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Wa this was good leh! The shokupan bread was soft and pillowy, the dough was q enriched so it was pretty tasty! I liked that the pork katsu wasn’t fatty but still was thicc and tender and very easy to eat, the tonkatsu sauce spread on the pork katsu made it soggy, but the side parts that were untouched weren’t very crisp, it could afford more crunch. The duck fat confit onions were nice! We preferred this Sando :)
Chashu Sando came with quite a generous amount of marinated cha shu, the slightly crisp edges were especially nice! I like the mild heat that the kimchi provides. They listed “nuts” as a component but there wasn’t any. We both felt that the chashu was a bit salty tho.
The 100% USDA prime black angus beef tenderloin katsu was so tender and juicy, making this sandwich simply delicious! It was served with tomato sauce and potato chips at the side. A very yummy and comforting meal.
Service here was excellent. We visited to celebrate a birthday and they provided us with a complimentary slice of cake, a poloroid photo, and a birthday card! Very thoughtful.
Prices are what you would expect from a steakhouse, we went for the lunch menu as it was lower priced. There was also a 50% off promotion for healthcare workers in April, so we managed to snag a pretty good deal!
Pizza that never fails!
You can order easily from their WhatsApp channel to takeaway in the current phase (find it the link via their Facebook page)
[ Food Week — Heritage Restaurants ] Prior to discovering heritage restaurants, I still stubbornly believed all food was somehow a close relative of, or at adjacent to Cantonese dishes. That was in part the prevalence of international HK chains, but also a product of my family’s eating habits.
Thus when a certain someone’s family brought me to Ming Chung, not only was I intimidated by the familiar yet foreign dishes (white lor mee, what is this sorcery!), I was as to whether I could adapt to the flavours.
When we arrived at MC, and we ended up loitering amidst stray wind and rain waiting for a table. Despite the unrelenting weather and crowd, I wasn’t too agitated; perhaps it was the brisk yet warm service, the strangely familiar scents, or the relaxed familial chatter of the restaurant that set me at ease.
Plastered on the far wall was the history of the place: MC is one of the few restaurants that specialise in Henghua cuisine — food from Putien in the Fujiian province that shares some hallmarks of Hokkien and Fuzhou food. However, since Putien is coastal, much of their cuisine draws from the sea — instead of the heavy flavours typical of traditional Hokkien fare, these items offer a more transient, but no less potent taste of the sea.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Hokkien food for how dense and rich it is, but I found myself much more partial towards Henghua cuisine instead. Their mains tend to bloom with the brightness of fresh greens, tempered with the sweet brine of shellfishes.
For fellow newcomers, a good way to ease your way into the cuisine is through their signature white lor me: Also known as rickshaw noodles, instead of the thick, dark sauce of traditional lor me, you’re instead met with thick wheat noodles encircling a much more delicate potpourri of seafood, pork bits, fried beancurd skin, yam, and greens.
Another speciality of note is their fried batang fish! A product created by the convergence of Southern China and Southeast Asian gastronomical routes, the impeccable heat control and thin slices help keep the external layer taut and dry whilst retaining a moist and tender interior — a balanced symmetry between harmonious dichotomies.
[ Food Week — Heritage Restaurants ] Over these couple of years, I’ve been surprised time and time again by how different similar dishes can be when recreated by different dialect groups. And after tasting the variants, I’ve become even firmer a believer that we’ve to preserve these individual threads of heritage lest they become products of distant memory.
One of the dishes I tend to associate with the wrong dialect group is the quintessential fish (head) steamboat. It became one of my fav comfort foods as I was growing up, and whenever there were any signs of impending rain, I’d strongar-, suggest we get it for dinner.
So imagine my surprise when a certain someone’s fam decided to bring me to have fish head charcoal steamboat… in one of their fav Hainanese heritage restaurants, Jin Wee!
Located in Siglap in the unit next to the area’s Wine Connection stall (pst, you can cross-order from JW to there and vice versa btw!), as a testament to its reputation, meal times are characterised by extending to the far edge of its territory. Even then, you can still find hordes of eager patrons — families, couples, and friends alike — perched at its perimeter hawking for seats in eager anticipation.
As someone who never really had Hainanese food I was astounded by the restaurant’s popularity.
Oh, and they’ve these huge porcelain pots that sit amidst diners in the alfresco area as well. Housing both soups and pots of their renowned Jiao Hua Chicken, it’s very worth the order if you’ve the stomach space for it.
We ended up with an order of their Red Grouper Charcoal Steamboat, Hai Nan Pork Chop, Claypot Chicken, and Chap Chye.
The pork chops were as delightful as I’d expected them to be — the crunch they boasted under all the sauce would give even a good Korean fried chicken a run for its money! The fish steamboat had me ladling bowl after bowl because of how flavourful it was (defo on par, if not more, than the Teochew ver). The main difference was a subtle simmer of sweetness and the slightly thicker, almost milky texture courtesy of the sheer amount of yam present. The other two dishes were fab too: The veg was fresh and crisp, and the chicken was smooth and tender!
Went to Bakehaus and bought some pastries. Tried the crossaint, kouigon amann and the herb and garlic baguette. The kouigon amann is good but overpriced! Everything is nice except for the baguette.
Intrigued by the name Tufei chicken, we decided to give this a try. Unfortunately, it was nothing too extraordinary except that the mid wings were marinated with some spices such as black pepper and sprinkled with some black sesame seeds. While the wings were rather juicy, but it would be difficult to justify them at this price point.
The prawn dumplings and prawn ball are the best.
Soup is delivered separately.
