饮茶, pronounced Yin Cha in Mandarin literally means "to savour tea". Yum Cha is in Cantonese (a Chinese dialect) and has the same meaning. Tea savouring is often accompanied by Dian Xin (点心) or more commonly known as Dim Sum (Cantonese). Some who are not familiar with Chinese characters may argue that Dim Sum is written as 點心 instead of 点心. While not entirely wrong, both ways of writing are accepted with the latter being in Simplified Chinese while the former is in Traditional Chinese. I can go on to harp on the little differences of the two but I digress.
Yum Cha Restaurant opened its doors and served probably one of the best Dim Sum delicacies in Singapore, or so they say. I have not tried it for myself but I finally got the chance to verify the hearsay together with drey and friends.
First Impressions
There was a short queue when we arrived at the restaurant. The wait for our table took no longer than 15 minutes. The restaurant was packed with hungry people of different nationalities. Waiters and waitresses were scurrying around to serve tea and food, as well as to clear empty plates and trays. There was the occasional waitress pushing a trolley full of a specific range of dim sum, visiting every table and asking if the customers want any of the dim sum she has to offer. It felt very much like the typical dim sum restaurant that I have been to in Hong Kong.
Upon being seated, we were asked to choose from a few choices of tea. Given that we were not tea experts, we just picked a random tea that we have heard of - 香片茶 (Jasmine Tea). From there, we have the option of ordering our food directly from any waiter/waitress or wait and see what dim sum passes by in those trolleys.
First up was beancurd skin prawn dumpling with a generous portion of mayonnaise served by the lady and her trolley above. It is a pity I cannot remember the exact names and prices of some of the dish but I will try my best. Because each dish usually come in threes, we had to compromise by sharing. There were only 4 of us at that point of time, so I shared with drey.
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| Beamcurd skin prawn dumpling |
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| Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun |
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| Peking Duck |
Peking duck wrapped in crepe with cucumber and sping onion, is considered as a luxury food at any Chinese restaurant. How can we forgo such delightful food when we have traveled all the way here?! (Well it wasn't that far anyways). Together with the hoisin sauce that usually goes along with the dish, the fragrance of the duck spills into your mouth with a hint of sweet and saltiness from the sauce. The cucumber adds a refreshing touch, thus balancing the overall flavour. Definitely money well spent.
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| Century Egg Porridge |
A must-have for dim sum - Century Egg porridge. I admit that I am picky when it comes to eating porridge, hence, not any simple bowl of porridge will be able to please my taste buds and obtain a praise. The porridge is served hot, directly from a trolley. Scooping half a spoonful of porridge from the edge (our parents taught that porridge at the sides are cooler than if you scoop it from the center), we were able to immediately sample it. There is a "smoothness" to the texture of the porridge which I love and of course, the familiar pungent taste of century egg. The few chunks of poultry meat in the porridge retained their taste and were also able to enhance the flavour of the porridge. These factors can all justify the cost of around $2.80 (excluding service charge) for a small bowl.
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| Char Siew Sou |
BBQ Pork Pastry Puff (aka 叉烧酥, Char Shao Su in Mandarin or Char Siew Sou in Cantonese) is one of our favourite dim sum item. The thought of succulent and flavourful BBQ Pork making up the center of the puff will make anyone salivate. Sure enough, the generous filling of Char Siew at the center was delicious but I find the puff too thick. Perhaps I am being picky again but it would have been better if the Char Siew was spread across the entire length of the puff.
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| Har Gow |
Being one of my favourites, the prawn dumpling (虾饺/Xia Jiao/Har Gow) is an item to look forward to at any dim sum session. It consists basically of shrimps wrapped by translucent and slightly sticky dumpling skin. There is a saying that the simplest dishes are easy to cook but hardest to master. That rings true in this case because the prawn dumpling, being the tricky little treat it is, requires a delicate balance between the amount of filling and the thickness of the dumpling skin, followed by an adequate amount of steaming.
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| Sharks Fin Xiao Long Bao |
Xiao Long Bao (小笼包) is a popularized dish that can be found in most of the Chinese restaurants here, of which one sells flavoured (Black truffle, foie gras and cheesy just to name a few). Being good enough in its traditional form, my heart leapt when i saw 鱼翅小笼包 (Shark's fin xiao long bao) on the menu - How would it taste like? The bamboo baskets each came with 3 delicious looking xiaolongbao (xlb) topped with some of what I would presume as shark's fin. Picking up the delicate dumpling and nibbling off the top with the shark's fin, I can taste... nothing. Nothing in particular save the little tickle of shark's fin on the tongue and the taste of dough that is the dumpling skin. But hey, shark's fin is supposed to be tasteless! Here comes the best part of savouring a xlb, slurping the entire dumpling (after letting it cool for awhile). The combination of pork and soup within the dumpling gives the bizarre sensation of meat melting in your mouth. Despite tasting well, I think the $4.20 spent on this dish is still better off spent on other dishes.
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| Siew Mai with Fish Roe ($3.80) |
Without a need for introduction, the 烧卖 (Shao Mai / Siew Mai) is probably the most well known dim sum item. These pork dumplings can be easily found ranging from the cheap end (50 cents) to as expensive as a few dollars PER piece. Yum Cha offers two types of siew mai, 鱼子蒸烧卖 (Steamed Siew Mai with Fish Roe - $3.80) and 蚝士烧卖 (Oyster Siew Mai - $4.80). We ordered both types to try. Pictured above is the steamed siew mai with a generous portion of fish roe. Going at around $1.20 per piece (each basket contains 3), it is slightly on the expensive end but the size of each piece is slightly bigger than what one would normally find on the streets. The oyster siew mai is each topped with a wolfberry and came in 4s, which means that each piece is around $1.20 as well. It tastes mostly of pork and a slight hint of oyster. Whether you should order these 2 types of siew mai depends on individual preferences. I'd say, go for it because they taste pretty good and what is a dim sum session without siew mai?
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| Top left clockwise: Oyster Siew Mai ($4.80), Phoenix claws in Gui Lin Sauce, Steamed Spare Ribs |
桂林酱鳯爪(Phoenix claws in Gui Lin Sauce - $4.00) and 香蒸排骨 (Steamed spare ribs - $4.80) were next on the table. 4 out of 5 of us did not know how to appreciate the phoenix claws (a better name for chicken feet) so JX gets to have the whole plate for himself and I don't get to describe how good it was. Considering that he licked his fingers while eating it, it's gotta be good, especially with the sauce. The rest of us made do with the spare ribs which was tender and tasty, for which credit must go to the sauce as well.
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| Lotus Leaf wrapped Glutinous Rice with Chicken ($4.20) |
Having heard that the 荷叶糯米鸡 (Lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice with chicken -$4.20) was not bad, we decided to order one of it as well. Fortunately we ordered only 1 because it was quite big and we were mostly full by this point of time. The rice was sticky, moist and both the rice and chunky pieces of chicken had the fragrance of the lotus leaf. It was a pleasure with every bite, an item that was worth every cent.
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| Liu Sha Bao |
Despite being full, there was always going to be some room for dessert. 流沙包 (Liu Sha Bao - steamed custard bun) is definitely on our list. We all know the best custard buns have fillings that flow like it's name in Chinese suggests - flowing sand. It is also getting difficult to find places selling liu sha bao with filling that flow. Much to our delight, the filling for the liu sha bao served at Yum Cha is capable of flowing!
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| Behold the flowing goodness of the Liu Sha Bao |
The filling may not look the best but it has got the taste, enough to satisfy our little cravings. The buns disappeared the instant they were served! So much for being full.. Even then, a final order was placed for egg tarts to conclude our yum cha expedition.
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| Egg Tart |
The crust was soft and flaky. This was accompanied by the sweet tasting egg custard that forms the majority of an egg tart. Although the serving was small, having an approximate circumference of a small tea cup, it served well to complete our meal.
Overall
Lunch for 5 - $106 (About $21/pax)
Visited on 18 Jan 2014 @ ~2 PM
A la carte available on Saurdays, Sundays and Public holidays 9am to 11pm
Location
20 Trengganu Street
#02-01
Singapore 058479
Nearest MRT: NE4/DT19 - Chinatown (Exit A)
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