Eat-to-your-heart-content

Date with Xiao Long Bao

My debut blog-post, please enjoy!

I have been hearing and reading a lot about this petite Dim-Sum, delicately known as Xiao Long Bao but I’ve yet to taste any of them. And finally, on Thursday, my 3 primary school friends decided to bring the ignorant me to meet the delicate princess.

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao was tucked at one serene corner of Ngee Ann City. The posh outfit, accompanied with elaborate lighting and wooden stilted walls almost made me felt under-dressed. Harried servers, dishing out trays and trays of Dim-Sum and the aroma surrounding us certainly whetted my appetite even more.




The first dish served was the Shanghai Udon. This Japanese noodles was stir-fried with cabbage, mushrooms and thin slices of chicken. For me, I think it’s a tad too oily but for the rest of the girls? All I could say was their chopsticks was never far from the Udon. Haha. The sauce was excellent – dark soya sauce with a bit of oyster sauce I think, explaining for its mixed taste of sweet and slight saltiness. It was excellent. The sauce would go well with plain rice for me!



Next dish up was the long-awaited Xiao Long Bao. Those 4 petite dumplings were snatched up within seconds as everyone tried their hands at tackling the juices that are supposed to squirt out. But, unfortunately for me, the juices was absent, let alone squirt out! Consistency in quality recommended at Crystal Jade! However, the minced pork in it compensated for the initial disappointment – the pork was sweet, juicy and soft. I was never much a meat-eater, but I really love this minced meat! The presentation however was of passable standard. I wished they could have spent more effort on placing the 4 Xiao Long Baos nicely on the mini basket!



Yang Zhou Siew Mai: This dish was ordered by me. I was expecting some juicy meat in the Siew Mai but a surprise awaited me, a pleasant one though. There was no meat, instead glutinous rice was stuffed inside the dumpling – people who swear by Atkins’ diets will probably skip this dish. These carbo-loaded Yang Zhou Siew Mai came with slightly thick skins and chewy glutinous rice. I’m a carbo-lover, so this dish won my heart over at first bite!



Next was the girls’ favourite – dumplings with chilli sauce. The clear chilli sauce is a tad too spicy for me, but the spiciness was very much welcomed by the other girls. The filling comprised of 韭菜 and pork. I think it’s because of the 韭菜 that the filling was not that sweet compared to the Xiao Long Bao. But overall, the chilli sauce and 韭菜 have won these dumplings the most favourite for the entire meal!



The last dish was deep-fried Scallion Pastry. Just in case, some of you are wondering what’s scallion?! Scallion is the young of spring onions =) basically, this pastry stuffed with scallion was deep fried. The outer skin was crispy to crunch, however after 3 bites, I felt like I’m eating a curry puff skin that’s thick and starchy. The skin felt coarse to my throat after I finished a quarter of it. But Shuhui definitely loved the skin, I’ve seen her taking out the scallion and eating the crust. How cute!! Haha..

Alright, that’s about the whole Xiao Long Bao outing. Stay tuned for our next food post okay! :p

Lifang

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
391 Orchard Road
#04-27
Ngee Ann City
S(238872)

posted by {```~_Angel of MySelf _~```} @ 7:15 AM