Hello all, hope all of you are doing fine, I recently had a gathering with a group of friends whom we've known each other through playing a Chinese game more than 15 years ago. The game is already taken down but the few of us are still meeting up with one another and even attending major life events of one another. So today, I will be covering on a restaurant which stood the test of time and the place where we had our recent gathering.
The Place
Lai Wah Restaurant
Address: 44 Bendemeer Rd, #01-1436, Singapore 330044
This is a restaurant that I knew for a very long time but didn't pay a visit until this particular gathering that I had. And from what we know, this restaurant was first started in 1963, before Singapore independence. So when our clan leader suggested that we have a gathering at this restaurant, I was really looking forward to it.
Here's how the place looks like:
I apologies for not capturing the internals of the restaurant but in general, it is how it looks like in the first picture where there are many round tables and chairs with a lazy Susan in the middle and everything exhibits a back in time kind of feel. The cutlery used and the interior is just so retro and brings back fond memories of the past. Location is rather central and easy to access via public transport. If you drive, there is a multi storey carpark just behind the restaurant.
Now let's get right on the food.
The Food
I was about 15 minutes late due to a traffic jam and the guys went on to order for me. And unfortunately, I did not manage to capture a full image of all the food on the table.
- Signature Platter
- Fish Maw Soup with Crab Meat
- Yam Ring with Sweet and Sour Pork
- Golden Cage Chicken
- Ginger and Spring Onion Venison
- Cantonese Styled Poached Live Prawns
- Almond Jelly with Longan
A whole array of goodness ordered for 5 people. But we are all famished, so we can definitely finish what we've ordered.
So now let's dive into each of the items that we ordered.
Signature Platter
Typical starter dish for a wedding or banquet and so we start with this. This platter comes with a total of 6 items (anti-clockwise).
- Handmade Meatball
- Salad Prawns
- Spring Roll
- Century Egg
- Crispy Seafood Beancurd Roll
- Scrambled eggs
Let's talk about each of the individual items. The handmade meatball's irregularity really showed that it is handmade. The bite into the meatball is so infused with the marinate and the meat is so tender and I would even want to order this standalone if I can. The next item is salad prawns which is essentially poached prawns dipped in mayonnaise. The prawns are really fresh, firm with each bite and the mayonnaise adds on a sweet flavour onto the prawns making them a joy to eat. Springs rolls are very authentic with the filling made up of carrot and turnip which had a very nice bite with a crispy golden brown skin. The century egg is rather standard dish, nothing special to mention. Seafood beancurd roll is awesome because it is infused with umami and the crispiness elevates the dish that got me wanting more than 1 piece. Finally, it is the scrambled eggs that had a retro feel because this is something that is usually not seen in modern stir fry restaurants. Taste has that homemade feel like something that mothers will cook for their family.
All in all, a very nice set of food put together into a platter that exhibits good quality and retro taste all in one.
Fish Maw Soup with Crab Meat
This dish is also like the usual 2nd dish of a wedding. The soup is nicely prepared with nice viscosity and packed loads of ingredients within the soup. The restaurant is not stingy with fish maw or crab meat, every bowl had a nice portion of both and tasted really good when we add a small drip of black vinegar and some pepper to remove some of the fishy taste.
Yam Ring with Sweet and Sour Pork
Apologies that the yam ring is already flattened to be used as the base of the food. But this is another retro dish that is rarely offered by stir fried stalls anymore, much less with sweet and sour pork within it. The yam ring is nicely fried and melts in your mouth upon eating while the sweet and sour pork had that retro taste that is slightly different from what the mixed rice stall sells which had way more ketchup in the sauce mix. Also a nicely done dish with the pork nice and tender.
Golden Cage Chicken
One of the signatures of this restaurant and requires advance booking because this dish is not easy to prepare. The chicken skin needs to be removed first to be air dried and subsequently stuffed with prawn and squid paste and then fried to golden brown. This dish really wow-ed me, the stuffed chicken skin was so nice and flavourful and the remaining chicken were nicely diced and stir fried. Really living up to the name of being a signature dish here.
Ginger and Spring Onion Vension
This dish is a little gamey and might not suit everybody's tastebuds. If you can tolerate duck meat, probably you will able to tolerate the gamey taste that this has. Should you be able to, you should find this a very nicely done dish with the meat super tender and the marinate locked in to give a flavourful taste on every bite.
Cantonese Styled Poached Live Prawns
Big sized prawn that is firm with every bite. The way the prawns are cooked absorbs all the cooking wine used to steam the prawns. Simple yet delicious and you can taste a hint of the wine taste without the alcohol with every bite.
Almond Jelly with Longan
At last we come to the last dish, dessert. This is yet again, another retro dish that is liked by many people like my late father. This is something that he will take extra portion because of his liking for both the jelly and longan. Simple dessert that wraps up the whole dinner in a sweet fashion.
Overall:
Like in my title, I stated that this restaurant really stood the test of time. It is already opened for 62 years and running. Many of the taste reminded me of my childhood days when I eat out at restaurants with my extended family and I really miss those taste and flavours. Thankfully, such restaurants still exist and allow us to reminisce the good old days and enjoy family time together.
Top notch ingredients with top notch cooking methods that had not gone outdated.
Closing
Thank you for coming by and reading my post. I am glad to be able to dine together with my friends at this restaurant and glad that they are still going strong even after 62 years. Let's continue to support them and hopefully such flavours can be passed down to younger generations.
See you in the next post!
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