Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao @ Jurong Point

So who's Jim, our beloved Ah Jim??



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Ah Jim



He's my primary schoolmate, my secondary schoolmate, my badminton kaki, Yum-Cha kaki, a friend in whom I trust, someone i can pour my heart out, a friend who cares, a friend who loves and a friend who will accompany you all the lonely days when no one else is back in KLUANG!!! Lol... The best part of all, Ah Jim is a homely guy who loves to cook! *common point* Always trying to "invent" his new dish, eg: a pita-taste-a-like pizza??? According to him, his record is cooking a total of 70 near to 80 meals in UK. He did all the cooking for his hostelmates during his stay there. He was the only cook.



Oh, did i mentioned that he knows how to make Rojak? To the uninitiated, rojak by definition is a mixed salad. Chinese Rojak usually consists of pineapples, cucumbers, sengkuang (turnip), kangkong, sotong (squid or cuttlefish) and Yu Tiao (fried fritters) covered with peanut crumb and dark sauce made of shrimp paste.Hhmm... Mamak rojak contains fried fritters, cucumbers, sengkuang (turnip), hard boiled eggs and sliced cuttlefish. A spicy peanut sauce is then poured over the rojak. Ah Jim is also capable of making Tang Yuen, a glutinous rice ball with peanut filling. Both are my favourite past time food!



On Tuesday night, 30th Oct,

"I'll be going to Changi for interview at 2.00pm"



"Go out leh, we go for dinner."



"Ok. Where and what time?"



"Jurong Point lo, nearer to me"



"Ok lo. Contact you through my sis' hp that day"

End of story. That's how we ended up going out together and Ah Jim was late for an hour! (how can a guy let a girl wait for an hour at mrt interchange???) Ah Jim was late with valid reason and we were really good buddy, so i didn't mind waiting for him. He was the guest and he got to choose. After giving him a few suggestions, with two desperate hungry stomach to feed, he laid his eyes on Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao.



Waited for almost 20 minutes for a table. The whole place was jam-packed during dinner hour. This was the third visit to the restaurant, i was still quite unfamiliar of what they've got to offer. The pictures in the menu gave us the rough ideas how the dishes look like. The indecisiveness in us couldn't come to a conclusion of what to order. After some time of struggle, I saw the promotion leaflet at the side of the table. $26.80 (before tax and GST) for a set meal for two which includes a starter (cold dish), a main, a rice/noodle and a dessert or specialty. Should have seen the promo earlier, save us the trouble of thinking what to eat.



This is what we ordered



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皮蛋拌豆腐 (served cold)



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Oops, forgot the name, is some fried noodles with shredded meat and shredded black fungus.



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酸菜鱼汤



The two specialty that we ordered from the set meal was 小笼包 and we ordered one 狗不理包子on top of the set (picture not shown).



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The cold dish looked ordinary but HmmHmmm... I experienced the unique flavour of the cold dish which both Ah Jim and myself couldn't figure it out. It was more to the salty side yet sweet at the same time. Century egg with soft, melt-in-your-mouth toufu with chicken floss,spring onion and peanut topping, a twist of taste!



But the excitement ended there.



The fried noodle was ok. Nothing spectacular for a restaurant standard. The soup dish was to my liking. Served with thick Cod Fish slices, Beancurd skin-made toufu, Kiam Chay, pepper and some other spices which i couldn't identify(it tasted like some pickles which i didn't like). Xiao long bao is their specialty and there's nothing to talk about. 狗不理包子was a chinese bao (a bun with filling). The filling is, to our disappointment, same as the 小笼包 except probably more 韭菜were in it.



The bill came up to SGD$36.25. A little bit taxing for my thin purse. What to do,有朋自远方来,不亦乐乎?(Meaning: For old-time good friend's sake) But at the same time, i felt “花钱容易 赚钱难”。 For those who doesn't read Chinese, it means $ is hard to earn yet it's spent easily.



Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao (Jurong Point)

1 Jurong West Central 2
#03-18 Jurong Point
Singapore 648886
Telephone: 6790-2212



PS: My school friend bumped in us, and lots of Questions were arrowed to me that night and the day after. "Who's the guy?" "You sure he's only your friend?"



Yup, he's only my friend to those who are so concerned about me... *wink*





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