King's Joy - A Michelin 2-Star Vegetarian Restaurant in Beijing

King's Joy (京兆尹) is a Michelin 2-Star vegetarian restaurant located right outside the Lama Temple (雍和宫) in Beijing, where Emperor Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty lived before he ascended to the throne.  The restaurant building is a traditional Chinese courtyard house, built with grey bricks, surrounded by bamboos.  The look is very classic and elegant.

We were there for lunch on a chilling Friday.  Walked past a long passage way, and were ushered into a reception area, where you can sit down, relax a bit, remove your heavy winter wear, and soak in the atmosphere.  There are books and magazines around for you to read too.

The dining area is in the courtyard, covered with a glass ceiling, letting in soft natural light.  Live Chinese music is performed in the center stage.

Table setting is a fusion of the West and the East, you have the Chinese chopsticks, as well as the Western knife and fork.   Some mandarin oranges were served as our appetizer.

The staff was very friendly and patient in explaining to us the different dishes available, and recommended to us what might be the best options we could have.

Avocado Roll

Our first dish was avocado roll.  Avocado was cut into thin slices then made into a roll, with honey dew and probably raisins as fillings.  Lots of efforts were put into the layout of the dish, and sure they succeeded in doing that.  Avocado's crispiness combined with honey dew's sweetness and fragrance, the taste was very pleasant, a wake-up to all your taste buds, to get ready for the next dish.

Deep-Fried Seaweed and Tofu Skin Roll(海苔腐竹卷)

The next dish, deep-fried seaweed and tofu skin roll, came out like a painting, it looked so nice that we almost couldn't bear to eat it.  The tofu skin was so crispy that you could hear the sound of it being crushed in your mouth.  Seaweed gave you the smell of the sea and a pleasant aroma.  I didn't touch the flower, it was just too beautiful to be eaten.

Our two hot dishes were Luohanzhai, stewed mixed vegetables, and Chinese cabbage with different types of mushrooms.  Never know mushroom soup could become so milky, it was filled with fragrance, unique to the mushrooms, while different from that of the fruits.

For Chinese style of vegetarian food, usually a lot of oil is used to get rid of the bitterness in the vegetables.  In this case, however, I hardly saw any oil, yet there was not a trace of bitterness.  Kudos to the chef!

Spicy Lion's Mane Mushroom (香辣猴头菇)

Our finale was spicy lion's mane mushroom, cooked with red hot chilies, presented in the form of a bump boat.  It looked pretty spicy but it was not.  There was only a slight hint of spiciness, which brought out the freshness in the mushroom, and added an additional layer of sensation to the sponginess of the mushroom.  Never had I imagined that you could cook mushrooms with chilies, sounded like a crazy combination, but it worked out pretty well.

The bill was CNY 1000 before service charge and taxes.  Overall, I enjoyed the meal very much.  Never in my wildest imagination that vegetarian food could be done this way, so beautiful yet so tasty!  Truly a feast to the eyes and the taste buds!

Yun Nans at Jewel Changi Airport

Yun Nans 云海肴 is a Chinese restaurant from China specialized in Yunnan cuisine.  This one at Jewel Changi Airport is their first foray into an overseas market.  Their dinner starts at 5pm, we arrived a bit earlier at about 4.50pm on a normal Sunday, there was already a small queue at the entrance.  At 5pm sharp we were ushered into the restaurant. 

The restaurant is not very big, the number of seats is quite limited, so if you want to secure a table, the only trick is to go there early.  The interior design is simple, bright and pleasant, nothing fancy, but comfortable. 

Yunnan Classic Steam Pot Chicken Soup, $23.90++

Their signature dish is the Yunnan steam port chicken soup.  What it is different from other chicken soup is the way it is cooked, and the pot used.  Do you notice there is a 'chimney' in the middle of the pot?  Yes, that's the key.  The chicken is placed in the pot, without adding any water.  Then the entire pot is placed on top of boiling water, and the water steam will come in from the 'chimney' and becomes your soup.  This is also an ingenious way of doing water desalination! 

I like the chicken soup very much.  It is clear, and sweet!  The essence of chicken all goes into the soup.  However, the chicken itself, is quite dry and a bit tasteless.  Overall, I will give a score of 9/10 for this dish, and it is a must try here. 

Truffle Rice Noodles, $13.90++

We also ordered their truffle rice noodles (黑松露虾汤米线).  The soup was excellent.  Very thick in the flavor of prawns, great.  The noodle itself was a bit over-cooked though.  Overall, I will give it a score of 7/10.

Grilled Seabass, $22.90++

My friend recommended the grilled seabass, it is his most favourite.  The seabass was perfectly grilled, a flower pepper was generously spread on top.  At this point, I must be a bit critical about their service, or the service of one waitress.  She took our order, knowing we already ordered a chicken soup and a rice noodle with plenty of soup, she still pushed us to order drinks.  And she didn't tell us for the grilled fish, we had the choice of how spice it should be.  It is a waitress with Malaysian Chinese accent. 

Ok, back to the fish.  The flower pepper makes the whole fish only have one and only one taste - spicy.  It is perfect for people who like spicy food, but unfortunately not for me. 

All in all, we spent $100 for two persons.  It is not too expensive, the food is decent.  I will definitely go back for that pot of chicken soup, it is just too good to forget. 

Nanjing Impressions Plaza Singapura

Previously, I visited Nanjing Impressions in Guangzhou (you can find the post here), as they also opened a branch here at Plaza Singapura back in 2017, I decided to give it a try. 

The Plaza Singapura branch is located on the 4th floor of Plaza Sing Annex, directly opposite Ya Kun Toast.  It has the same design as its Guangzhou branch, with a very traditional Chinese concept. 

Once you step into the restaurant, you feel like you have time-travelled back to Qinhuai River, Nanjing in ancient China.  The place is illuminated with yellow lanterns, each lantern bears the name of a dish on their menu.  The background music is Qinhuai Xiaoqu (秦淮小曲), it is a kind of Chinese opera popular in Nanjing, very soft and tender.  Qinhuai River and Qinhuai Xiaoqu were made famous by a Tang Dynasty poet, Du Mu (杜牧), in his poem Berthing at Night Along Qinhuai River.

泊 秦 淮

杜 牧

烟笼寒水月笼沙，夜泊秦淮近酒家。

商女不知亡国恨，隔江犹唱后庭花。

Literally, the poem means: 

In a foggy night, my boat berthed along Qinhuai River near the drinking places.  The resident singers  didn't care about the sadness that their home country had been annexed, they were still singing the song Backyard Flower. 

I don't know what Backyard Flower is in botanic terms, but it is a form of poetry invented by the last Emperor of the Chen Dynasty, which was annexed by Sui Dynasty. 

Ok, enough history stuff, back to the modern restaurant.  At first, I thought the Qinhuai Xiaoqu was from some recording, but hell no, there was actually a stage at the very back of the restaurant and a team were singing live! 

I ordered quite a bit of food, for one person, as I wanted to try as many as possible, but mostly were small portions. 

Wanton in Supreme Chicken Broth, $4.80++

I didn't have any expectation for the wanton with chicken broth.  It is such a common dish, but then it kind of exceeded my expectation.  The wanton skin was very smooth, and filling was fresh.  The Supreme chicken broth also lived up to its name.  I must give a thumbs up for this dish.

Celestial roast duck dumplings (left), $4.80++, Steamed shrimp and silky gourd dumpling, $5.80++

The celestial roast duck dumpling was kind of a strange combination.  The dumplings were steamed, usually steamed food goes for its freshness, and exhibits the ingredients original taste, but in this case, the filling was actually roast duck meat.  The fillings gave out a roast fragrance, there was quite a clash of tastes.  You should give it a try, it is unique.  But don't blame it if you don't like it. 

The steamed shrimp and silky gourd dumplings were average.  Somehow, it didn't bring out the freshness of the shrimps, nor the silky gourd.  I could only tell one flavor - salty. 

Braised Pig Trotters, $5.80++

The braised pig trotters should be a very 'safe' dish, as even the normal coffee shop stalls can turn up with finger-licking pig trotters.  Hell no, the pig trotters here were a failure.  The skin was hard, and the worse was I felt something spiky on the skin.  Go figure what it could be.  Take my advice, don't order this at this place. 

Imperial Scholar Spring Roll, $5.80++

The spring roll was ok, but it was a bit too salty to my taste, and a bit too oily. 

If you want to have a bit more privacy, you can reserve one of those individual rooms.  It is quite nice for a few friends gathering together to chitchat. 

Will I go back to Nanjing Impression again?  Yes, definitely, but not so much for their food, but for that atmosphere, that feel of traveling back in time. 

Nanjing Impressions Guangzhou China

Nanjing Impressions, or 南京大排档 in Chinese, is located in a modern shopping mall in Guangzhou's busy and up-class Tiyu Xi Lu (体育西路), the country's most busy metro interchange.  The mall is ultra modern, but once you step into Nanjing Impressions, it feels like you have been transported back in time to the era of end of Qing Dynasty, and the beginning of Republic of China. 

The interior design is of the Qin-huai (秦淮) style, after Nanjing's famous Qin-huai River, a go-to place for night entertainment in the early 1900s.  Records of Qin-opera, a form of opera popular in Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, is being played as the background music. 

Braised Duck, CNY29.00

Nanjing is famous for its Xiaochi, small bites.  The concept is like the Spanish tapas, snacks for you to have wide selections of food to enhance your taste buds but not too heavy for the stomach, and perfect as companions for the rice wine. 

The first one that came was braised duck.  It is a cold dish.  The duck drumstick is first braised till tender, then chilled to retain all that collagen.  It is actually crunchy, with a hint of Huadiao, a popular Chinese rice wine. 

Lion's Head, CNY 28.00

 Next was stewed Lion's Head.  Lion's Head?  Are you sure?  Don't worry, it is not the real Lion, nor its head.  Lion's Head is just a name for the dish.  It is actually stewed meat ball, a really big meat ball.  The chef mixes minced pork, fresh mushroom and some other ingredients together and makes it into a giant meat ball.  Then this meat ball is slowly stewed to cooked.  The meat is very tender.  It breaks into small pieces easily in your mouth.  It is a dish that is very suitable for people who have problems with their teeth, and senior citizens. 

家传云斗煮干丝, CNY28.00

The next dish is a bit hard to translate the name into English, but it is their signature dish.  Looking at the picture, you might think that it is vermicelli or noodles in that pot of soup.  No, you are wrong.  It is actually tofu skin sliced into small slices to make it look like vermicelli.  And then it is served with a very thick stock.  The tofu skin is excellent, I must say.  Unlike noodle's softness, or vermicelli's smoothness, the tofu skin offers its unique texture.  It is crunchy, yet the texture is more rough.  It gives sparks upon your tongue.  However, I didn't like the stock, way too salty for my liking. 

We ordered some other dishes, but I am not able to cover them all here.  Overall, it was a very pleasant experience.  Good food, accompanied by that feel of transporting back in time. 

Don't get upset if you think Nanjing Impressions is only available in China, it actually has a branch right in the busy Orchard Road in Singapore.  I have not given it a try yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

Din Tai Fung at City Square Mall

Din Tai Fung is a Michelin-star restaurant, and it was rated by New York Times as the world's top 10 restaurants.  Well, it is a bit strange for me that a Chinese restaurant is being rated by a Caucasian newspaper in the US.  Din Tai Fung is originally from Taiwan, and its original restaurant in Taiwan still offers excellent quality of food.  To Singaporeans, we are lucky that we have our BreadTalk group, and it was BreadTalk that brought the good food of Din Tai Fung to Singapore back in 2003.  There are many branches of Din Tai Fung in Singapore, but all of them seem to have long queues in the evening, especially on Fridays and weekends.  We were at Din Tai Fung City Square Mall on early Friday night, and the place was almost full.

Pork Belly with Garlic (蒜泥白肉), $8.30++

We ordered our favorite pork-belly with garlic as one of the appetizers.  We ordered this dish at Xing Hua Lou too.  Here at Din Tai Fung, individual piece of pork-belly wraps around a piece of cucumber, so for every bite, you can enjoy the rich texture of the pork belly, and the freshness of the cucumber, making the fat less greasy.

Duck Roll (葱香鸭卷), $8.00++

Another appetizer we ordered was the duck roll.  It was a deep-fried dish, and I found it to be too oily for my taste.

Xiao Long Bao, $10.30++

Din Tai Fung is famous for their Xiao Long Bao, so we ordered it too.  The skin was thin but tough enough to hold the filling and the soup inside.  Personally I find their Xiao Long Bao in Singapore is not as nice as that in Taiwan.  I suspect the reason is in the ingredients.  In Taiwan, they can have fresh pork, while in Singapore, we can only have chilled pork.  In addition, the pigs in Taiwan are actually of a better species than the ones we have here in Singapore, resulting in the texture of the pork is different, and the Taiwanese pork is more sweet and fragrant.  If you want to have a taste of their best quality Xiao Long Bao, you still have to go to Taiwan.

Fried Rice with Egg, $8.00++

I had fried rice with egg as my main.  It was the first time I ordered a fried rice here in Din Tai Fung and didn't expect much.  However, it surprised me.  Somehow they made it fragrant, and the texture of the rice was very pleasant to chew.  It was not dry, neither watery, just nice.  I will give them a thumbs up for this simple-looking dish.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.  The service was prompt, and the environment was conducive for a relaxing meal after work.

Master Wang La Mian Xiao Long Bao at North Point City

Had dinner at Master Wang last night, as I had never tried their food before.  It seems they are specialized in Chinese la mian and xiao long bao, plus some dim sum.

Cream Custard Buns, $5.50++

We ordered a plate of cream custard buns as a side.

The buns are really yellow in color, both for the cover and the filling.  The creams inside are good, smoothy softy and not very salty as some other places.

Hand-made Siew Mai, $4.20++

We also ordered a siew mai.  Pork is their filling, without prawn.  Somehow with the absence of prawn, the bounciness of this item is completely lost, so is the rich flavor.   However, it is good for people who can't take prawns.  It is a good alternative.

Xiao Long Bao, $6.80++

For xiao long bao, I ordered the one of original taste.  Well, it is quite a disappointment.  Look at the picture how it looks when it is presented.  Looks like the soup has been leaking all around.  Taste-wise, it is lacking any dominant flavor, almost tasteless.  Comparing with Din Tai Fung's xiao long bao, there is quite a lot of room for improvement.

Ramen with Fresh Prawn Dumplings, $8.80++

I got a ramen with fresh prawn dumplings as my main.  The noodle itself, I think, is hand-made.  It features the characteristic elasticity of this kind of noodle, a bit tougher than your normal noodle, but it is tough in the good sense.   Each dumpling has a full prawn inside, and it just sprints out into your mouth when you have your bite.  Must give them a thumbs up for this.  The soup is on the lighter side, fits my taste.

Chinese herbal chicken soup, $8.80++

The highlight of the meal is their Chinese herbal chicken soup, served in a teapot!  And you pour out the soup into a tea cup and drink the soup like tea.  The ingredients are really simple.  Chicken, gojiberry (枸杞）, red date （红枣）, and huaishan （淮山）, that's all.  Put all the ingredients together and boil for a few hours, and you get that super taste soup.  They got it right for this dish.

Overall, the food is quite decent, the service is acceptable, and the price is reasonable.

Luk Yu aka Tang Yan at Chinatown Point

Luk Yu, with its old name still visible

Luk Yu (陆羽), a Cantonese restaurant at Chinatown Point, recently changed its name to Tang Yan (唐筵), probably with a change of management too.  Well, the name change doesn't matter, the taste is what matters to foodies.

The new name has appeared

Moon Spinach, $12.00

The first dish that came was poached egg with spinach, or Moon Spinach as its Chinese name.  It was spinach immersed in a milky broth, top with a poached egg, and pieces of crab meat.  The egg yoke represents the moon, giving this dish a poetic sensation.   For such a simple dish, what makes a difference is the broth.  which was sweet and most probably cooked for hours with fresh ingredients.

Wuxi Pork Rib, $18.00

Next dish was Wuxi pork rib.  It was my first time hearing such a name, basically it was stewed pork rib on vegetables.  The pork ribs had been cooked with slow fire for hours, I guess.  The meat no longer sticks to the bone and a single bite could easily separate the two from each other.  It is perfect for dining with seniors who may have problem with their teeth.  The sauce provided additional flavor to the pork ribs. 

Deep Fried Mantou

Interestingly, the Wuxi Pork Rib was served with deep fried mantou, those that are usually served with chili crabs.  Well, until now I still couldn't figure out the link between the pork ribs and the mantou and how the two could come together.  Still scratching my head...

Shrimp Chee Cheong Fun, $6.00

Xiao Long Bao, $4.80

Chives Dumpling, $4.80

XO Chee Cheong Fun, $5.50

We also ordered some dim sum dishes.  They were all decent, but then nothing to rave about.  The shrimp chee cheong fun was not done right.  The skin was too soft, and broken. 

I probably will return to this restaurant, but more for their ala carte dishes, which are prepared with more effort and have a much better taste. 

The service there was good, prompt and polite.  The dining environment somehow gives me a sense of dining in Hong Kong.  The two gentlemen sitting at the table behind me probably were businessmen catching with each other over lunch.  There were also some tourist-looking patrons, but the majority seem to be local Singaporeans.