More CNY Eats Worth The Calorie Quota

 

It’s time to be disciplined, Girls. With Chinese New Year  coming soon, you know you’ll end up eating way too much if you don’t have a strategy to handle all the food you’ll be facing. So this is our plan – eat quality, but leave out the quantity. And ask yourself at every turn, is this mouthful going to be worth running five kilometers after that to burn it off? If the answer’s no, put it aside and walk away. Discernment is key, so pick your battles wisely. Here are feasting options that we think are well worth the calorie quota….

Fairmont Singapore
All you need is a yu sheng and a poon choy to get your fill of auspicious flavours. Always experimental, Master Chef Sebastian Goh has rolled out the Golden Dragon Yu Sheng (from $148++ for  4-6 persons) decked out with swordfish, abalone, lobster and salmon and drizzled with a blend of soy sauce reduction and truffle oil, and if that’s not enough, a sprinkling of gold dust! Then on to its Heavenly Pot of Gold (from $408++ for 4-6 people), a lavish poon choy of 6-head abalones, fish belly, sea cucumber, dried scallops, whelk clams, dried oysters, king oysters, home-made meat balls, bamboo pith, black fungus, lotus roots, radish, pumpkin and lots more. Until 6 February. 

Tel: +65 6431 6156
Level 3 Fairmont Singapore

 

Goodwood Park Hotel
The Spanish have the piniata, and we have the Goodwood Park Hotel’s Min Jiang restaurant Golden Fortune Chicken. It’s kinda sad to have to bash this cute chicken apart with heavy metal mallet, but thankfully its only made of baked salt crust – and surprisingly hard – and inside lies a superbly rich dish of braised chicken, whole abalones, dried scallops, black moss, flower mushrooms and ‘dang gui’ wrapped in lotus leaves. This can take the place of your poon choy. We also like their Prosperity ‘Fa Cai’ 8 Treasures Duck($168 for 8-10 persons) which requires one-day advance order. Not new, this was introduced in 2009 and takes the form of a 2-kg boneless duck stuffed with ‘eight treasures’ of ‘ling zhi’ mushrooms, flower mushrooms, sea cucumber, dried scallops, euryale seeds, black moss, fresh chestnuts and water chestnuts, and braised to succulent perfection. Available for dine-in and takeaway at: Min Jiang and Min Jiang at One-North. For dessert, I like the Macadamia and Kumquat Tart, a crunchy fruity bake where macadamias and almonds pair so nicely with tangy kumquat in a light pastry shell. Nice! $48 for 1 kg. Advance order of one working day is required.

Min Jiang Tel:  (65) 6730 1704
Min Jiang at One-North Tel: (65) 6774 0122
The Deli Tel:  (65) 6730 1786

 

The Fullerton Hotel
I am such a huge fan of Jade Restaurant’s individual set menus. They’re good value, multi-course menus plated gorgeously and show the very creative hand of their master chef Leong Chee Yeng. This CNY, he’s rolled out a few such individual menus for the season with prices starting off at $68++, and what I like about it is, it makes it easy for small groups and families to get together and enjoy a wide variety of dishes, rather than have to deal with the limitations of large communal dishes. I only wish they had more poetic sounding names to each menu, rather than the uninspired ‘Individual Set Menu I – V’, especially when every self respecting Chinese is hankering for auspicious details at every turn this CNY! Sampling of dishes include tea smoked duck breast with passion fruit sauce, deep fried pork ribes with salted egg yolk butter sauce, lobster with truffled egg white with double boiled fish maw and Chinese yam in superior broth. Their family set menus are also good ($78-$288 per person) and features the Eight Happiness Gold Rush Yu Sheng with salmon, Champagne Jelly with edible gold leaves, and apple plum dressing. Until 6 Feb.

Tel: (65) 6877 8188

 

Sque Rotisserie & Alehouse
For the adventurous gastronaut who’s up for a different taste, Sque Rotisserie & Alehouse is offering its own version of yu sheng and Buddha Jumps Over The Wall! The restaurant’s fragrant Yu Sheng Tower($48 for 6-8 people)  has all the symbolic ingredients for a great lunar new year, with kaffir lime leaf, pomelo flesh, grated pickled daikon, red cabbage, pickled ginger, orange skin, coriander, chilli, peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and topped off with raspberry-pickled salmon sashimi. The Trappist Jumps Over the Wall ($28 for one serving) is a stew of bamboo shoot, scallop mousse, jelly fish, king prawn, cod fin, chicken, parma ham, pork tendon, ginseng, dry shitake, taro and cabbage in a chicken stock base, and takes a day to prepare.
  
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-70 The Central
Tel: 6222 1887 or email info@sque.com.sg