Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant for Dim Sum

I'm back at the Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant again. The last time I had the Signature Kopi Crab but this time round, I'm back with my family for the dim sum. This photo shows Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant. Do you see HY and little Julien waving at me from inside? Just kidding. We thought of having a la carte dim sum but we found out that the dim sum set menu was worth every dollar and decided to go for the plunge. The dim sum menu is S$28 per person..

The complimentary wasabi potato chips that was so addictive that we wiped out the plate in double quick time.

Not quite there yet. This is not one of the dish in the dim sum set menu. This was the extra dish, the 辣椒蟹生煎包Seared Chilli Crab Meat Bun, that we ordered.

Dim Sum Set Menu - S$28 per person

煎萝卜糕 Fried Radish Cake

煎腐皮卷 Prawn Beancurd Roll.

烧卖 Siew Mai Dumpling

叉烧包 Honey Pork Bun

瓦煲老火汤 Soup of the Day

I borrowed the photo from my previous visit but the claypot looked the same. What you get here will be traditional Cantonese soup. This may be different from each visit.

猪腩排咖啡香 Wok Fried Pork Ribs with Espresso Sauce
Just like the Kopi Crab I had before, this is an acquired taste. The espresso sauce is a novelty but not everyone appreciates it.

姜丝盐水浸菜远 Poached Hong Kong Choy Sum, shredded ginger and superior stock.

龙虾焖米粉 Stewed Lobster Bee Hoon

This was the dish that made the dim sum set menu looked so worth every dollar. The bee hon was infused with the taste of lobster. The generous portion of lobster was most appreciated. The meat was sweet and tender.

白雪红酶 Chillee Glutinous Rice Dumpling, Fresh Cream Stuffing
If you like chewy mochi, you gotta like this. Soft and almost melting in my mouth.

18 Marina Gardens Drive #01-10 
Flower Dome, Gardens By The Bay
Singapore 018953
Tel : +65 6604 6604

Interesting Mee Sua Kueh dim sum takeaway from Swee Choon 瑞春

瑞春 Swee Choon has been serving dim sum in the heart of Jalan Besar Road for the past 50 odd years. Dad still remembers the time when he was a kid and when our family was poor. Having pork bun then was a luxury. At times, Grandpa's boss would visit and my Dad and my aunties would vulture over the pork buns. These pork buns were from 瑞春 Swee Choon.

After all these years, as Dad recalls, Swee Choon still makes yummy pork buns, that has a relatively thick but fluffy skin and juicy pork within the skin. Now, there's also a piece of shitake mushroom added to the meat. Yummy!

When I was at the takeaway counter this morning, an item on the dim sum menu caught my eye. What's Mee Sua Kueh? Never heard of it before. Mee Suah Kueh is an innovative dim sum made with vermicelli packed together and then deep fried till there a crisp on the outside.

Here's how the strands of vermicelli looks beneath the brown crisp. Taste good with the sweet chilli sauce that was provided.

This morning's takeaway was just a prelude to their dim sum. Swee Choon is definitely a supper place, judging from their operating hours. The locality was known to be quite raunchy at night but I don't know if it's still the case. Mum and Dad told me they prefer dim sum from Victor's Kitchen after I've brought them there to try. Maybe they've eaten Swee Choon too many times. I'll have to find some time to check out the rest of their dim sum to find out if Swee Choon's dim sum is as how Mum and Dad suggest.

185/187/189/191 Jalan Besar
Singapore
Tel : +65 6225 7788


Opening Hours :
Mon - Sat 6pm-10am
Sun & Public Holidays open till 12 noon.
Closed on Tue night


Swee Choon Website

Victor's Kitchen .... Affordable and Delicious Dim Sum

We were actually planning to have dim sum at Swee Choon along Jalan Besar when we realized that they closed at 10.30am. I'm glad that we were familiar with the area and decided to visit Victor's Kitchen which is just a short drive down Jalan Besar to Bencoolen Street.  Victor's Kitchen is located on the 1st floor of Sunshine Plaza serving Hong Kong style dim dum. 

This Dim Sum kitchen has made quite a name for itself drawing crowds of dim sum lovers with their delicious dim sum at affordable price. Expect to squeeze with strangers who may be sitting at the neighboring table placed side by side leaving only a single passage way for staff to bring the dim sum items to you.

玫瑰露蚝皇叉烧包 Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun. 

酥皮蛋黄奶皇包 Yummy Milky Custard Bun. Victor's Kitchen Custard Bun is a must-try with it's runny custard that flows out of any crack that you create.

XO 酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕 Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO sauce

沙律明虾角 Deep Fried Shrimp Dumpling

皮蛋鱼片粥 Nemo's Porridge. The porridge was not typical Hong Kong style. It taste bland, more like Teochew porridge.

香脆鲜虾腐皮卷 Crispy Golden Shrimp Roll

蜜汁叉烧肠粉 Char Siew Cheong Fun. The cheong fun here's smooth and thin. Very good!

香港特色煎肠粉 H.K. Style Pan Fry Cheong Fun. I was impressed with this pan fried cheong fun.   One side of the cheong fun was fried till it's crispy and slightly charred. The fragrance of the charred parts made this food a treat to the sense of taste and smell.

香港夏日冰镇奶茶 H.K. Summer Ice Tea. This the the way that Victor's Kitchen present their Ice Milk Tea. The ice bath was used to keep the milk tea chilled. Adding ice to the milk tea will dilute the taste so this is one good way of keeping the ice milk tea chilled while maintaining consistency of the tea.

91 Bencoolen Street
#01-49 Sunshine Plaza
Singapore
Tel : +65 9838 1761


Opening Hours :
Daily 10.30am~8pm
Closed on Monday

Tung Lok Classics @ Chinese Swimming Club ...... it's dim sum back to the classics for us

It was at Tung Lok Restaurant, the one that used to be inside Liang Court, where I had my first taste of Crab Meat and Shark's Fin Dumpling. They served one of the best. HY introduced me to this dish and I had loved it ever since. It was this Tung Lok's crab meat and shark's fin dumpling that set a standard for comparison whenever we go for dim sum.

The dim sum dishes in Tung Lok Classics are traditional, not as fancy as the the dim sum served in several five star hotels restaurants. However, the taste was still as exquisite and at the same time reminisces of the Tung Lok dim sum that I had almost a decade ago.

We ate at the restaurant inside the Chinese Swimming Club. The restaurant is not in the old club house building but a newer, swanky club house right across the road. There's plenty of car park space for non-members to visit the club.

It's been a long while since we step back into a Tung Lok restaurant as we've been mesmerized by the many dim sum 'hotspots' that had sprouted everywhere in Singapore. We're back here thanks to a treat from my dad. Even though the restaurant's location is different, even though the ambience has changed with time, HY and I felt that it was back to the classics, back to the Tung Lok that we used to visit, and back to when I first had my virgin taste of crab meat and shark's fin dumpling.

Crispy Roasted Pork Belly

Heavenly combination of crunchy crispy skin with the tender meat. A swipe of Dijon mustard enhanced the fragrance of this mouth watering roast pork belly.

Freshly Boiled Fish Porridge

A 'smooth' Cantonese style porridge with those tender slices of fish.

Crispy Silver Baits

Crispy yet not too salty.

Deep Fried Shrimp and Banana Roll

Sweetness of the banana and savory shrimp are contrasting taste but this is the attractiveness of this dish.

Deep Fried Yam Croquette

Smooth yam paste within the crispy, puffy exterior.

Deep Fried Beancurd Skin Rolls with Shrimp

A classic taste of the well fried beancurd skin and shrimp.

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling

Juicy Minced Pork Dumpling

Steamed Pork Dumpling

Steamed Barbecued Pork Bun

The pork bun's skin was soft and fluffy .....

...... and filled with barbequed pork in fragrant oyster sauce

Crab Meat and Shark's Fin Dumpling

This dish is our 'must-have' in Tung Lok. This is the standard that we use as a yard stick of comparison to other dim sum place that serves this dish. Thin dumpling skin ..... obvious shark's fin and tasty clear soup. Others that I've eaten before, have foie gras or salted egg yolk added to the dumpling but none was up to the standard of this less fanciful crab meat and shark's fin dumpling.

When I burst open the dumpling, all the ingredients like shark's fin, shrimp, mushroom poured out into the soup.

We always leave a spare tank for good dessert ........

Chilled Mango, Pomelo and Sago with

Ice Cream served in young coconut

This was HY's choice of dessert. Crunchy cereal was sprinkled over the blend of mango, vanilla ice cream. This was a nice concoction of sour from the mango, sweetness from the ice cream and fragrance from the coconut. Nice soft flesh from the young coconut can be scrapped out to go with the rest of the ingredients.

Chilled Herbal Jelly with 'Cheng Tng'

I chose the more 'cooling' herbal jelly with 'cheng tng'. It taste good but the taste didn't blend well. Although they were mixed together, the herbal jelly tasted quite distinctly separate from the 'cheng tng'. It's strong herbal taste overpowered the light 'cheng tng'. May be I didn't add enough syrup that was provided.

21 Amber Road #03-00

Chinese Swimming Club

Singapore

Tel : +65 6345 0111

Tung Lok Classics Website

Dim Sum @ 李白 Li Bai

Dim Sum @ 香港粥面家 Canton-i

How can we ignore a Hong Konger's recommendation for good dim sum in Singapore? HY's Hong Konger friend recommended Canton-i for dim sum. This can't be wrong. People from Hong Kong are definitely picky about their dim sum.

The Alluring Roasts

As we were ushered to our table, we couldn't help but stare at the well glazed BBQ pork, the crispy pork belly and the uniformly roasted ducks. With these alluring roasts welcoming us into Canton-i, how could we not order some to whet our taste buds?

3 Combinations of Roast Meat

We did not order one of the roast but all three; the roast duck, the roasted pork belly and the BBQ pork. I'm not a really "ducky" person so I prefer the pork belly and the BBQ pork. A 'Must Try'.

Roast Pork Belly

The roast pork belly had a half and half proportion, 50% meat and 50% fats. The skin was really crispy. I hope that I'll be able to cook my roast pork belly with the skin as pretty and crispy as this. We all liked the crispy skin, but my brother-in-law quickly added that he preferred the taste of the roast pork belly that I cooked. How nice, but I'm not buying lunch.

BBQ Pork

The BBQ pork has a 1/3 fats and 2/3 lean meat proportion which I liked. The tender BBQ pork and the well roasted glazed exterior made this dish well received.

Shanghainese Steamed Meat Dumplings

The Shanghainese Steamed Dumplings were good but I still prefer the ones from Crystal Jade at Takashimaya. I preferred the richer taste of the soup at the Crystal Jade as compared to this one.

Deep Fried Whitebait with Salt & Pepper

This dish is a chef's recommendation. I liked the crispiness that was achieved by the kitchen. The salt and pepper were done just like I liked it. We had a little discussion. My MIL thought that the dish was not "fishy" enough. HY and my BIL thought that there wasn't enough punch from the salt and pepper. I don't care ..... I liked it. Another case of one man's meat ... another man's poison. Like I always believe, everyone's taste are different. So ...... peace!

Congee

Canton-i served smooth Cantonese congee that tasted superb! There were several choices and we chose one that included a mix of pork liver, lean pork meat and sliced fish. This went well with the crispy fried fritters that had everyone's stamp of approval.

Fried Fritters (Deep Fried Chinese Crullers)

The fried fritters came done to perfection. We all like the utmost crispiness that was served to us. This was the extra order to go with the congee.

Sweetened Ground Peanut Puree
with Glutinous Rice Ball

Boy! I loved the taste of this peanut puree. Apart from the peanut, the paste has a slight hint of saltiness that made it unique even though it looked the same as the peanut puree we get outside. It reminded me of the peanut Puree that I had in Mandarin Oriental, KL (Kuala Lumpur). Slurp!

There's the black sesame paste inside the glutinous rice ball.

Pan Fried Water Chestnut Cake

Everyone had a peck into my FIL's Pan Fried Water Chestnut Cake. The cake was tangy and the generous bits of water chestnuts were crunchy. Definitely one of our nicer desserts.

Bird Cages with no Birds

Dim Sum restaurants used to welcome folks with their pet birds in their bird cages. Here in Canton-i, there were many bird cages but there weren't any birds. These are cleverly designed lamps that aptly bring back memories of a lost trend (bringing pet birds for dim sum) for "Yum Cha" (drinking tea) in the dim sum restaurants of old.


Service at Canton-i was acceptable, contrary to "scary" service feedbacks that I heard. Sometimes, you do have to wave hard to get any attention from the passing service staff though. I'll be back for dim sum!

2 Orchard Turn
#03-14 ION Orchard
Singapore
+6565098368
Canton-i Website