Chinese New Year 2019 Highlights from Crystal Jade
With recently appointed Group Executive Chef Martin Woo at the helm, we’re seeing a slew of delicious upgrades, with a contemporary and distinctive flair, rolling out to the various Crystal Jade concepts.
Aside from the thoughtful disposable place mats that comes along with orders of Yusheng—festive, and makes the mess after a breeze to settle—their homemade sauce of fresh passionfruit, roselle juice and plum sauce lend a delightful harmony of sweet-sour tones.
The Auspicious Tidings Hamachi Yusheng (small $88; large S$128; available for takeaway and dine-in at Crystal Jade Palace, Crystal Jade Golden Palace and Crystal Jade Dining IN) features salmon roe and uncommon addition umibodo (sea grapes) for some contrasting brininess, with pork floss rolls for extra crunch.
Another standout is their robust presentation of King Prawn Prepared 2-ways ($32.80). Prawn heads are deep-fried to a brilliant ethereal crunch, dusted with a simple yet agreeable coat of salt and pepper.
There’s also just enough meat in this offcut for those who prefer to just chew on (and not ingest) the shell to enjoy.
A good takeaway idea is their Bountiful Abalone Treasure Pot (small $268.80; large $468.80) packed with 18 ingredients—such as 10-head abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, fresh scallop, fresh prawn, dried oyster, conpoy, black moss, pig trotter and dried mushrooms—and a tasty, full-bodied gravy that I can imagine would get better with time over a stove.
And you can get even better value by choosing their Auspicious Reunion Feast bundle ($368.80 for 5 pax; $588.80 for 10 pax), consisting of 5 dishes: Bountiful abalone treasure pot 金玉满堂海味盆菜, Reunion Norwegian Salmon yusheng贺岁团圆三文鱼捞起, Crystal Jade Fortune Chicken翡翠富贵鸡, Fried glutinous rice with cured meats 生炒腊味糯米饭, and a choice of either sweet Nian gao 发财年糕or savoury Carrot cake 如意萝卜糕.
Chinese New Year dining at Crystal Jade restaurants will commence through 19 February 2019 (all outlets are closed on 5 February). Takeaway orders can be made online at estore.crystaljade.com from 17 December 2018.
This was an invited media tasting session, though all views expressed are my own.
Crystal Jade Palace Restaurant
For information on outlets and locations, visit www.crystaljade.com.
