Wednesday, January 27

Summing it up at Taste Paradise

I don’t do very much over the weekends these days. It’s almost as if my body knows 'It’s the Weekend' and momentarily refuses to do anything that would require me to strain. But anyway two Sundays ago, the four of us around the table mahjong-style, ready for an afternoon of kickass dim sum. With a pencil and dim sum menu / order sheet, we ticked off everything that incited joyous childhood memories and habitual cravings.

We had the roast pork and xiao long bao. I was gleefully surprised by how little fat the roast pork had but like the xiao long bao, the pork smell was almost overwhelming. I know what you must be thinking, Woman, you ARE eating pork so deal with IT.

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Other dishes we had were:

Tweedledee and tweedledum har gaw and siew mai. I don’t know if it happens to you but whenever someone suggests har gaw (siew mai), someone else would yell out, how about siew mai (har gaw)?

Anyway the har gaw was shrimp-packed good stuff and the siew mai was tasty with strong Chinese mushroom accents.

Deep fried shrimp in beancurd skin – crunchy good stuff with firm but squishy insides; and chee cheong fun with shrimp – ok at best; XO carrot cake was tasty but “XO” is such a misnomer; and deep fried scallion pastry - buttery flaky pastry filled with oomphy scallions.

And lo and behold char siew sau. Now my favourite child of the dim sum family deserves a paragraph on its own. Yes, sweet pea. Anything for you, sweet pea. Taste Paradise’s baked char siew pastries were good but not as earth-shatteringly so as Imperial Treasures. The triangle nobs filled up considerably with sweet saucy char siew but alas, the too thin pastry wasn’t able to hoist it to infinite elaterium.

Trust me, we were tempted to order the much talked about custard buns but that would have sent us into food coma.

Décor was ironically gaudy and opulent for a modern Chinese restaurant; service was a quintessentially Chinese – meaning lots of hands swooping in and out to change our plates, re-align our tea pots and plates to fengsui-approved geometric positions.

Taste Paradise at ION Orchard
ION Orchard #04-07
2 Orchard Turn
Tel: +65 6509 9660

15 comments:

muchadoabouteating said...

Ha ha I went taste paradise 2 saturdays ago. Had almost the same stuff as you. I shall try the roast pork next time :)

Angeline said...

did u try the custard bun? they have one of the best custard bun!

yixiaooo said...

py, looks like you enjoyed yourself =)

angeline, no i didn't ... was on the verge of semi-food coma. but i read off your blog that they are amazing!

David Koh said...

You were so descriptive it almost seemed like I was there... Hahahaha (a bit of char siew sau flying out) ha.

yixiaooo said...

"it almost seemed like I was there"

very funny, david koh.

Cavalock said...

havent been to their ION outlet yet but their other places r pretty good. like their crabs.

yixiaooo said...

ooo i haven't tried teir crabs before... which crabs are good?

Joy said...

Haha, its true...Har Gaw and Siew Mai are inseperable and will always go in a pair. I seldom see orders for only either one of them!

myfoodsirens said...

Totally laugh out loud at your "Tweedledee and tweedledum" paragraph! I'm guilty of shouting out Har Gaw everytime =D

yixiaooo said...

joy and kaelyn, it's almost as if something is missing when we only order either one =)

Angeline said...

YES. the custard bun is amazing! My must order item at taste paradise. I've not tried the one at peach garden. Till then, I will know where is my fav custrd bun! :D

ladyironchef said...

"my favourite child of the dim sum family" love the way u describe char siew sou! hehe what a shame u din have the custard buns, but you know what? that's the perfect excuse for Taste paradise round II :)

yixiaooo said...

i'm feeling so bad for not trying their custard buns =(

Anonymous said...

hey, ur blog makes me hungry :) how do manage to stay in shape? i wish i can eat indulgently and not worry about the calories -__-

yixiaooo said...

hi anon, the 'circle' shape is frankly really easy to mantain... quite literally a piece (or two) of cake.

if you were referring to another shape, i've been told a balanced diet and regular exercise helps but of course, that's easier to preach than follow.

so my advice (if you still feel it's worth taking) is think about what you want to eat and eat only that. i don't remember who said this but... "a moment on your lips, a lifetime on your hips".