One final week before CNY descends. If you haven’t finished your prep, here’s a quick run through of goodies you can still get your hands on, or head to without missing a beat.
For “Yan Yat”, or ‘Everybody’s Birthday’ on the 7th day of CNY, bring home Hilton Singapore’s Organic Yu Sheng which is a lot more exciting and luxe than it sounds. Wild caught salmon strips, shaved truffles, truffle oil dressing, golden persimmons, fresh seaweed and lemon-apple compote and lemon leaves make this a dish with a difference. On top of that, strawberries, honeydew and beetroot tossed in make this even more unique. Very pretty and lovely. It gets my vote! $288++ for 10 pple. 3 days advance order required.
Tel: 6730 3392
Who says you have to toil over the stove if you want Reunion Dinner at home? All you languid lovelies who want your cake and eat it can turn to Chef Yong Bing Ngen who’s done up a full takeaway set menu from Jing Restaurant. You get salmon yu sheng, a small poon choy (with stewed with abalone, fish maw, japanese mushroom, dried oyster, prawn, black moss and sea asparagus, etc), chilli crabs with golden buns, and fried rice with Chinese sausage and pineapple. $318 for 4-6 people. Pick up from the restaurant and just buy dessert.
#01-02/03
1 Fullerton Road
Tel: 6224 0088 for details
Talking about dessert, the mandarin mousse cake from Swissotel Merchant Court is quite a find! So the hotel may be a little off the central drag, but it’s got some lovely offerings well worth a drop-in. The said mousse cake is a long rectangular confection, nicely glazed with mandarin jelly at the top and a delightfully light, smooth and fragrant mousse underneath. Decorated with two mini ‘mandarins’ and for added luck, two tiny koi fish made from white chocolate, it’s all too cute to eat! Good to serve guests as hostess with the moistest, for its high ‘awwww’ impact!
Also worth mentioning, they’re offering a Cantonese poon choy for takeaway. A nice old fashioned vat of waxed duck, prawns, Chinese sausage, mushrooms, and sea cucumbers braised in fragrant rice. ($168 for 6 people; $288 for 10). Sometimes, you really just want something nice and traditional. Final orders on 4 February.
Tel: 62381848 or email: emc.reservations@swissotel.com
20 Merchant Road
If you’re looking for a place to dine in, Majestic Restaurant’s 10 CNY set menus look tempting, I must say! They aren’t the usual run of the mill dishes, and it won’t totally disseminate your bank account either. For instance, at $480 for 4 people, you get 8 dishes including toro lohei, sea treasures soup with sharks fin and truffle, Peking duck with foie gras, baked Boston lobster with superior soup, braised abalone with beancurd, eight treasures brown rice with prawns, scallops, etc, walnut cream with glutinous rice dumpling and nian gao. Not bad, no? Set menus start from $98 for two. Nice little prezzies for pick up here too, including a nice jar of XO dried scallop chilli sauce ($18.80) and yuan yang nian gao, which combines white radish and yam nian gao with preserved meats and Chinese sausage ($20.80).
31-37 Bukit Pasoh Road
Tel: 6511 4718
For a really nice CNY prezzie, I like Marina Mandarin Singapore’s Fortune Gold Coin Nian Gao ($68), from its Chinese restaurant, Peach Blossoms. It’s a real treat featuring four small puddings: Radish Cake with Preserved Meat, Yam Cake with Japanese Sweet Potato, Kumquat and “Shanxi” Red Dates and a huge, wonderfully made traditional Nian Gao with Coconut Milk. Having tasted them, I can say the radish and yam cakes were particularly good – very flavourful and smooth; and the nian gao was excellent – smooth and tender, but not adhesive like some can be! The huge pink and green box this gift set is packed in makes a fantastic looking gift – only for Mum or a favourite aunt!
Good to know, too, Peach Blossom is also serving luxury CNY dim sum this year, like Steamed Pork Dumpling with Diced Abalone, Steamed Xiao Long Bao with Foie Gras, Steamed Prawn Dumpling with Shark’s Fin. These are available on their a la carte menu.
Tel: 6845 1111
If you need to get a few more gifts, get hold of Hong Kong Mei-Xin Almond Fingers ($4.90 per pack), light as air confections which netizens from China and Taiwan voted as one of the best gifts to get. Incredibly crisp, light and lovely, these really stand out among the hoardes of cookies and confections available out there. It may not be ‘freshly baked’ over the counter, but it certainly tastes that way. Really top notch. I like the original flavour almond fingers, though there are also chocolate and coffee flavours. Apart from these, you can also get your hands on their Walnut Cookie with Almond (very delicious; $4.20 per pack), Walnut Cookie with Cashew, Sesame and Walnut Cookie, Macadamia Nuts Cookie and Walnut Corn Flakes Cookie . Alternatively there’s also a gift box of assorted flavours at $26. Cheap and exceedingly good!
Tel: 6862 2166 or
Log into www.frosts.com.sg for details and to order
Or available at Takashimaya and Great World City until 1 Feb
- Ee Waun
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