TungLok Teahouse at Far East Square, 7-13 Amoy Street, #01-01, S(049949) - The Ambience

Whilst Bob brought Mum-in-law & Grace out for a stroll along the Far East Square compound right after lunch at TungLok Teahouse at 7-13 Amoy Street at Far East Square #01-01, I remained for a good 25 minutes inside TungLok Teahouse exploring the nooks & corners trying to capture some really great shots for my blog post. 

The Ambience of TungLok Teahouse 

The Private Room 

Tucked away at one end of the dining area is a Private Room with 5 round tables, each flanked by 8 chairs decorated with Emperor Royal Gold skirting. 

I'd named this Private Room aptly the "Chairman Mao Zedong Room" by virtue of the many Chairman Mao Zedong's paraphernalia spewed all over the walls. 

Check out the Chairman Mao Zedong metallic badges arrayed in decorative spirals, patterns & designs & neatly framed into 2 feet by 1 feet posters & displayed in stripjacket order on the wall facing the entrance to this Private Room.

Now you cannot missed this Chairman Mao Zedong statue made out of good grade premium porcelain that stands tall on the build-in-cabinets on the right of the entrance to this Private Room. 

Remember to salute & chant:"Long Live Chairman Mao!" as you enter.

On the wall facing the Chairman Mao Zedong badges are these series of poster like paintings depicting Communist Chinese people during Chairman Mao Zedong's era going about their daily chores in the fields.

This epic series of posters showcasing the harvesting moments of the poor peasants in the communist China's agricultural era when communism is the IN-thing & Chairman Mao is an idol - is a clear humble reminder of China's past role & success in the agricultural field during period when China is a Communist state before the introduction of industrialisation & capitalism.

Main Dining Area

The decor at TungLok Teahouse leeks pretty much of Chinese culture in the bygone era, depicts the culture & era of those days in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's. 

Adorning the walls of the restaurant in the main dining area are black & white photos of various prominent streets & buildings & landmarks of Singapore in the early 1950's to 1980's neatly framed & displayed. 

Are you able to make out what are the historical places that are displayed in these Black & White nostalgic photos? 

(*Above : Hill Street, New Bridge Road, Tanjong Pagar, Neil Road, High Street)

(*Above : Telok Ayer Street, Raffles Place)

(Above : Thean Hock Keng Temple, High Street, New Bridge Road) 

Sprawling all over the walls are an evidence of the success & vibrancy of the Chinese film industry's in the 1940's 1950's era with some of the more prominent female leading actresses gracing the wall as the key centerpiece icon (*below) with black & white film posters as the backdrop. 

This decorative Color Contrast Portrait montage of a famous female leading actress adds some colorful hue to the otherwise monochrome black & white shades of the photos of historical buildings.

Whilst the Private Room has an upmarket regal decor, the main Dining Hall has a more common man's (peasant's) decor with large round marble table top flanked by matching dark red wood cane chairs with high back rests. 

There's a little cozy corner (*below) right before the Private Room that is indundated with a few pillars where diners who prefer to relax with high back lounge seating arrangement centered around rectangle white table tops can opt to feast on their Dim Sum. 

The Menu cover & the poem you discover within the menu brings nostalgia to a whole new level - it sort of appeals to you emotions.

Several of these wooden Chinese window screens with Oriental designs are used to decorate the walls of TungLok Teahouse. 

These are examples of hand painted posters used as product advertisements produced in the early 1930's to 1960's era. 

Greeting the diners & guests in the main Dining Hall area is this 2m by 1m huge rectangular mirror with the words :"客似云来" in Chinese Hanji characters meaning "May the restaurant be filled with lots of diners!" presented by Singapore Restaurant Association & World Chinese Cuisine Association.

The spacious main Dining Hall holds more than 25 tables, can seat approximately 250 pax in full air-conditioned comfort.

To add to the Oriental decor the restaurant uses red hanging lanterns to add a red cozy hue to the otherwise white ceiling top. 

Another uniquely Oriental design is these series of mosaic tile patterns that lined the corridor walkway of the main Dining Hall. 

The main entrance to TungLok Teahouse has Oriental wooden screens that served as doors. 

Could not resist taking selfie with the two good looking gentlemen behind me. 

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 

TungLok Teahouse at Far East Square, 7-13 Amoy Street, #01-01, S(049949) - Lunch with MIL & SIL & Bob 24 May 2015

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. 

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.  

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