Food Picks
Go Thai with Im Jai’s Chinese New Year dishes
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Im Jai's Imperial Harvest Claypot (left) and Charoen Yu Sheng.
PHOTOS: IM JAI BY PUN IM
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- Im Jai by Pun Im offers a refreshing CNY menu including a unique yusheng with green mango and som tum sauce, available for dine-in and takeaway from Jan 26 to March 3.
- Diners can choose between Golden Crispy Soon Hock & Thai Mango Salad and Steamed Soon Hock With Spicy & Sour Dressing ($108 each) for the "nian nian you yu" dish.
- The article recommends the Black Sticky Rice Nian Gao ($21.80), highlighting its smoky flavour and reduced sweetness, as a lighter alternative to traditional versions.
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SINGAPORE – Maybe your Chinese New Year feasting has already begun. Maybe you love the rich dishes served this time of year. Maybe you dread them.
Either way, we can all do with a break from the same-old, same-old at Chinese New Year, and I am looking at the options at Im Jai by Pun Im for my reunion dinner. They are available for dine-in and takeaway from Jan 26 to March 3.
Having tried the offerings, here’s what I’d order.
Im Jai Charoen Yu Sheng ($58, serves three to five) is the perfect size for a small family and I love how it is not like the usual yusheng.
Instead of carrot, daikon and a raft of preserved fruit and vegetables, the salad is made up of shredded green papaya and green mango, purple cabbage, pomelo, mandarin oranges, cherry tomatoes, toasted coconut, fried shallots, ground haebee or dried shrimp and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Then you toss this fresh salad with two sauces: spicy and sour som tum sauce and sweetened fish sauce. The chilli kick alone will shock you out of your braised sea cucumber stupor. A little richness comes from slices of salmon belly. There is a larger version, for six to eight, priced at $98.
For the “nian nian you yu” part of the meal, I am torn between Golden Crispy Soon Hock & Thai Mango Salad and Steamed Soon Hock With Spicy & Sour Dressing ($108 each). Both come with spicy, sour flavours that I so want during a time of relentless feasting.
Im Jai’s Golden Crispy Soon Hock & Thai Mango Salad (left) and Steamed Soon Hock With Spicy & Sour Dressing.
PHOTOS: IM JAI BY PUN IM
The fish weigh about 1.2kg before cooking. Greaseless and crisp, the deep-fried version is better for takeaway because the fish should still be fine when you tuck in. But I also love the steamed version, with a kicky sauce that is perfect with rice. If dining at the restaurant, this is what I’d pick.
Im Jai Imperial Harvest Claypot ($198, serves four to six) is good for the main course. The claypot rice is topped with two female snow crabs with roe, scallops and a grilled river prawn, its head filled with the funky, gooey juices and fat I love so much. You might recognise the flavours. Yes, it is peppery prawn tanghoon, but with rice instead of vermicelli.
I also plan to order Black Sticky Rice Nian Gao ($21.80) because I keep dreaming of it. The restaurant mills the black rice in-house and bakes it into cakes with strips of coconut embedded in it. I love the slightly smoky flavour of the rice and the strips of young coconut. As a bonus, it is not too sweet. Slice it up and pan-fry for breakfast.
Like with all the other options, Im Jai has somehow managed to lighten up nian gao, while still retaining the stickiness that is the reason people eat this auspicious food. Yes, for the Year of the Horse, I plan to gallop away from a food coma.
Where: 01-78/81 Icon Village, 12 Gopeng Street imjaisg.com
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
Open: 11am to 3pm, 4 to 9.30pm (Mondays to Fridays), closed on Saturdays and Sundays. The restaurant opens for takeaways only on Feb 16. It is closed for Chinese New Year from Feb 17 to 19. Reservations only on Feb 20; no walk-ins
Info: Call 6518-3151. For reservations or to order, go to
