Miss D’s bday dinner~ @ Cornucopia

Mr. C and I have only been to Conucopia for dim sum and seeing how much we had enjoyed our experience there, we knew that it was only a matter of time that we would be paying them another visit. So when we heard that Cornucopia had recently changed head chefs, the sous chef from Spring Moon to be exact, we decided it would be worthwhile to go there together with Mr. LC to celebrate Miss D’s birthday~

We were seated inside the private room courtesy of the manager and very soon our tea arrived along with dishes of honeyed walnuts and XO sauce. Both of these are definitely worth a mention, the walnuts were wonderfully crunchy and caramelised to a gorgeous golden brown and the XO sauce… wow~ tasted even better than before, I could just put this over white rice and spoon it all up 😀

We all know Mr. C’s love of soup so of course we ordered the daily soup. Nashi pear, pork and ‘shuet yi’ was the combination that day and the result was tasty and deeply flavourful which was not surprising from the amount of ingredients used to boil the soup.

For a simple appetiser we had boiled chicken feet with grated ginger sauce. The chicken feet were cooked to the point where the skin and tendons were meltingly soft, however the ginger sauce really needed more salt.

A gigantic tiger prawn was then served to each of us. Pan-fried in soy-sauce it had the most mouth-watering aroma. The flesh was firm and every bite was so meaty with a little spring in texture. Big thumbs up~

Sweet and sour pork is a favoured dish of Miss D, and the one served here looked extremely appetising. A recommended dish on the menu, the batons of juicy pork were lightly battered yet still retained a crunch even after being tossed in the sweet and sour sauce. The use of fresh pineapples was a nice touch as it added a sour aspect to the overall dish and it definitely tasted better than the ones from a can.

‘Tai ye’ chicken, this looked like simple soy sauce chicken, but it had a subtle smoky tea flavour infused inside the meat. Very juicy, but it was unfortunately quite bland.

The piece de resistance of the evening was definitely the steamed crab on a bed of glutinous rice~ Perfectly steamed, the crab was so fresh evident from the sweetness you could taste in the flesh and the generous clumps of deep orange roe were a pleasure to eat. The glutinous rice soaked up all the juices that seeped out from the crab during the steaming process so that each soft and chewy mouthful had a subtle fragrance to it. So good~

Omelette with bitter gourd, minced pork and pickled radish seems so normal and homely, yet so many restaurants can not produce a very good version. Most of the time, they are exceedingly oily and overcooked, but not the one here. So fluffy, you could actually see volume in the omelette, the bitter gourd was diced into sizeable chunks which retained a nice crunch and there was no oily aftertaste at all. Perfect pairing for rice 🙂

Chinese lettuce in hotpot. Nothing out of the ordinary here, vegetables were very fresh, but it could have done with more flavour.

And all too soon, it was time for dessert~

Just one spoonful of the chilled red date and snow lotus seed sweet soup made me absolutely speechless. Cool and sweet the flavour of red dates was deeply intense and I adored the chewiness of the snow lotus seeds. Ladies, if you want beautiful skin, this is a must-order 😉

The almond tea with egg white was just as good. Running a spoon through the dessert, there was a slight resistance which showed that it was not of a watery consistency. A rich flavour of almonds filled the senses with its heady fragrance and the twirls of slippery egg white gave some texture to the dessert. Recommended~

Absolutely remarkable, the dishes are definitely of quality, but some could use a slightly heavier hand in terms of seasoning. So worth trying 🙂

Dim Sum~ @ Cornucopia Fine Dining

There is nothing more I enjoy doing than trying out new places for dim sum, so I was quite happy when Mr. C suggested us to try Cornucopia Fine Dining which is a new establishment that had recently opened inside the Cubus building. The restaurant is on the 7th floor, modernly decorated yet was adorned with dramatic oriental accents like the big dancing lion heads hanging from the walls which I found quite interesting. Although the area was not too big, it was cleverly designed using the high ceiling and floor to ceiling windows to their advantage in creating a sense of spaciousness.

We were seated in their private room which was a cozy space, perfect for an intimate setting for two. It is possible to seat up to four people, but some may consider it a tight fit.

Their version of welcome appetisers came in the form of cucumbers with mashed garlic. Perfectly marinated, it left the palate with a strong zing of garlic which helped awaken the tastebuds. Something worth mentioning is definitely their homemade XO sauce, the dried scallops had been fried before being infused in oil so it was flavourful with a sharp kick of chili. Eaten together with the dim sum just made the food more delicious~

Our chilled appetisers arrived first. Chilled bitter gourd and chilled abalone. The chilled bitter gourd was sliced into even segments and were pleasantly crunchy. I was quite surprised there was no hint of bitterness from the gourd, but rather it had absorbed all the flavours from the sweet, salty plum wine it had been marinated in. Quite good~

The chilled abalone was marinated with what I think was a mix of soy sauce and chinese wine and lain on a bed of kale stems. The abalone was very tender with a slight bite to it while the tough outer skin of the kale was thoughtfully peeled leaving the crunchy heart of the stem.

We had soup next, their daily special which was a combination of chinese melon, dried squid and fish maw. The soup was very good, an intense depth of flavours resulting from many hours of boiling while the fish maw was cooked to a slippery soft texture which was just right in my opinion. And the best thing, not a hint of MSG.

And then our dim sum started arriving~

Prawn cheong fun. Slippery smooth rice noodle sheet encasing fresh crunchy prawns, I am normally not a fan of cheong fun, but I actually quite enjoyed this especially with the sweet soy sauce that it came accompanied with.

Vegetarian dumplings. This is my favourite type of dumpling and the one here did not disappoint at all. The dumplings were plump with a generous amount of filling and the vegetables used were very fresh.

Gung Ting Dumpling. This was quite pretty in presentation, with an assortment of colourful ingredients including crab roe, mushrooms and vegetables, decorating the tops of the delicately pleated dumpling. The skin was was thin enough to be translucent and enveloped a filling of fresh prawns and vegetables.This was very good~

Prawn dumplings and siu mai. The prawn was very fresh, with a slight bounce in texture when you bit into it. Mr. C noted the skin of the prawn dumpling was a little thicker than the Gung Ting dumpling but I found it gave the dumpling more of a chewy texture which I enjoyed.

The siu mai was surprisingly quite dense in texture and made for a meaty mouthful. A pleasant change from some of the siu mai I have eaten at other establishments as it showed that the ratio of pork used was quite high.

Fish broth stewed bean curd rolls. The sheets of bean curd were silkily soft enveloping a minced pork and vegetable filling. I quite liked this, even though it was immersed in broth, it was soft yet still had structure in the texture. Simple flavours yet satisfying.

Chicken feet in black bean sauce. Despite arriving at the table quite early, we were so occupied with the other dim sum that we did not try it until much later. By then we thought it would be cold, but surprisingly the ones on the bottom were still warm. The chicken feet were cooked to the stage where the skin and tendons were easily sucked from the bones which is definitely ideal in my opinion and even though the dish was quite strong in flavour it was not overly salty.

Always needing to have greens with our meal, we opted for the Chinese lettuce in broth. Normally when we order vegetables in broth, it only comes with exactly that, but here they served it with a generous amount of dried shrimp and mushrooms which further enhanced the flavour of the broth. The lettuce was very fresh and since it arrived on a stand with a burner to keep the dish hot, the first few pieces were more crunchy, but became softer and softer later on.

Even after so many savoury items we still had dessert to look forward to~

One of their specialties was a steamed egg white custard bun, which they claim to be a healthier version of the original egg yolk custard buns. The bun was nicely fluffy and the egg white custard, more gooey than runny, tasted quite similar to steamed milk pudding. Quite nice~

Steamed Ma Lai Gao. This arrived as a generous portion, gorgeously dark brown in colour it gave off the most tantalising sweet scent. The flavour was spot on, not too sweet, but I found it to be a little too dense. I would enjoy it more if it was just slightly fluffier in texture.

Lastly, mochi wrapped mango rolls. Since Mr. C is a big fan of mangoes, this dessert especially appealed to him. The mochi wrapper was soft with a coating of dessicated coconut where the filling was a simple chunky piece of fresh mango with mango sauce. It is best to eat this in one mouthful as the sweetness of the dessert came from the mango itself.

For a newly established restaurant I must say their quality of food was quite high and both of us enjoyed our experience there. Will definitely want to return to try more of their a la carte dishes~