The Occasion - 24 May 2015 Sunday Lunch with Mum-in-law & Sister-in-law graceful gracious Grace.
Bob decided to bring the 3 favorite women in his life to a yummilicious lunch treat at TungLok Teahouse at Far East Square to try out TungLok Teahouse's Lunch Special Set Menu for 4 pax worth S$198++. We picked up Mum in law & Grace from Zion Presbyterian Church in the east & set off to TungLok Teahouse at Far East Square in the CBD area.
The Restaurant - TungLok Teahouse
The Venue - Far East Square
Besides the Lunch Special Set Menu for 4 pax that we ordered, we also added a few of the Dim Sum items from the Dim Sum menu.
This is the Xiao Long Bao (4 pcs in a basket).
Tasting Notes - As with most Xiao Long Bao the dumpling meat filling is based in a soup & wrapped with the flour based pastry skin. Ideally it would be best to pierce the skin & let the hot soup flow out into your porcelain spoon so you can carefully slurp it up.
Key to a great tasting Xiao Long Bao - the meat must be minced well, seasoned & steamed with the right timing & heat to achieve that nice tangy bite. The skin must be whole & complete with no tears to keep the hot soup intact. Chefs at TungLok Teahouse did it just about right.
Char Siew Buns - is a typical staple at any Dim Sum parlour. I love it that the Char Siew filling oozes out of the bun, & the bun skin is so fluffy light soft.
Char Siew Buns - is a typical staple at any Dim Sum parlour. I love it that the Char Siew filling oozes out of the bun, & the bun skin is so fluffy light soft.
This is the White Truffle Vegetable Dumpling (set of 3 pcs) with translucent skin. I love that the skin is soft thin light with a tangy bite. The fillings are savory with a bit of a crunchy texture.
The Broiled Soup comes in the Set Lunch Menu & is made using core ingredients - whelk, chicken meat, pork ribs, cuttlefish & double boiled steamed to extract the essence of the key ingredients to give a clear light sweet soup base.
The Liu Sar Bao (set of 3 pcs) here at TungLok Teahouse is pretty exquisite. It is different from those run of the mill Liu Sar Bao from not so authentic Dim Sum restaurants where it is simply one ingredient : the custard salted egg as the only filling. Here at TungLok Teahouse at Far East Square, besides the custard salted egg, there is the inner core of sweet yam paste embedded inside.
The second dish that constitutes the Set Lunch menu comes in a platter of Sauteed Fresh Prawns with Broccoli in X.O. sauce.
Core Ingredients - 5 large prawns are deshelled, deveined & then stir-fried in a sweet spicy X.O. sauce with red, green, yellow capsicum slices & broccoli.
Tasting Notes - The prawns are succulent fresh & stir fried just about right to give a turgid firm texture crunch, yet infused fully with the sweet spicy sauce to give an appetising bite. The key requirement I have for prawn dishes is that the prawns must be fresh. I have a little Chef's Tip for those who wish to impress their Mum-in-law when serving prawns - alway let the prawns sit in the freezer for about 5 minutes before you cook it to chill the prawn meat so it gives a firmer texture whilst you stir fry it or steam it.
This is the Teochew Style Platter of Braised Duck with Tofu as part of the Set Lunch Menu for 4 pax. Generally the duck used in this dish are marinated with the five spice powder & braised for at least a few hours to allow the flavors to be infused into the skin & meat of the duck. A skilful chef will know how to manage the heat such the the meat does not become too tough & dry.
This is the Teochew Style Platter of Braised Duck with Tofu as part of the Set Lunch Menu for 4 pax. Generally the duck used in this dish are marinated with the five spice powder & braised for at least a few hours to allow the flavors to be infused into the skin & meat of the duck. A skilful chef will know how to manage the heat such the the meat does not become too tough & dry.
In this instance the TungLok chef has managed this aspect pretty well with the braised duck meat lending a tender chewy bite with an added pleasant aroma. You can tell the meat is infused with the braised sauce to lend a mild light brownish color.
This is the Thai Style Deep-fried Marble Goby (Soon Hock) in spicy sweet Thai sauce garnish with some julienned cucumber strips. The chefs at TungLok Teahouse had first carved the Soon Hock on its pelvic side then deep fried the entire fish till crisp, then drizzled a generous dose of Spicy sweet Thai sauce on top, garnishing it with a dash of fresh coriander leaves.
The presentation is very impressive & the Thai sweet spicy sour sauce seem to glisten under the light, making the Soon Hock very delightfully enticing to eat.
Though I very much prefer fresh succulent Soon Hock to be steamed Hong Kong style rather than deep fried, this Soon Hock did not fail to impress me. The meat is fresh sweet firm & tastes great with the tangy sweet sour spicy sauce.
This is another typical Teochew braised dish called Fish Maw with Mushroom & Spinach & forms part of the Lunch Special Set Menu for 4 pax. The fish maw is delicately sliced into thin rectangular slices 2 inch by 1.5 inch & makes for easy biting for elderly folks with dentures. The mushrooms used in this dish as confirmed by my Mum-in-law's picky palate - is of a good quality grade so it does not have that earthy sourly mushroom taste.
The 3 core ingredients are braised for hours to allow the fish maw, mushroom & spinach to become comfortably infused with the braised sauce such that they take on the savoury flavors of the sauce. Am quite happy it ain't too salty nor too starchy. Always respect chefs who take the route less travelled - stinge on the corn starch but generous on the superior soup stock broth.
This is the carb dish that came in after we are done with the meats, seafood, fish, vegetable, soup. This is the Stir-fry Mee Sua which everyone loves except me. I am never a fan of Mee Sua but decide to give it a shot. Glad to say it tastes okay to me, not too salty, fried just about right & not too oily, nor soggy, not too dry. Just .......Right.
Dessert took quite a while to arrive as we had to wait for graceful gracious Grace to finish savouring her food. This is the Specialty Dessert which the Captain shared proudly that the chefs went on a special trip to Indonesia to learn how to prepare this Indonesian dessert. It's aptly called Chilled Coconut with Snow Lotus Seed Pudding.
To put it simply it is coconut flavored agar agar served in a young coconut shell with young coconut meat intact, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, drizzled with nuts crumble & some diced fresh mango cubes, then finally drizzled with a spoonful of suntan.
I think we were the only table that took on the challenge of the Lunch Special Set Menu for 4 pax costing us a whopping S$268. So we were rewarded with Chef's compliments 4 test tube laden with juice made from green apples, vegetables, lemon, a refreshing treat to clean up our gut after an opulent decadent lunch.
TungLok Teahouse is located at :
Far East Square,
7-13 Amoy Street, #01-01,
Singapore (049949)
Tel : 68771123
Fax : 65387882
www.tunglokteahouse.com
Nearest MRT - Telok Ayer MRT
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