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SINGAPORE: There are some restaurants — and these are few and far between — where you know instinctively that a great meal will be had, simply because they put out good quality fare consistently.
The Tung Lok Group of restaurants is one such example.
I don’t usually visit new restaurants bearing high expectations, because many often need time to iron out initial kinks. But I made an exception when I visited Tung Lok’s newest restaurant, Tung Lok Classics at Chinese Swimming Club.
Opened last month, the restaurant — which is open to the public — offers classical Chinese dishes which draw its influences from Shanghainese, Sichuanese, Hubei and Cantonese cuisines.
The Tung Lok Group used to operate another Chinese restaurant, Grand Pavilion, also at the Chinese Swimming Club. It closed in 2002, but when the opportunity was presented to set up shop again at the same venue, the group grabbed it.
It’s a good thing they did, because Tung Lok’s latest venture is a real gem.
I kick-started my meal with two appetisers — crunchy greens with sesame peanut sauce (S$5) and Shanghai-style braised duck (S$9).
The vegetables were served chilled and drizzled with sesame peanut dressing. Its flavour was enhanced by the spicy-sweet-salty-nutty sauce. The braised duck, on the other hand, came with a tasty dark braising sauce that teased my taste buds with its simultaneously salty and sweet flavours.
I was looking forward to the next dish, a soup which is a household favourite in Shanghai, called yan du xian (S$10 per serving). In a mini earthenware pot were fresh cubes of belly pork, beancurd skin, bamboo shoot and salted ham.
The soup, boiled for about four hours with pigs’ trotters, sported a delicious, thick milky-white hue. Simply put, the yan du xian was out of this world. When no one was looking, I lifted the pot to my mouth and slurped up every last drop.
Another dish with roots in Shanghainese cuisine is the braised pomfret with pickled lantern chilli, (S$8 per 100g). You can also opt to have this dish cooked using fish head. The pomfret’s firm flesh was sweet, while the soupy gravy it was submerged in tasted as fiery as it looked.
There are some dishes that are so divine, words cannot describe them. The Shanghai-style braised Japanese mian xian with fish puffs (S$7) is one of them. It features a comforting broth made with fish bones that was bursting with savoury flavour. The fish puffs, however, were the real stars. Made with fresh fish (the chef refused to disclose which type of fish he uses) and egg white, the mixture is whipped into an airy paste, shaped into balls and fried. Its ethereal, light texture made it a winner.
Dessert was red dates stuffed with chewy glutinous rice (S$5). Look for this in the “appetisers” portion of the menu, because it is traditionally eaten in Hubei as a starter. Here, it is served as dessert, as most Singaporeans are not used to having something sweet to begin the meal with.
As I munched on my red dates, I couldn’t help but notice how dessert was an apt reflection of my entire meal — homely, traditional and deceptively simple in appearance but bundled with bags of flavour.
I visited the restaurant with high hopes, and I’m glad to report Tung Lok Classics did not let me down one bit.
- TODAY/ yt
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