Shanghai Eats

Colleague been talking about going out to feast for the longest time. I always obliged with a "sure" without much enthusiasm since she has this habit of having to go to the gym to shower during lunch (save her time at night according to this busy mother -__-")

Anyway, we finally managed to head out for lunch at this Shanghai Xiao Long Bao shop just right across from the Tiong Bahru food centre on Friday. According to my colleague the food is not bad. Since I luv xiao long bao, I enthusiastically agreed to lunch.

When I got there I was sceptical as the shop wasn't the least bit crowded ! Apart from a family of 3, the entire place was empty during the busy lunch hour peak! Nonetheless, we headed in since colleague raved about it.

The food turned out to be surprisingly good! For two person we sure ordered A LOT! There weren't many items to order so we just zoomed in on those that caught our fancy. The stir-fried dou miao was highly recommended and it didn't disappoint. The xiao long bao was passable (though we re-ordered another steamer of it :P) as the skin wasn't well made. The skin on top was too thick. Well, I have tasted better but nonetheless still quite yummy lah.

This curry puff lookalike is some savoury item called "eyebrow pastry" or something. I'm a pastry lover and this is a definite must try! The pastry was simply wonderful. It was soft to the bite and sort of dissolves in your mouth. Even the sides of the pastry isn't thick and hard like some of the other pastries.

The best of the best is this yam pastry. The exterior is again this sinfully soft & thin pastry skin. The whole pastry was filled entirely with yam paste that isn't too sweet. It even has a gingo nut within. This is one of the most enjoyable yam pastry I've tasted. And for $1.50 per pc, it is sooo cheap too! I was so tempted to order one more :P

Of course there were misses in what we ordered. The wine chicken that looked so appealing in the menu turned out to be a cold dish. Both of us weren't used to the dish and asked for it to be heated up. For that miserable bowl of chicken that costs $6.80, it was a definite let-down. The chicken was just passable and defnitely nothing to rave about.

We saw other tables (a few other customers trickled in while we feasted) ordered some of their other cold dishes that didn't appeal to us. Some also ordered their noodles which we skipped. Perhaps the next time I would try their noodles. Would like to bring my mom there to try soon.

The lunch was so satisfying it was able to keep me satiated for the rest of my work day that ended past 10+pm.