Crystal Jade La Mian

we were supposed to be at home watching our nation's televised celebrations.. like 99% of mostly patriotic singaporeans. but instead, we thought, "since everyone's at home watching the telly, orchard road should be relatively empty.."

well true enough, the roads were clear, traffic was smooth despite the non-functioning erp gantries.. but we still had to queue at crystal jade xiao long bao?!

now this is the definitive measurement of success- while the staff at other restaurants were wondering why couldn't the lack of clientale persuade their employers to call it an early night, crystal jade was bustling with activity, almost as if everyone was oblivious to the ongoing national day parade and yada fireworks.

a creature of habit, i found myself ordering the la mian with stewed beef.

unassuming-looking at first glance, this delectable noodle soup consists of stringy noodles, uncut for auspicious reasons, with chunks of beef pieces and tendons. the major soup freak in me lapped up the hearty broth in good time and the kind people at crystal jade were sporting enough to give me a refill.



dad and mum order the la mian with steamed chicken, century egg and cucumber, tossed in chili oil (which part of a special promotion and thus not found on the menu).

when my mum informed me that it was a cool dish, i , being a wee-bit anal about the temperature of my food, thought to myself, "uh-oh, this is so not going to work..." however, a spoonful of which soon silenced the skeptic in me. though the century egg lay pretty much ignored, i wriggled my chopsticks into the chicken chunks furthest away from me, taking care to drag each piece across the plate in order to coat the surface with chili flakes and oil, to maximise the palatableness. did i say type that?





the fillings in the steamed vegetable buns made you wonder if scrooge mcduck had lent a hand (or wing) in producing them- this was quite an irony since crystal jade was pretty generous with the meat items. having said that, the pillowy soft bun was appeasing so no major damages were incurred.

i love love love the pan fried shanghai pork bun, even more so than the xiao long bao (which was absent from our table this evening). fatty minced pork capsuled in oil-laced refined carbs might not be just what the cardiologist ordered but really now..

beancurd, conpoy and corn soup.

for dessert, we skipped the all-time favourites such as red bean pancake and mango pudding and opted for a lighter glutinous ball in sweet wine. main ingrdients included ickle bits of rice flour balls and what looked to be softened rice grains. the slight aftertaste of wine added a novel dimension by cutting the saccharine sweetness found in most chinese desserts.

i like crystal jade. more than ding tai feng, more than asian kitchen.. i cannot put my finger on their x-factor, just that it makes me wanna go back for MOREEEEE