Binge - Festive CNY Feasts – Part 2

Time to hunt for goodies, gifts and gourmet menus for the coming CNY! So here’s another overview of the nibbles and novelties in the restaurants for your pre-CNY prep:

Peony Jade. Why would you knock the animal for which the new lunar year is named after? Inexplicably, that’s what Peony Jade Keppel Club’s CNY dish, Beat The Tiger ($288.88) gets you to do! Their piece de resistance calls for diners to bash the tiger shaped crust to get at its stuffing of braised African sea cucumber (I hear they lie around the beach and shallows waiting to be picked), roast pork, sea whelk, braised duck, glutinous rice, sliced abalone, water chestnuts, white radish, quail eggs and red dates. A little savage, if you ask me. No wonder the poor tiger looks kinda sad! 

I prefer the sound of the Roasted ‘Abundance of Wealth’ Golden Crackling Skin Suckling Piglet with Foie Gras Jus ($388.88) which serves 8-10 people, and the takeaway goodies like their kueh lapis and sinful Mao Shan Wang durian nian gao, called Prosperity Gold Bar Nian Gao (pictured below).

If you fancy a festive reunion with your girlfriends but can’t make it for dinner, try the restaurant’s Reunion Dim Sum high tea (1-16 Feb, 2.30pm – 5pm) instead. At $28 per person, you start off with Prosperity Yu Sheng, followed by an array of 10 dim sum and bite-sized items paired with Chinese tea. Or there’s Weekend ‘Fa Cai’ Dim Sum Brunch served from an old fashioned novelty – push carts! $32.80 per adult and $20.80 per child (5-10yrs), including yu sheng and free flow soft drinks. This runs from 1-28 Feb except Feb 13 & 14, from 10.30 am – 2.30 pm.

Tel: 6276-9138 or 9181 8467

Ritz Carlton Milennia. For the well heeled and

swanky, where else can you go but to the Ritz? Head to their beautiful Summer Pavilion Chinese restaurant and you’ll be tossing up clams. Yes that’s right; the yu sheng there features clams this year – a quaint departure from the usual salmon and abalone. It’s also available for takeaways, as are goodies like pineapple tarts, pineapple balls, walnut and red date cookies and crunchy sesame cookies. But if you’d rather take yourself away from the crowds and live it up, the Prosperity Package gets you a deluxe Kallang Bay View room with breakfast for two and 15% discounts at the hotel’s F&B outlets. $338++ per night from 8-21 Feb.

Dining Tel: 6434 5288 or rc.sinrz.restaurantreservations@ritzcarlton.com

Rooms Tel: 6434 5118 or rc.sinrz.reservations@ritzcarlton.com

Meritus Mandarin. They tend to do Chinese festive foods in a big way here, so we’re not surprised when they announced a purple behemoth, the Celestial Nian Gao ($68), made of dried lavender, almonds and walnuts and designed to raise eyebrows among the in-laws and business associates. To ring in the luck, the Roselle Lo Hei ($68 - $998) is pretty original without going overboard, featuring roselle flowers (good for hypertension), tuna, grapes and mandarin oranges; and the Fish Nian Gao ($30) is still a pretty, sweet little gift to bring back to Mom. (Available from now till 28 Feb)

Tel: 6831 6262 or email dine.tms@meritus-hotels.com

Four Seasons Singapore. I like the pretty CNY gift boxes from here. Always tasteful and elegant and understated. The Prosperity Box ($38) includes four suitably auspicious pastries: gold coin with water chestnut and sweet corn; gold ingot with pineapple; rose-flavoured lotus paste, and fortune pastry with black sesame. The bulbous looking nian gao is so cute too. Four mounds of nian gao in Red Bean, Pandan, Corn and Coconut flavours, to be eaten as is, steamed or fried. Buy both the Prosperity Box and Nian Gao as a set and you pay $68. Set menus at Jiang Nan Chun start from $88 per person for 6 courses to $1699 for 10.

Tel 6831-7220

Min Jiang, Goodwood Park Hotel & Min Jiang@One North. This is a good place to get sweet, high-end, delectably pretty Chinese confections. The Nian Gao Sugee Cake ($48 for 1 kg, takeaway only) is something new at the takeaway deli this year, which marries two festive favourites – nian gao cubes are embedded in the sugee cake encased in white icing and printed with a festive CNY picture (see the pretty photo). I like the Prosperity Fish Duo ($68, serves 10, takeaway only) made of mango with pomelo and sago pudding, and pungently luscious durian pudding. If you choose a durian duo instead, the price goes up by $10.

For savouries, the Hamachi Yu Sheng ($88 for large dish, dine in only) stands out as being very unique among all the restaurant ui sheng so far and features a mix of hamachi (yellowtail), flying fish roe, wasabi ebiko (prawn roe), seaweed, mesclun greens, shredded red and white carrots, Buddha’s hand citron, jellyfish, onions and pomelo, tossed with chef’s secret sweet sauce and lime juice. The braised Prosperity Fa Cai Duck ($138 for 6 people, for dine in and takeaway) is back by popular demand, so it must be good. The 2 kg boneless duck is stuffed with fresh mushrooms, sea cucumber, dried scallops, lotus seeds, fox nuts, black moss, chestnuts and water chestnut.

Min Jiang Tel: 6730 1704

Min Jiang at One-North Tel: 6774 0122

The Deli Tel: 6730 1786 for takeaways