PUBLISHED July 11th, 2017 06:30 am
With Dragon Boat Festival just gone and Mid Autumn Festival approaching in a few months, traditional Chinese cuisine is enjoying its spotlight in Singapore, albeit in curious contemporary flavour profiles. In this season of embracing old-fashioned values and remembering cultural roots, put aside the likes of black truffle dumplings for an authentic rendition of classic Chinese dishes at Min Jiang at One-North’s Celebration of Heritage Delights.
The Heritage Treasures Platter ($108 for six, $180 for ten) is a perfect beginning to the 60s to 80s-inspired menu, featuring four mini appetisers artfully arranged on brown parchment. The crisp-fried Teochew-style shrimp roll is a local favourite, delivering on familiar flavours and the requisite deep fried crunch. Best described as a Chinese scotch egg, the deep-fried crabmeat with chicken liver and salted egg yolk is an interesting combination of rich liver, briny crabmeat and crumbly salted egg, encased in a crispy breadcrumb shell. Rounding out the platter are braised “Wuxi” spare ribs and bountiful harvest, a fresh stir-fried mixed vegetable dish consisting of water chestnuts, lotus roots, asparagus, and deep-fried macadamia nuts.
Of course, any respectable Chinese menu must have soup – in this case, the Double-Boiled Whole Winter Melon with Eight Treasures ($80, one-day advance order required) came contained in an individually carved winter melon bowl. Each spoonful of the soup was packed with flavours from the eight treasures of duck, chicken, prawns, crabmeat, Chinese mushrooms, conpoy, Chinese ham, and wolf berries. A sight to behold, this dish certainly doubles as a centrepiece when served.
Taking his showmanship a step further, Master Chef Goh Chee Kong invites diners to get hands-on with the Golden Fortune “Kampong” Chicken ($80, two-day advance order required), a whole chicken roasted with Chinese wine, black fungus, and shredded pork which is then baked within a thick dough shell. The impressive looking dish is brought to the table together with heavy mallets, and the chicken-moulded exterior is smashed away to reveal the real poultry within. A delicious alternative to rage rooms, to be sure.
A culinary frankenstein of sorts, the Roasted Boneless Chicken stuffed with Minced Prawns ($30 for half chicken, $60 for whole chicken) isn’t quite turducken, but strongly reminds you of it. Made with thin air-dried slices of chicken slathered with minced prawn paste, the deep fried strips of chicken and prawn are a texturally interesting side dish. They’re best dipped in the accompanying sauce, which lifts the strong meaty flavours with chilli, kalamansi, plum sauce, and ginger flower.
Though not strictly a dish of the past, Min Jiang’s Stir Fried Crabmeat and Egg White served in Yam Ring ($24) is a welcome dish at any table. Expertly prepared, the sweetness of the Alaskan crab and delicate texture of the silky egg whites are a welcome contrast to the heavier dishes on the menu. Diners with a sweet tooth will fancy the Banana Toffee ($8), caramelised banana bites reminiscent of elevated goreng pisang. Addictive and tantalising, a double portion may be in order to satisfy everyone’s inevitable request for a second piece.
Housed in an iconic black and white colonial bungalow, Min Jiang at One-North is the most fitting destination to revisit the dishes of generations past. This season of nostalgia, call up the older relatives who won’t stop harking back to eons ago and take them on a much-needed culinary time travel journey to “the good old times when…”.
A Celebration of Heritage Delights takes place from 1 July to 31 August 2017, daily 11.30am – 2.30pm (lunch), 6.30pm – 10.30pm (dinner), at Min Jiang at One-North, 5 Rochester Park, Singapore 139216, p +65 6774 0122.
Senior citizens aged 60 years old and above will enjoy a 15% discount on heritage dishes.