PRIMA REVOLVING RESTAURANT

10 May 2009

Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant201 Keppel RoadSingapore 099419Tel: (65) 2728822

We reminisce nostalgia of primary school days at Prima Revolving Restaurant as ex-Convent classmates, seven of them drove down from Kuala Lumpur and Batu Pahat to visit us and including residents here, we numbered a total of 14, though for lunch we had a table of 11paxs.

We caught up old days tales and adventures of growing up in Batu Pahat, slowly graduating to stories of motherhood , beauty, work and women's talk just like the restaurant revolves 360 degrees over sweeping panaromic view of Sentosa and the surrounding waterfront, as we pick at our dim sum and sip our chinese tea. The full revolution takes 90-minutes and in between, we had our fill our of stomach with good dim sum and the exchange of conversation that kept us occupied not realising we had made one full circle as we go on our circle of life.

Prima Revolving Restaurant is an old establishment and this iconic landmark at Keppel Road has been around since 1977. It has since continue revolving non stop and the restaurant offers delectable good Beijing cuisince since. The unique feature is that it is nestled on top of a grain silo and you need to pass through some grits of the yards of the warehouse environment before the lift brings you to the restaurant on the 9th storey. You just leave to Hong Kong Master Chef Chan with a realife size caricature standing at the entrance to welcome you in.

We relish a simple yet special "THREE NON-STICK" dish also called "GUI HUA DAN" and I believe that this is the only place that serve this traditional food. With the continous stirring of eggs, starch, sugar and water, you get a golden brown clump of non-stick dough.

My frens has their respective views of this piece of history which dated back to the Chinese Qing dynasty. Emperor Qianlong visited the south and on his way passing An Yang, he stopped in an attempt of the local food for which the local county magistrate asked the chef to prepare the dish "Gui Hua Dan" for the Emperor.

Emperor Qianlong was overjoyed after tasting the dish and when he noted that the dish

did not stick onto the serving plate,
did not stick onto the chopsticks
did not stick onto the teeth,

he immediately decreed the dish to be called "Three Non Stick". Contrary to the Emperor's liking, our modern day palate has evolved and my frens commented that it is too eggy in taste and one abhored it and shows disinterest in such a famous historical dish. For me, I enjoyed it very much as it is light, not sticky and as a dessert, not too sweet and the taste suits me.

THREE NON-STICK At Usual Price of SGD60.00, this is expensive for simple ingredients though much effort and skill is required in stirring the eggs, flour and water to the right consistency of texture here. For promotion period, we had this for SGD32.00 only

Har Kau with strands of Scallops

Char Siew Pau is always a favourite

Siew Mai has succulent prawns

Xiao Long Pau with spouting juice when you bite,; served in a bamboo steamer basket, we ordered a few "long".

Steamed Yam Cake topped with fresh scallions and shallots is yummy

Chee Cheong Fun wrapped around Chinese Cruellers is a must have dish for Dim Sum

Chinese Souffle Balls made of egg whites with red bean stuffings is another interesting dessert

Peking Duck, already de-skinned and short of it's glimmer sheen on a crispy duck; Meat a bit tough though. Usual Price SGD60.00 now at SGD32.00

Plain flour crepe instead of egg crepe to wrap the crispy Peking Duck skin

E-Fu Mien stir fried with the duck meat from Peking Duck



CONVERSATION AND DIM SUM DOLLY

REVOLVES

WITH PRIMA REVOLVING RESTAURANT

THE PARAMOUNT

9th May 2009

The Paramount Restaurant
30 East Coast Road #01-01/01
Paramount Hotel & Shopping Arcade
Singapore 428751
Tel: +65 64403233

For us, Mother's Day was celebrated every year at different venues and occassionally we go to HDB coffee shop's cze char with set menus, one of which was near AMK Ave 4 FC & Market and I recalled that the food there was a good spread with some special creative dishes and yet served in generous portions to satiate and satisfy one's appetite.

Why do we continue to celebrate and jostle with the crowd during this weekend declared commercially as Mother's Days where restaurants and eateries herald fanfare dishes to draw families that tend to dine out and celebrate over normal days. Simple, most mums cooked all days, 3 meals or more throughout 365days a year and the love and care she provides was above all and this is just a simple recognised gesture of "thank you, mum" dinner.

You may even get a few generations in one outing on Mother's Day including great-grandmother, grandmother, mothers, married daughters, daughter-in-laws, all mother's thenselves and it's day of gathering and bonding at least for this matter besides the excuse of enjoying good food for the day.

Paramount Restaurant at East Coast is easily accessible as it is situated directly opposite Parkway Parade Shopping Centre and it has been there over 20years. It's belongs to the famous Tung Luk Group synonymous with excellent Cantonese cuisine and Sam Leong, the culinary maestro, currently the director of kitchen who just won another award in 2009.

My brother opted for the expensive menu set and when Sam (not Sam Leong) the manager in charge who has crossed over from Lei Garden eight month's ago, proposed to tweak the menu and that we will be satisfied with his recommendation, towards the end of the meal, in fact, I wasnt really so agreeable.

At 9pm, the crepe for the Beijing road duck was drier over freshly made ones.
The Buddha Jump Over the Wall soup where we individually had our share of small succulently prepared abalone with sharkfin was special but the Bamboo Clams was heavily sprinkled with pungent garlic was a bit hard to chew especially for my mum. Dont think the children enjoyed this too thought Sam claims he won third prize in a competition for this signature dish.

The next signature dish was the big prawns, deshelled and deepfried and embodied a very thick creamy pumpkin paste and sprinkled with bits of strawberries and apples. Each one has two prawns that sits on a very intricate rice nest, very skillfully prepared here.

The expensive Marble Goby Fish was served in slices and not served wholly as a fish. Meat is very tender and fresh.

The Teochew Fried Mee Suah was tasty but it appears so simple akin to bee hoon that you get from the hawker centre for breakfast and I wish they put more thoughts here.

So why was I not fully satisfied despite that the above-going gravitate towards nice, tasty delicious expensive ingredients, Precisely the point is that they came served in their original taste and form that if you have the given ingredients, you may get the same dish at home. Perhaps I always look for creativity in dishes that takes special effort and steps to prepare, not easily copied if I were to pay for an expensive meal. That's my personal opinion.

However, the plus point is Sam arranged for us a large Private Room complete with TV and Karaoke sets which can dish out Mandarin, English, Korean, Japanese, Vitenamese or Hindi songs and we were thankful for this. We had a juxtapose of not only good food but also a rendition of old songs and moderns songs which the old and young belt out during dinner.



Longevity Birthday Buns, a traditional bun with lotus paste fillings and shaped in the form of a peach


CREPES with crispy skins of the Beijing Roast Duck has be carved out to be served with crepe and a nice dipping sauce



BUDDHA JUMP OVER THE WALL is a soup richly brewed with expensive ingredients like the succulent mini abalone which was really nice, sharkfin, sea cucumber and herbs that are double boiled with chicken over long hours of fire to produce such rich stock as soup.



Deep Fried Prawn with Pumpkin Sauce on Rice Nest



Steam Marble Goby Fish

Braised House Special Beancurd with Nameko Mushrooms and Vegetables

Bamboo Clams is a mollusc and is so named because it looks like a long segment of a bamboo. When split open, it reveals the long flesh of meat and to me, it taste like squid, chewy.

Teochew Fried "Mian Sian" Mee Suah

Yam Paste with Almond Cream served with coconut

Yeah ! got Tv and Karaoke too spreads happiness to my nieces face.

TUNG LUK GROUP OF RESTAURANT

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and in East Coast @ PARAMOUNT