Yum Cha

Really, who doesn't love dimsum? I don't mean to offend the dieters, but these little steaming packages of joy really pack of mean punch if they're done well, and they're well worth the demise of your diet.

Theboy and I had a dimsum brunch today after lounging around in bed all morning. El'cheapos like us sniff out bargains like flies to rubbish, so we ended up at Turf City having half-price dimsum and saving our pockets from eternal damnation.

Century egg porridge! Excuse the lousy photo, I went too close to him while attempting to take in the wonderful scent of Cantonese-laboured congee. This version was thin and the smell of pork was not present, just the way I like it. More ingredients would have been good, though what do we have as a case since we're half-price eaters?



The carrot cake was awesome. It was crisp on the outside and softly shredded on the inside, studded with lapcheong and shrimps for extra oohmph. May I add here that I am a purist, and would have been extremely pleased with plain carrot cake, since this was done so well.



The chee cheong fun with shrimps was average. The texture of the flour was quite doughey (this word represents the biggest no-no in the art of dimsum) and would have been better executed if the cook had taken more time to stretch it a little more to produce a thinner skin. The shrimps were nice though, but well, it's hard to fault plump little crustaceans right?



The second time I will use 'doughey' to describe something here is a (dis)honour given to the har kau. And it was disappointing because I am the biggest har kau fan you will ever find and my happy little heart swells with great pleasure when I sink my teeth into orgasmic har kau. The prawns did not manage to salvage the dish this time.



The char siew pau I did not taste, given my natural distaste for porkey offerings. But theboy seemed quite content with it and finished all 3 on the steaming bamboo tray. There is not much point in quoting theboy's opinion on food-related issues because his standard answer is "Hmrmnphhrnmphrunmpphnmphh? N-nice" or whatever grunting noise he manages to make in between major chows.



The steamed beancurd skin rolls were nice (shrimp again!) and had quite a clean bite to them. I liked the contrast the chopped chestnuts and their crunch-crunch provided to the softness of the wrapper and its filling.



The siew mai was just alright, nothing to shout about. But yeah, porkey pork, so I just might be adversely biased.



I liked the deepfried seafood roll just as much as I liked the carrot cake. The soft shrimp (again!) filling was coated with sweet mayonnaise and the whole thing was encased by a basket of thin egg noodles. It wasn't cloying because there wasn't any oily lick-your-lips moment present, and I had to try my darndest to keep myself from ordering it another time.

So this is the life. Me and myboy, living it up like taitais with rubber bellies and beehives for hair. Cheers.

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Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant
200 Turf Club Road #03-01
TURF CITY SHOPPING MALL
Singapore 287994
Tel : 6883-2112, Fax : 6883-2022