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2012-06-20
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Father’s Day is perfect because dad is here with us, and to add a little extra bonus, it’s because we get to eat great ‘Imperial’ food with daddy! Mum made a reservation at Royal China at Raffles Hotel. It had this tinge of blue so sweet and calming, and my brother calls it the colour of ‘Tiffany & Co.’. The restaurant had its table setting placed so far apart, it was really spacious and out-of-the-norm where I believe the owners have carefully thought over what is the best seating plan. At the
This is definitely the BEST Har Gao (Steamed Prawn Dumpling) I ever had！Costing only $4.80, the freshness and juiciness of the prawn is simply mind-blowing. The translucent skin wraps the juiciness that it just tasted like I was eating a bomb of exciting flavours bursting in my mouth. The best thing is that the skin is not as sticky as most prawn dumplings usually are so it doesn’t stick to the paper (and therefore you won’t waste any of it!).
The porridge had a smooth texture that was easy to chew on, and it was neither bland nor too salty. The crunchiness of the biscuit added in is something rarely added into porridge, but it makes a lot of difference to having a uniquely Royal China porridge and those that are of outside. The Siew Mai (Steam Minced Pork Dumpling) is really different from what we usually eat outside. Costing $4.80 as well, this is made up of lean meat which I found it more difficult to chew. According to my mother, it’s because other restaurants or dim sum places use fat pork rather than lean meat. Interestingly, this siew mai does not have a porky taste and it is sandwiched in between prawns. I didn’t really enjoy this healthier choice of my siew mai but my whole family have differing opinions of it.
The Cha Siu Bao (Barbecued Pork Bun), which costs $3.60, is my favourite dish. There was this sweet fragrance in the slightly thick but soft bread. Usually I would like to empty the contents of cha shao in the bread because it taste kind of disgustingly sweet and a mash-up of meat, but this pork bun had a perfect combination of its sweet meat, something that I was not usually used to. Most of the times, we Chinese would eat the bun sipping a cup of tea because it’d be too dry, but because of the juicy filling in the bun I didn’t had to do that.
My mother’s favourite was the Steamed Custard Bun. This $4 buns are really the killer. I had to squeeze the custard with egg yolk out into the plate because of the over-sweetness (I don’t have that kind of sweet tooth). My mother really enjoyed it though! I’ve heard that it’s a dish popular with the older generation because it’ll trigger their taste buds. Eating one bun alone made us felt really full, there is this dialect which we called ‘gao-wei’ (eat to the point where we felt it tasted disgusting). So if you’re ordering this, I think it’d be great if you can share a bun with two people.
The Steamed Layer Cake with Salted Egg Yolk is something unique that we’ve not tried or seen anywhere before. It cost ($4) and felt like eating bread with kaya with a bit of saltiness in it. Light and fluffy, it was kind of dry so we didn’t finish it. We passed a verdict into not ordering it again.
The best dish in Royal China? The freshly made, soft, smooth and silky rice roll! With generous fillings and sweet soy sauce (perfect blend of sweetness and saltiness), I won’t be surprised to see you drooling. We tried the Barbecued Pork Cheung Fun ($4.80) and Fresh Prawn Cheung Fun ($4.80).
We had two desserts as well, the herbal jelly ($5) which was really bitter and we spammed honey sauce (practically poured the whole jar of it) and also the black sesame mochi ($4). I really love the black sesame mochi, it's something so unique, a warm hot dish rather than cold dish that you expect mochi to be.
I really love to see the enthusiastic 'aunties' in Royal China serving us, they just represent the Chinese as hardworking and lovable and serious at work. I think they could put on better uniforms though, the light brown uniform really doesn't fit in the royal ambience because it looks like brown cheongsum bought cheaply.All in all, it was a delightful experience with family and we really enjoyed it
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