Nanjing Impressions (南京大牌档) - Popular Restaurant with Incredible Interior Design @ Plaza Singapura [Singapore]

Somewhat hidden in the newer wing of Plaza Singapura, Nanjing Impressions is a restaurant with an eye-catching facade guaranteed to make you stop and take a second look. 

Stepping in; it's like going back in time to the dynastic era in China, where teahouses were the norm. Lanterns illuminating the premises, with wooden tables and stools. Even the service staff members were decked out in traditional Chinese garb. To be frank, I initially thought it's just all hype 

But it's apparently a popular chain from China and Singapore is its very first overseas branch. And even here in Singapore, the queue to enter can be long and I first noticed it when I was having kopi-gao at the Ya Kun Kaya Toast store right opposite Nanjing Impressions.

That's when I started asking around if the food is good. Turned out a few friends had indeed checked out the place and they enjoyed it! Anyway, there's a small stage for musical performances but it was suspended due to the darn COVID-19.

I was wondering what words were pasted on the lanterns; maybe some auspicious Chinese sayings? A closer look revealed that they were the dishes offered in the eatery! 

The classic-looking menu; which unraveled into a longer piece of menu with pictures of dishes and their prices (shall share later at the end of the post). The one thing I noticed; there's no size for most of the dishes and that could be risky if you are eating with just your partner! 

Order list - I was fortunate to have seven persons with me! Thank god we had this meal before the enhanced safe management measures kicked in. Pray the community cases remain stable as I love to dine-in! 

Our order! Sorry for the blur image.

Given the setting, let us have a pot of Chinese tea; Chrysanthemum mixed with Pu-erh tea to be exact. As you can see, the crockeries were the type we typically see in period dramas! 

Foods here! Okay, this picture was taken halfway through when some dishes were already cleared. They had to as we didn't have sufficient space for the rest of our order.

Celestial Roast Duck Dumplings (天王烤鸭包）- one of the restaurant's signatures; they looked more like xiaolongbao but instead of the usual pork, duck was used. 

Interesting, this tasted just like xiaolongbao and an incredibly delicious one! Maybe I ate it too quickly and couldn't discern the duck meat within; however, the broth housed inside was both sweet and savoury! 

Jinling Noodles in Light Soy Sauce Broth （老牌阳春面）- maybe I am just not accustomed with such traditional food as to my amateur taste buds, this was plain noodles with diluted soy sauce; not that fascinating in my humble opinion. 

Nanjing Impressions Pot Stickers （金牌煎饺）- this was oily but ignore that unhealthy fact and you would enjoy the dumpling that was pan-fried to a crisp with yummy meat filling. 

Poached Lion's Head Meatball （清炖狮子头）- oops, someone cut off the head before I could take a picture of it. Maybe I should have ordered more as one meatball, even if it is fist-sized, would not be sufficient for 8 persons.

The so-called head was minced meat and it was tender and full of delicious fats! But washed down the sinful meat with the soup it came with, which appeared pretty similar to winter melon. Should be healthy I guess.

Steamed Egg Custard with Shrimps （小葱虾仁炖蛋）- the smooth texture already won half of our hearts and taste was not bad. As this was ordered for the kids, their review was most important and they loved it! 

Baby Rooster Stew with Crispy Sesame Bun (地锅小公鸡）- if you refer to the reviews on Google, you would have noticed the above; an absolute head-turner that will draw attention. 

Frankly, I don't recommend this; the stew had a mild spiciness to it and didn't have any other flavour  to make it stand out as a stew. Yes, the bun was crispy but more like a tasteless butterfly bun. I presume the sauce would be the dip although with just spiciness, I am better off bringing my own Thai chilli sauce and eating the bun with it. 

Seafood Bucket （江河湖海一锅鲜） - with fish head, shrimps, mussels and clams, my thought was that this would be good for sharing and decided on this seasonal dish (part of their Spring offerings).

The dish had an indication of two chillis on the menu and I assumed this would be manageable. So wrong as this was tomyum-level spiciness! Ingredients were okay, even though I did wish I have a bowl of plain water to wash away their spiciness before eating them. It was torturing! 

Sweet Vinegar Tangy Pork Ribs （金牌糖醋排骨）- this is something I have always heard on Running Man and I guess it would be quite similar to our gu lu rou (sweet and sour pork). What appeared in front of me was like pieces of fish! 

Surprisingly, it tasted way better than its appearance.  The key takeaway was the honeyed layer that was interestingly addictive! Do note that it can get a bit cloying and thick after a while. We did a bit more "exploration" with the sweet layer and our conclusion was that the taste was similar to malt candy! 

Jinling Roast Duck （金陵烤鸭）- since the seafood bucket wasn't well taken, we opted for an extra dish to fill up our tummies. The roast duck was another signature and thankfully, we have the options of quarter, half or whole. A half shall be good enough for us.

It's been a while since I last had such succulent duck meat and it came with a layer of crisp skin! An important component of a duck dish is the sauce and this one here was good enough to go with plain, white rice! Shall re-order this in the future! 

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Overall a great meal with epic environment and I am personally more interesting in visiting the next time for their small dim sum like dishes (e.g. strata cake, imperial scholar spring rolls). Well, will have to wait till we all can dine in again! 😞

Address

68 Orchard Rd, Plaza Singapura, 

#04-46/51, Singapore 238839

Map

As above.

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/nanjingimpressions/

Menu

As above.

Reservation

Call 6352-7877

Pricing

Celestial Roast Duck Dumplings - S$5.80 for three

Jinling Noodles in Light Soy Sauce Broth - S$4.80

Nanjing Impressions Pot Stickers - S$3.80 a piece

Poached Lion's Head Meatball - S$13.80

Steamed Egg Custard with Shrimps - S$8.80

Baby Rooster Stew with Crispy Sesame Bun - S$23.80

Seafood Bucket - S$58.80

Sweet Vinegar Tangy Pork Ribs - S$16.80

Jinling Roast Duck - S$32.00

(Subject to GST and Service Charge)

Midas Touch Chicken Curry with Golden Baked Roti Pratas @ Hong Lim Food Centre [Chinatown, Singapore] #honglimhawkercentre

The carbohydrate on my mind was noodle, specifically Hokkien mee, but no such stall was operating when I was at Hong Lim Food Centre, after checking out from Marina Bay Sands two Fridays ago! 

After circling the hawker centre twice, I finally decided to toss my coin at the above stall with the name Midas Touch. Those familiar with the mythical story would know; anything that Midas touched would turn into gold. 

He was said to have almost starved to death as even food would turned into gold when he brought it into his mouth. Ironically, warm, edible food was the exact thing I would be having to curb my hunger.

Jokes aside, I was in a bit of dilemma despite the limited menu; should I have curry chicken or masala butter chicken? Plain rice or their signature golden baked roti prata? Eventually, the boss helped made the decision, for me.

Midas Touch Chicken Curry & Golden Baked Roti Pratas; for variety purpose, I am going with one plain and one spring onion. From the look of it, I was thinking that my calorie count that day would likely burst through the roof! 

Despite the small pot, it was stuffed with chicken, brinjal, potatoes and hardboiled egg; all swimming in a curry said to be Thai style, with no MSG. While it's not a halal certified stall, the owner did mention the chicken he used is halal. 

As indicated on the menu, the roti pratas were baked and not pan-fried in the typical method we are more accustomed to; noticeable immediately was the very much reduced oil and the pratas were crispy, fluffy and airy! What I absolutely needed then was actually sugar to complement the curry; my personal style. 

Chicken was tender but I did notice that the owner drenched the chicken with curry, rather than cooking them together. Hence, I didn't get that curry infused flavour into the chicken meat; which wasn't a bad thing as I guess the meat would have integrated given its tenderness. 

Sadly, the curry didn't appeal to me. I was expecting more the rich, coconut milk curry with mild spiciness, similar to Fu Xiang, and this version was too spicy for me and more aligned with the curry we ate at roti prata stalls; albeit with thicker consistency.

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Address

531, Upper Cross Stree, 

Hong Lim Market & Food Centre, 

#02-07, Singapore 050531

Map

As above.

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/MidasOvenBakedRotiPrata/

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Midas Touch Chicken Curry - S$5.00

Golden Baked Roti Pratas - S$2.40 for two pieces

Boomeranz Nasi Ayam Power By Adimann - Original @ Yishun's Northpoint City Mall (South Wing) Basement 2 [Singapore]

Boomeranz Nasi Ayam Power By Adimann is a pretty new stall that opened for business at Northpoint City Mall maybe about two months ago, before the fasting month started on 12 April 2021. 

I am usually not that adventurous in wanting to try new dining establishments but when I saw the crowd congregating before the fasting ended the few times I was at Northpoint; I was tempted. Another push factor; that beautiful display of golden fried chicken at the counter! 

Since it was the fasting month for our Muslim friends, I knew the queue would be very much reduced during lunchtime and hence, got myself a pack of their Boomeranz Nasi Ayam Original. Wah, wouldn't it be an overkill to supply me with two servings of chilli sauce?

Oh my gosh, that's such a large piece of deep fried chicken (thigh plus drum), topped with extra fried batter bits, and drizzled with kicap manis (sweet sauce). It's gonna be a forget-about-my-weight-loss-programme lunch!

Crispy skin, with moist chicken meat blessed with a delectable, classic Malay-style marination of turmeric, and a distinctive yet interesting curry flavour tinge! It might be a pity that the chicken rice was a bit soggy but all's forgiven when I had it with the epic chilli sauce.

The chilli wasn't as spicy as I assumed it would be; aside from the smooth, scented sweetness that lingered in my mouth, I picked up a unique tang that reminded me of bell peppers! To me, the chilli was definitely the star of the meal, followed by the chicken meat. The skin was of the right texture but it was a tad fatty.

Didn't stop me from cleaning up everything though; darn that was sinful! You can't imagine how stuffed I was for the next few hours! And with regard to the chilli, it's definitely not an overkill and I could definitely make do with three servings! 

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Address

930 Yishun Ave 2, 

Northpoint City South Wing, 

#B2-147, Singapore 769098

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Boomeranz Original - S$7.00

Death of My Pinky Toenail

It's an incident happened to many and being ultra clumsy means I am a frequent victim. However, it has never been this bad; to the extent I lamented its death, with much sorrow.

The incident - hitting your pinky toenail against a hard object, be it the door, the wall etc! In my case, it was just my bed frame, which has a layer of sponge meant to cushion any accidental knocks, for safety reason.

But my pinky toe was injured; the area was in fact bruised for a few weeks. The pain was manageable and I could even continue my almost daily jog. After a while, I did notice the toenail turned a darker shade and appeared thicker. 

I knew it was dead. The same thing happened to my one of my central incisors too; it turned black and upon an appointment with school dentist, I received the verdict that the tooth was no longer alive and I would need root canal treatment and a crown. 

Don't you think this abomination wouldn't have looked out of place on a witch's feet? But it's on mine! Being itchy fingers, I attempted to remove it but there was a slight pain and I guess it's better to let nature take its course. 

Finally hanging desperately to the skin; it's hard to resist the temptation not to move it! What seemed to be okay for me elicited quite a few euuuws from my family and friends when I shared the videos with them. 

Curious to watch the video?

Click the above! 

It's out and of course I would keep it as a souvenir. Happily placed it on my computer table but it's gone today! Not sure if it's the wind from the fan. Bet I would find it in a few days' time. 

Question; what happened when the toenail "died"? I initially though no new nail would be grown although my experienced mum said it would grow and the nail would become nicer! Despite its appearance like an eye socket without the eye ball, there's indeed a nail within. Want to touch? Ask me the next time you see me!