23 January 2015

Imperial Treasure

Singapore January 23, 2015 0

There are quite a few dim sum places dotting the food landscape of Melbourne, including a rather good one a few minutes drive away from where I stay. But they pale in comparison to the ones in Singapore, and every time I return, I book an emergency session with my family for dim sum, pronto.

Imperial Treasure at Jem Shopping mall.

One of my favourite haunts is Imperial Treasure, which serves some of the finest dim sum in Singapore. Miss XS tells me the branch at Ion Orchard is the best, but generally, all branches have a consistently high standard.

The porridge at Imperial Treasure is so smooth and the rice is so fine, it's almost like they blend 'em. As a matter of fact, I'm going to stick the porridge that I make in the future into a blender, to see whether it really improves the porridge's texture. The plain porridge, which goes for $1.80, is a steal.

The Char Siew Sou (barbequed pork pastry) has soft, flavourful BBQ pork enrobed in a buttery and flakey crust. It is a frequent dish I order at Imperial Treasure. Miss XS feels that the ones at Taste Paradise is even better. But as I savoured every bite of this pastry, I couldn't imagine how much better it can get.

Liu Sa Bao is another staple on my table when I dine at Imperial Treasure. The thin layer of bao yields easily to reveal a rich, molten custard filling.

One can't talk about dim sum without bringing in Siu Mai, a traditional Chinese dumpling made of pork. Here, they use a mix of pork and prawns, and fish roe sprinkled over the top. The siu mai here doesn't look impressive, but they taste pretty good, with chunks of prawns embedded within.

Another impressive dish, one that we only recently discovered, was this You-Tiao/Prawn/Chee-Cheong-Fun. It was incredible. The real name escaped me. Shit I'm a horrible food blogger. This is how it looks like.

The Steamed Pork Ribs were really good as well.

The Lo Mai Gai, or Glutinous Rice, was decent, though I was too full by this point to enjoy it. It's not the most photogenic food in the world to be honest.

Because honesty is the best policy, I'm going to say that sorry, but the Baked BBQ Pork Buns is vile and should be avoided. The skin of the bun was thick and tasteless. I made the mistake of ordering it once, and I'm not about to repeat it again.