation Chicken

Tasted of curry, and goes well with the drink. The Vol Au Vent (puff pastry) was nicely flaky and not too thick. Feels healthy too, not oily.

Cucumber sandwich

The green jelly/jam like thingy at the top of the cucumber sandwich, had no taste and again, am not sure if it was meant to be like this?

front (yellow): Roasted Sweet Potato | Coconut Malibu Financier, Strawberry Pistachio Battenberg (cake)

I did enjoy the flavours from the bright yellow, happy looking roasted sweet potato coconut malibu financier. Goguma taste, not overly sweet with a hint of coconut. Yums! 

(left: green) Muscat Cream Choux Puff

The muscat cream choux puff tasted exactly as what it was. Of sweet grapes.

The item that had a heavy 'bread' like texture was the Organic Egg sandwich.

Organic Egg sandwich

eggy and bready

My favourite items from the Sandwich drawer are currently the Coronation Chicken and Old Winchester Cheese Hazelnut Oat Quiche. Forgot to take a photo of the quiche but it was tasty with a burst of soft cheese.

Capsules Coffee Bonbon (looks familiar hor?)

Favourite Top 3 from the Sweets tier are the Philadephia Cheese Cake Macaron, Nespresso Chocolate Hazelnut Sable and Roasted Sweet Potato Coconut Malibu Financier which is tied at third place with Popcorn Caramel Sea Salt Tea Cake.

Nespresso Chocolate | Hazulnut | Sable - elevated with gold flake

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience but the Sandwich/Savoury items could be further improved. 

Alas, we forgot to take our cookies from the drawer and it was whisked away never to be seen again when staff came to clear away the drawer. So sad!

Expect to spend ~$95 (with Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience), or ~$68 without additional drinks.

Anti:dote

Address: 80 Bras Basah Rd, Level 1, Fairmont, Singapore 189560

Website: https://www.fairmont-singapore.com/dining/antidote/

Contact: 6431 5315