The family Reunion Dinner (团圆饭) and ancestor worship are the two of the most important highlights of the celebrations on Chinese New Year Eve. The Lunar New Year is traditionally ushered in at 11 pm, but many families, especially those in Singapore, have adopted 12 am as the norm.
This year Reunion Dinner (年夜饭) we had it much earlier than previous year as otherwise my brother would not be able to participate due to his company sending him for oversea training trip. Both my brothers had suggested Lai Huat Signatures (来發) at Gambas Crescent for this year dinner gathering. Requested one of my brother to make reservation for dinner at 6pm.
When we arrived, the dining area was almost full as more customers continued to stream into the room. There were three menus on the table – Ala carte, Steamboat and Chinese New Year Set Menu. We went for the former as the CNY menu were prized at S$318+ (5-6 pax), S$518+ (8-10 pax) and S$888+ (8-10 pax) respectively and not value for money. Below are some sample pages from the ala carte menu.
We sipped on our drinks and waited patiently because the kitchen is busy with the packed crowds. Once the first course was served, the rest followed one after another in quick succession. The Salted Egg Chicken (咸蛋鸡丁) with its boneless chunks of meat was deep-fried with curry leaves and tossed in a salted egg yolk mixture of chilli, butter and evaporated milk. The savoury sweet chicken is crispy with taste of salted egg and mild spiciness.
One of my brothers ordered this large portion of their famous Sambal Promfret (叁峇鲳鱼). The whole deep-fried fish was covered with fiery looking red sambal chilli paste. Was expecting the sambal to be spicy hot but surprisingly, the Scoville heat level was well within our limit and it actually tasted delicious with the rice white. The poor fish on the other hand was fried to a crisp and pretty hard to get the flesh off the bones. I suggested this Coffee Pork Ribs (咖啡排骨) as I love coffee. While the boneless pork is tender and fragrant with authentic flavour profile of coffee, it seems to lack some kind of oomph to bring this dish to the next level. Decent and perfectly edible but not good enough for me.
I had a Chinese yummy dinner with Jinxuan Tea - picked one of Taiwan's moutains tea and full mind of leather work ideas at resturant ... 🙄😒 f**king totally unable to take my mind off work. XD 😜 crazy Lan~*