Thanks to one of my mum’s friend who got some additional invites to go to Holiday Inn (formerly Concorde) for a free cooking class demonstration and free lunch, my sister and I tagged along with mummy and her two friends for the treat three Saturdays ago. Who can possibly reject a treat? Not me for sure.
The cooking class demonstration was conducted by the chef and sous chef of Xin Cuisine 新故鄉酒樓, the Cantonese restaurant at the hotel.
The first dish they demonstrated was called 福星隨高照 which turned out to be double-boiled superior shark’s fin with chicken and deer’s tendon. This was a very nourishing Cantonese soup made using chicken, Chinese wild yam (淮山), Chinese wolfberry (杞子), wet superior sharks’ fin (濕鮑翅), fresh deer tendon (鮮鹿根), dried deer antlers, red dates (紅棗), winter ginseng (冬參), dried scallop (干貝) and astragalus root. It’s supposed to nourish the skin. Well, with so many ingredients, the soup was obviously very tasty and richly flavoured. One of the best Cantonese soups I’ve ever tasted. Had I ordered it on my own, it’d have cost $68+++ per bowl.
The second dish was 嘻哈大歡笑 which was a sauteed king prawn with spicy XO chilli sauce served with a floret of blanched broccoli. The XO sauce, personally made by the chefs and is being sold by the restaurant, was the thing that made the dish really tasty.
The third dish demonstrated was 四季旺財盆 which was braised 5-Head abalone, dried oyster, black mushroom, sea moss, kai lan with oyster sauce. The abalone and mushroom, coupled with the tasty gravy was a delight to feast on. I left the dried oysters as I don’t like dried oysters.
The lunch included these three dishes demonstrated and also a big soup of glutinous rice which I thought was a tad too dry. Anyway, I’m not a fan of glutinous rice in general. Dessert was almond cream (felt this could have been a little sweeter) served lukewarm in a coconut husk which was sitting on a plate decorated with a sheen of azure blue gelatin and an orchid. Very attractive presentation.
Participants also had a surprise installed when we were led to the next room to find a dragon waiting for us. No, there’s nothing cheesy about this. It wasn’t anyone dressed up in a dragon costume. Rather, it was a 2-metre long dragon made up of grated carrot, radish, preserved vegetables–all the ingredients of Yu Sheng–very exquisitely laid out on a long table waiting for us hungry mouths to rip its majestic body apart with our chopsticks. It was a really lovely dragon and a very innovative form of presentation. Kudos to the chefs! The friendly chefs also answered many questions posed to them and also offered cooking tips.
The event was part of the hotel’s PR and branding efforts so as to raise the public’s awareness of the hotel. And here I am giving them free advertisement! Hopefully I get to do this again. Hehheh.
The restaurant serves dimsum as well. On the second day of CNY, my family and I went there for lunch. Because of CNY, there was a special CNY menu and only selected dimsum. Can’t quite get a full picture of how good their dimsum is from the few I ate so perhaps I’ll make a second visit. But overall, the food we had that day was pretty good.
Xin Cuisine
Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore
317 Outram Road, Singapore 169075
Tel: 6733 0188