Every Chinese meal should start off with a hearty double boiled soup, and the soup of the day was the Double Boiled Buddha's Palm Gourd with Pork Ribs soup (S$6.00). I guess it's not common to see Chinese restaurants using Buddha's Palm Gourd to cook their soup. The soup was the usual Crystal Jade's good standard.
I enjoyed the salty, sour and sweet Pickles, which is actually marinated Salted Vegetables (S$3.00) . Of course, the S$3 price includes others like the water served.
A colourful Sea Bass with Pomelo and Osmanthus Honey (S$12.00) . Osmanthus, commonly known in Mandarin as 桂花, gives this dish a floral fragrance taste. The slightly tangy Pomelo countered the sweet honey sauce. In Chinese cooking, it is always about balancing each other, something like Ying and Yang.
These Crab Claws stuffed with shrimp paste (S$48.00 for 4) are gigantic! Unlike your usual Old Chang Kee crab claws, the ones here are chokeful of real crab and shrimp flesh. Expensive but worth it.
Stir fried prawns with macadamia nuts and white truffle oil (S$33.00) - Health Promotion Board would endorse this dish. Lightly fried, the dish has a nice truffle taste and aroma.
Done in the style of the usual Eggs with Sharks Fins style, the Sauteed scramble eggs is instead cooked with fish maw (S$18.00) , giving this dish a twist. And maybe something sharks conservationists would be happy of.
First look at this Deep fried yellow croaker fish with pepper and salt (S$10), and many diners will not even bother to try it. But this was really surprisingly tasty. Crispy skin and juicy flesh, flavoured with just only pepper and salt. It's addicitive and due to the simple seasoning, the freshness of the fish was not covered up.
And of course, we had white rice to go with the dishes.
Crystal Jade Golden Palace
290 Orchard Road
Paragon
#05-22/24