Food Picks: Skilful showcase of Taiwanese fare at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine
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Water Snowflake Vegetable Stir-fried With Lily Bulb And Ginkgo Nuts at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
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SINGAPORE – Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine at Leisure Park Kallang is a destination for unpretentious mouthwatering Taiwanese fare. The 130-seat restaurant serves delectable dishes featuring ingredients directly sourced from small family farms in Taiwan.
A fine example is the Water Snowflake Vegetable Stir-Fried With Lily Bulb And Ginkgo Nut ($19.90++). Not easily found in Singapore, water snowflake is an aquatic plant that has an addictive crunchy texture.
Pickled Cherry Tomatoes With Sour Plums ($8.90++) and Winter Melon Pickled With Fresh Passion Fruit ($8.90++) rouse the appetite with their sweet tanginess.
Pickled Cherry Tomatoes With Sour Plums at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
The head-turning Salt And Pepper Pomfret With Crispy Garlic Chips ($45.90++) is a must-order. The fish is filleted, with the meaty slices of pomfret deep-fried, then arranged on the deep-fried fish skeleton.
Salt And Pepper Pomfret With Crispy Garlic Chips at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
Once the fish slices are polished off, ask for the rest of the fish to be cut into bite-sized pieces. The crispy fins and fatty succulent bits of meat stuck to the fish bones are a delight to chew on.
After you have eaten the deep-fried slices of pomfret, you may request the frame of bones to be cut up.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
The only grouse is that the kitchen needs to be more consistent in its seasoning. On my first visit, all the dishes were perfectly seasoned, but on another visit in the same week, the chef had a blander touch, especially for the seafood dishes.
Farm Chicken With Spring Onion ($25.90++) is a plate of kampung chicken arranged in a pool of seasoned soya sauce and blanketed with an opulent garnish of spring onion and ginger scalded with hot oil.
Farm Chicken With Spring Onion at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
Served in a piping hot claypot, Ah-Ma’s Rice Vermicelli And Taro Soup (from $23.90++) is an uplifting ode to humble vermicelli sourced from Hsinchu in north-western Taiwan.
Wind-dried vermicelli from Hsinchu is much sought after for its springy texture and does an excellent job of soaking up the flavours of the rich pork bone broth. The yam sticks in the soup impart a powdery mouthfeel to the slurpworthy dish which is packed with shelled clams and tender slices of pork.
Save stomach space for the housemade Chilled Oolong Ai-Yu Jelly With Green Lemon ($6.90++). The jelly is prepared in-house, using the traditional method of rubbing seeds of the Ficus pumila, commonly known as the creeping fig or climbing fig, to extract a gel that forms the jelly. Served in a blend of high mountain oolong tea, the jelly rounds off the meal on a zesty note.
Chilled Oolong Ai-Yu Jelly With Green Lemon at Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
Where: 01-38/39 Leisure Park Kallang, 5 Stadium Walk songyue.com.sg
MRT: Stadium
Open: 11.30am to 3pm and 5.30 to 9.30pm (Mondays to Thursdays), 11.30am to 3.30pm and 5 to 10pm (Fridays, weekends and eve of public holidays)
Tel: 6988-3322
Info:
Hedy Khoo is senior correspondent at The Straits Times. She covers food-related news, from reviews to human interest stories.
