Four Seasons Restaurant @ Chinatown, London

Here's a second post of the much-loved roasted fowl, this time round in London. I guess I don't have to make too much of an introduction to this place since it's almost an institution by itself. I met up with an ex uni mate after watching Avenue Q last Friday at the Wyndham Theatre nearby and had dinner at the Chinatown branch. We waited a good 25 minutes before they finally let us in.


Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the dish. In short, it was a most marvellously delicious piece of fowl. It's quite different from the roast duck in Singapore as the duck was served in a platter of sauce and the skin looked deceivingly braised rather than crispy. Needless to say, the layer of fat below the skin was a part of its magical taste.

I will be back here again the next time I'm in London.

Address:
12 Gerrard Street, London, W1D 5PR

Rating (out of 5):
Service: 3.5 porkchops
Food: 4.25 porkchops
Ambience: 3.25 porkchops

Thais Restaurant Songkhla @ Den Haag

I was overseas with a colleague two weeks back to attend a conference in Amsterdam and we were just lamenting about the dearth of decent Chinese food(not to mention his continuous whining about missing out on his laksa and char kway teow) in the city. We went to a restaurant that was supposedly one of the better ones in Chinatown and there was no doubt about its popularity when we saw the queue....but alas, the food just didn't seem to live up to our expectations. One thing I've noticed about Asian food in the Netherlands, they seem to be rather liberal with salt in their food.

This post is about a little restaurant I chanced upon whilst I was wandering around in Den Haag (also know as The Hague) the day after the conference. Den Haag if you must know, is the financial district of The Netherlands. After spending 7 days in Amsterdam, I'll have to admit that it was a nicer place to hang out for the day.

The restaurant is located in a side street off Den Haag's Chinatown. The prices were a bit steep as I've come across cheaper alternatives in Amsterdam but I guess this one looks like a slightly posher restaurant. The overall feel of the eatery felt pretty rustic.

Before my main dish came, I was served free keropok with a sweet and sour thai chilli sauce. Check out the amount of keropok they gave!


My main dish was stir-fried basil pork with baby corn, carrots and snow peas and it came with a huge pot of rice that probably could have fed two persons. After the last few days of decent Asian food deprivation, I have to say this was rather tasty(and abit salty once again), though of course nothing as close to the Thai food we're accustomed to back here in Southeast Asia.

But as they say, when in Dutchland, eat as the Dutch do. :P


It was a rather tranquil afternoon having my late lunch whilst looking out of the window into the street below.


And you know the eatery must be a hit with the locals cos the policeman came to do a takeaway as well. Ha.


Cost = Around 19 euros

Address:
Gedempte Burgwal 2F
2512 BT Den Haag

Rating (out of 5):
Service: 4 porkchops
Food: 3.5 porkchops
Ambience: 3.75 porkchops

Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck

We celebrated JP's birthday a few weeks ago at the above-mentioned restaurant. It was my 2nd round of peking duck as I had the same dish 2 weeks earlier with another group of friends at the Marina Bay Sands location and honestly, it kind of blew me away. And since JP wanted to dine at Imperial Treasure, I suggested having the peking duck since none of them had tried it before. Frankly, it didn't really make any sense travelling to the MBS one which was rather inconvenient by public transport (or else pay $15 or more for parking for a couple of hours!). We found out there was another branch at Paragon selling the same dish(which was slightly cheaper as well since the location wasn't as snazzy as the MBS) hence I booked a table for 4 that night.

One annoying thing about Imperial Treasure is that when you make a booking, do be prepared to be told by their staff that you'll have to evacuate your table by a certain time as they are expecting another group of diners to take over the later slot. Well...granted that their business is extremely busy every single time I visit, I suppose you can't really blame them for doing so. But I guess a better way of approaching it would've been to serve the food faster after a customer's order and then drop hints about settling the bill after they're done with their meals.

Ah well.

Probably one of the most exciting parts about having Peking Duck is watching the chef skilfully carve up the duck in front of you. There is nothing quite as fascinating(provided you're not from the medical profession) in Chinese cuisine as this (save for drunken prawns but if you ask me, that's almost as cruel as force-feeding a goose to get foie gras) as the chef places each glistening and succulent-looking piece of meat on a complementing shiny white plate.

So here's our chef for the night doing his job.


And here's a photo of the finished product. Ta-dah!


What's interesting about Imperial Treasure is that they also provide you with some sugar to go with the duck. Personally I still prefer the traditional way of eating it which is with sweet sauce and cucumber rolled in the crepe.

But the duck was not all we had for dinner that night of course. The stir fried spinach with mushrooms and tofu was absolutely delicious too. It was cooked in a thick oyster-sauce sort of gravy and the tofu was a bit crispy on the outside yet moist and flavourful when you bit into one.


We also had a double-boiled winter melon soup with crab. The crab tasted pretty fresh and succulent. Guess it must have been simmered in the soup for quite awhile.


For $10 more, we had the rest of our skinned duck sliced up and cooked with "sang meen"(a skinny yellow crispy noodle). I am usually quite stuffed after a heavy meal like this but this was actually pretty good enough for me to finish.


Of course, no meal is complete without our favourite mango sago dessert with pomelo pulp. Priced at $5 each, it was a bit steep for the size of the bowl we were served in though.


JP had the mango pudding which in my opinion tasted pretty normal next to the mango sago(which really is quite the dessert benchmark of any decent Cantonese restaurant).



For the serious Cantonese cuisine foodie, Imperial Treasure is a must-go if you've not been there before. Even if you're not game for peking duck, their lunchtime dim sum is also very good.

Which reminds me. I better start on my currently non-existent exercise regime....SOON!

Cost per pax(after UOB card discount) = around $40+

Address:
290 Orchard Road #05-42/45 The Paragon

Rating (out of 5):
Service: 4 porkchops
Food: 4.5 porkchops
Ambience: 4 porkchops

Dinner at The Square @ Novotel Clarke Quay

Dinner 4 nights ago with the MGS schoolmates was at The Square, a cafe located inside Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel near their hotel reception area. I've been there before for a buffet last year with the company and thought the food was mediocre for a hotel but one of the friends had a 50% voucher hence we decided we might as well use it there. We initially thought that they would serve local fare on top of Western food like most of the other hotels in town hence we were surprised to see the rather limited choice of Western dishes in their a la carte menu.

Three of us had the tomato soup with basil whilst JL had the butternut squash with crabmeat soup. The tomato soup was pretty tasty but a bit on the salty side... though the portion was huge. We had a bit of a problem finishing it granted that there was still the main course to be served.


JL's butternut soup was pretty good too according to her. There was a distinct taste of blended crabmeat and it had a little bit of a strong herb taste.


Our main courses then came shortly after they took away our soups. Two of my friends had the cod fish, I had the ribeye steak whilst JL had the salmon. Food was pretty good, though the ribeye was a bit on the tough side(it was supposed to be cooked medium-well) but nevertheless quite tasty with the pepper sauce. The frites were the saving grace...they tasted like homecooked potatoes and were thick-cut. Really delicious!

Ribeye Steak with Fries and Salad

Salmon Steak with Carrots and Asparagus

Grilled Cod Fish Fillet With Tomato Dressing

We liked the overall ambience of the place...JP commented that the palm trees outside the cafe made it look like LA! But the wait staff seemed to be rather inexperienced...the guy didn't seem to understand us at all when we asked for the bill until like after 5-6 tries and I was on the verge of saying it to him in Mandarin before he finally got the idea. The waitresses also didn't seem too friendly when we presented them with the 50% voucher at the door and behaved as if we were here to get a free meal out of them...to clarify, the voucher was JL's as she had the hotel membership card.

I guess the place is nice to chill if you're looking for a quiet afternoon chat with friends.

Address:
177A River Valley Road Level 7

Rating (out of 5):
Service: 3 porkchops
Food: 3.25 porkchops
Ambience: 4 porkchops