Crystal Jade Golden Palace Singapore

Crystal Jade the Singapore headquartered restaurant chain has been around for several years. We have eaten in their restaurants in Hong Kong and Singapore in the past and have been quite pleased. The Crystal Jade Golden Palace Restaurant in the Paragon Building on Orchard Road in Singapore has recently been awarded with a single star in the Michelin Guide. We made a reservation for a table at 9 pm. The idea was that we would go to Clarke Quay for a drink and then come for dinner.

The table setting chart

This was a large restaurant with the now de rigueur private dining rooms. High ceilings, white table cloths and bright lighting. The waitresses were all old ladies who were happy to be working. The Captains were younger, suited and all had ear pieces. The Orientals do like the sense of power it gives them to have earpieces. We saw this in Singapore, Hong Kong and in Chinese restaurants in Chinatown London.

The menus were handed out and immediately one dish leapt out. Cold Foie Gras with Sake. Foie Gras is not Chinese in the least. Sake is Japanese. But the combination sounded perfect. We had to have this. Most intriguing what the restaurant would do with Foie Gras. The dish was very good; however, it was certainly not Chinese, at best mildly Oriental with the Sake and the slice of Pineapple on which the Foie Gras sat. I would have been happy eating this in London.

The other dish that we all wanted to eat was the Oyster Omelets. This is a rather popular street food in Thailand. Even in Singapore there were plenty of places selling Oyster Omelets. The Omelets arrived, and, unlike a classy French Omelets this was not folded in the classic crescent but flat. Looking at it I groaned inwardly, it looked murdered, looked like the egg had been hard cooked and made into rubber. But, I was thankfully wrong. The exterior did look dark, but the inside was moist – Baveuse – as the French describe it, and the Oysters barely cooked. Nice.

Four our main course, the obligatory Greens were ordered with Garlic. Once again, do have a look at the photo. Virtually no sauce, however the vegetables are so beautifully cooked and seasoned. Of course the vibrant green is quite something too.

We wanted to have a clay pot, and HRH the Queen of Kutch wanted to have a stew of some sort. Luckily the Steward came to the rescue. He suggested the Beef Brisket Braised with Daikon Radish. This is similar to what we sometimes order in Lings Pavilion. The table was happy; the stew and clay pot cravings were both addressed. The dish that came out was quite something. The meat was of course soft, yielding and melt in the mouth. It was also searingly hot. The broth was the most amazing part. It was so tasty, yet thin, watery and clear in appearance. This was really the star dish.

To round off our meal, we ordered a local dish, Teochew Fried Rice with Yam. This arrived full of Wok Hei, as it should be. Crunchy bits of Rice and Yam and delicious morsels of crisp fried Pork all stir fried. This was excellent.

All the plates were licked clean. This was our last dinner in Singapore. We were to fly out the next day. Lunch was fixed at the legendary Din Tai Fung. More on that in the next post.