SINGAPORE - In celebration of Mother's Day, popular local actor Li Nanxing whipped up one of his late mother's recipes for patrons of the Town Restaurant at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore on Sunday (May 12) evening.

The sambal petai prawn dish is a nod to Li's Teochew and Peranakan roots, and part of a set of five that included black ink sotong, fried beancurd with leek, mala chicken and assam fish.

"For me, my fondest memories are of food my (late) mother used to prepare for special occasions. Those dishes brought me much comfort and joy growing up and through adulthood.

"They gave me a feeling of home," said Li, 54.

"As we celebrate love and family on Mother's Day, I would like to share a taste of (my) home with everyone," he told the patrons.

Town Restaurant is offering the five dishes as part of an ongoing buffet promotion, which will run until May 19.

Dinner costs $59 per adult and $30 per child from Sunday to Thursday, and $85 for adults and $43 for children on Friday and Saturday.

Fullerton is donating $8 to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund during the promotion for each adult paying guest.

The fund was started in 2000 as a community project by The Straits Times to give pocket money to children from low-income families to help them through school.

Since then, it has helped over 170,000 cases of children and young people in need, and disbursed over $60 million.

Although the veteran actor, known as the "Ah Ge" - or Big Brother - of the local entertainment scene donned the chef's whites on Sunday, it was a one-off.

Li, who recently signed with Chinese actress Vicki Zhao's management agency, shot to fame in the 1980s playing a rebellious youngster in the Channel 8 drama On The Fringe.

He is also known for iconic roles, such as gambling king Yan Fei in the Unbeatables trilogy (1993, 1996, 2002) and reformed gangster Ah Bao in the Vagrant (2002).