90s Classic Cantonese Cuisine at Golden Peony, Conrad Centennial Singapore

From now to October 2013, travel back in time on a journey with Executive Chinese Chef Ku Keung as the restaurant introduced 90s culinary classics, when many Chinese nationals emigrated to Hong Kong in search of a more prosperous future. Their emigration influenced the cooking style and brought about the beginning of fusion food.

Dishes for the starter are truly classic. Grilled marinated pork shoulder with crispy beancurd and chinese pancake is flavoursome and Steamed “Pied De Cheval” Scallop has beautifully seared sides in X.O. Chilli. You are rewarded with plump and sweet scallops that are cooked just right.

One noteworthy dish is the Baked Sea Conch with Minced Chicken, scallop, onion in portugese sauce. Sea Conch is a pretty popular ingredient (along with whelk) in Hong Kong cuisine. Conch meat has a mild, sweet clam-like flavor, and it is cooked light enough not to be leathery, and the portugese sauce did a good job of rousing the appetite.

More Hong Kong classic fare followed, such as stir-fried premium bird nest omelette accompanied with double boiled superior lobster broth with spring onion pancake on the side. Replacing shark’s fins with bird nest, you would feel the crunch of the bird nest. As for the lobster broth, nothing much to shout about.

Braised premium asutralia abalone with traditional brown sauce – the abalone alone makes it worth the money. But what is interesting is the pomelo peel which is also known as “yau pei.” The pomelo peels are braised for hours to soften them. It has a distinctive aroma of the shrimp roe and tastes very much similar to winter melon. It gave the dish a subtle touch.

The star item is Traditional hong kong style baked salted chicken, which is buried in a pot full of coarse salt till it is cooked after a day. As the chef opened the large pot in front of us, we instantly fell in love with the golden brown crispy looking skin. The meat retains its original flavours and is firm to the bite.

Grouper is done in two ways – steamed grouper head & maw with minced garlic and suateed grouper slices with assorted mushrooms and seasonal green. The meaty fish slices tenderly meaty but both dishes were too garlicky for my liking.

“Bi Feng Tang” style deep fried spare ribs is marinated for 3 hours, steamed for 1.5 hours and then deep fried. with mid spicy sauce. The crispy garlic partnered the meat beautifully.

Double boiled hasma with fragrant almond cream in whole hawaiian papaya is fragrant and has just the right amount of richness from the almond cream, making it smooth without being heavy. Thank you Conrad for the invitation!

Golden Peony
Address: 2 Temasek Boulevard, Golden Peony Level 3
Tel: 432 7482