Hi people, today I’m gonna talk about Chinese New Year 2017 which is next month’s event… Claire was invited for a food tasting session, at Bay Hotel Singapore’s flagship restaurant: STREET 50 Restaurant & Bar, and I accompanied her like a good husband should..
Most of us South East Asians would’ve known the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals, but STREET 50 must’ve been concerned about the younger generations forgetting our culture. Therefore, they created 12+1 dishes that signifies our 12 Chinese Zodiac Signs. The dishes showcased below will be included in the actual buffet, with the exception of the Lobster Yusheng. Though one might expect the presentation to be less appealing due to hungry buffet vultures ravaging the dishes, trying to get back their money’s worth by maximizing their limited stomach space. So I think this review should focus more on the taste than the presentation of the food.
First off, we get into the CNY mood with the yusheng, or ‘chinese raw fish salad’. But there’re no fish in the ‘salad’, there’s only LOBSTER that signifies the dragon zodiac. Those white jelly you see were Birdnest jelly, imagine the atas-ness of this first dish man. The ingredients used were fresh like they just fish them lobsters from the sea, its goes really well with the veges and sauces which exists in all yusheng.
Lobster Yusheng with Bird nest: $38++ (up to 4 pax), $68++ (8-10 pax).
The lobster meat with birdnest jelly and that one with wolfberries… Osmanthus jelly? I didn’t eat it so I’m not sure. The birdnest was all given to Claire (of course), she said she thought that was nata de coco. The lobster meat though, was another story..
This dish isn’t in the buffet menu, I assumed, because its got its own pricing. So while the mix salad was refreshing with the sweet zesty sauce, pardon me for not knowing what all the individual ingredients were called. The fresh lobster meat with the zesty, tangy whatever salad taste so good together everyone were just digging through the vege-mouldmound in search for the elusive lobsters.
After our appetizer, here comes the main 12 zodiac meal
[Dog] Wolfberry Drunken Herbal Chicken
(‘狗’杞醉鸡)
First on the menu is the representative for Dog, its actually just a play with the Chinese pronounciation. Wolfberry in Chinese sounded like dog.. Its like a chicken roll drizzled with a sauce made of wolfberries, dang gui (Chinese Angelica Root) and Chinese wine. I’m not sure if its supposed to be served cold but please note that for every dish that came out of the kitchen, they will all be subjected to our excessive photo-takings. So I’m not surprised when the food turned cold. Its just that this dish was icy cold, so.. well.. yeah..
[Pig] Deep Fried Yam with Crabmeat and Pearl Mushroom
(珍’猪’菇伴酥脆蟹肉芋头)
Then comes the potato chips-like Fried Yam, Pearl mushrooms and crabmeat dish. Well this dish was surprised me, the decor was nice albeit a little misleading, some of the invited guests wanted to chew on the raw mushroom.. I wonder why.. Anyways the main item was actually the brown mesh like strips of GOODNESS! Pardon my excitement. I meant the mesh you see in the picture.. This is like freshly made potato-chips. Who wouldn’t love potato chips I ask you, so that would translate to ‘everybody loves this dish’.
[Snake] Braised Dried Treasures Pot with Sea Cucumber and Snake Gourd
(‘蛇’瓜聚宝)
This is one brainy looking dish, I just thought it look like a brain I don’t know why. Its salty, a little too salty, not saline salty but brine salty, can I describe it like that? But I love the dried oysters! Always love them in whatever forms it comes in, in brine or fried with vegetables. The hairy stuff are hair-veg (发菜), I translated its name literally from Chinese. Its a type of moss harvested from the earth in China. We eat them during CNY because in Cantonese (Fat Choy) it sounded like ‘strike it rich’. There’s of course the sea cucumbers which I have no love for, that’s why I have no comments about it..
[Rooster] Rock Salt Baked Chicken Thigh
(盐焗鸡)
Next is baked chicken thighs wrapped in baking paper. The chef mentioned that its made with kampung chicken thighs from Ipoh. Well I cannot be sure where exactly they come from, but I do know that the ginseng and rock salt combination created a very tender and savoury dish. I have mild gout (yes at my age) and shouldn’t be taking so much protein, but I don’t care, I had 2 and a half. The half was of course thanks to Claire. And she can still curse me, ‘I hope you have a gout attack!’. My wifey…
[Monkey] Monkey Mushroom with Chinese Spinach
(猴头三菇菠菜香)
Chinese spinach with 3 types of mushrooms that I never gave much thought of.. But the saltiness of this dish is a little over my hair-fall inducing limit.. The spinach couldn’t help lighten up that saltiness, I just try to remove the sauce from the spinach and eat them like that. Well good thing is we gave our feedback to the chef and he will adjust the taste when he prepare for the buffet.
[Goat] Mongolian-Style Grill Lamb Chop
(洋洋得意蒙古羊扒)
Mongolian styled Lamb Chops looks awesome, its a little tough for my weak teeth so I took a while chewing the lamb. It would be good to have some sauce to go with the lamb, but that’s my personal preference, I eat everything with sauce.
[Rabbit] Teochew-style Steamed Rabbit Fish with Ham and Mushroom
(扬眉吐气白兔年鱼)
This is a really CNY themed dish, the Steamed White Spotted Rabbit Fish is a common dish as it symbolize good luck to eat it when its full of its roe. But this is not the season for Rabbit Fish to spawn yet so these fishes were imported frozen and they smell rather fishy, I know lah they are fish what. LOL. But lots of people got put off by the smell and the meat was rather bitter. Maybe there was some mishap during the preparation of this dish..
[Tiger] Chilli Tiger Prawns （虎虎生威老虎虾）
Welcome to the Tiger Prawn jungle people, here you will witness giant tiger prawns standing. Impressive right? The standing prawns were a sight to behold, its a real pity that the shells were not crispy enough for me to chew, maybe your better set of teeth (than my weak ones) can take it, because all the sauce and batter were stuck to the shell. I’m like peeling off the best parts and eating the plain old flesh within that shell, then I was scraping the sauce from my plate and slap them onto the prawn flesh.. Sigh..
[Ox] Stir fried Beef with Ginger and Kai Lan
(姜葱牛肉芥兰仔)
Sliced beef and kailan? Nothing outstanding, just a salty soy sauce starchy gravy enveloping everything edible in the plate.. Not awful at all, but nothing spectacular. Serves its purpose. I think the ox dish is like me, practical but boring. (I’m born in the year of the Ox LOL)
[Rat]Mee Tai Mak or Bee Tai Bak Laksa (老鼠粉叻沙)
What a big pot of Laksa with quail eggs. But at the time I took this photo, I didn’t know what it was. Because the Laksa gravy haven’t gone in. Stupid me. Well by the time the bowl came to me, the contents were emptied into my stomach in what seem like 5 seconds. No additional photos, sorry. The gravy has a high percentage of coconut milk, so much so that it kind of overshadows the other spices that went into it. But its still good enough to lure me in and swallow it all in a short time.
[Dragon] Braised Longevity Noodles with Lobster Meat (龙虾寿面)
At first I was impressed by how the dish was set, the Lobster 寿 Noodles. Then the staff put them into portions for us. There is a viscous lobster gravy that went with the otherwise almost tasteless noodles. But at this point, I’m already so filled with bliss (福气）I can barely stomach the noodles, its tasty yes, but I think I would probably go for the other meaty food if I were at buffet, save some space in my stomach.
[Horse] Yam Paste with Water Chestnuts and Gingko Nuts (马蹄白果好芋头)
12 course meal ends with a dessert, the Water Chestnut Yam Paste in a martini glass. Well it scores with aesthetics, but as someone who loves his oily orh-nee (yam paste in Chinese dialect) with gingko nuts, I find this less than appealing. The water chestnut juice or water or extract dilutes the rich and creamy yam paste. Ok lah its healthier this way, but I rather be drinking just water chestnut or orh-nee, not combined. My personal preferences again, but don’t mess with my (expectation of) orh-nee!!
Well there you have it, it was a long night. I’m not saying its a bad experience, we went there to stuff ourselves silly, and its so tiring to be stuffing yourself with so much good food. Won’t you wanna go try devouring all these goodies and more? You can, and with a great discount too!
Bay Hotel Singapore’s STREET 50 Restaurant & Bar is having a 1-for-1 promotion as long as you book and confirm before 5th of January 2017, your buffet kaki dines free!!
Chinese Zodiac New Year
Dinner Buffet
(Eve Menu)
27 January 2017
Dinner: 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Adult: $78 ++
Children (6yrs to 12yrs): $40++
Chinese Zodiac New Year
Lunch & Dinner Buffet
(Classic Menu)
28 to 30 January 2017 Lunch & Dinner
Lunch: 12pm to 3pm
Dinner: 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Adult: $58 ++
Children (6yrs to 12yrs): $30++
(Children below 6 yrs dine for free with every paying adult, subject to maximum of 2 children per table)
Reservations can be made at 6818 6681 or dining@bayhotelsingapore.com
Got good deals got ‘banana’
Simon
