for this evening, we picked peach garden novena for our group dinner on 20.8.2013.

they had this $32.80 ala carte buffet, with 1 free for 3 paying. we had 16pax + 1 who ordered vegetarian ala carte, so we had 4pax free. there was a S$30 corkage/bottle so we ordered a S$65 bottle of white wine & had 3 other bottles corkage-free. 🙂

we thought the food was quite good & much exceeded our expectations of a ala carte buffet. the total bill including 1 bottle of white wine came to $38pax. jolly good! 🙂

salmon fish skin

roast pork

deep fried eggplant with meat floss

vegetarian goose (素鹅)

for me, the fish skin was a nothing dish, can skip. 🙂 the roast pork (烧肉) was good with a mustard dip (but usual). so was the deep-fried eggplant with meat (not sure pork of chicken) floss. the vegetarian goose was i thought rather good in texture & taste – crisp & tasty! 🙂

sharksfin in sharks bone cartilage soup

there were like 7 soups for the picking.  most had the milky sharksfin in sharks bone cartilage soup, fishmaw with sea whelk soup (above) or sharksfin with crabmeat soup. 🙂

deep-fried tofu

we also had a tofu dish – ok crispy but otherwise average. 🙂

kong ba (梅菜扣肉)

pan-fried venison

pan-fried kurobuta

the kong ba (梅菜扣肉) was very good. the venison was the usual artificial bicarbonate tenderised meat version – ok but not my kind of dish. the kurobuta was  tasteless & forgettable – very odd really, as kurobuta is usually very marbled & tasty & not difficult to do.

deep=fried soon hock

minced ginger pating (巴丁鱼)

wasabi mayo prawns

we had both the deep-fried soon hock & the pating fish. the few good teochews loved the pating & especially the belly. 🙂 i thought it really odd that they served a 1/4 pating fish, and it looked like a 700g & NOT a 1kg pating. never seen it served that way before, so what they do with the tail portion? anyhow the fish was excellent..i could eat another portion myself!

the soon hock was a bit more mundane, a good competent version. some liked this better as pating, a fresh water fish, had more of a “mud” taste, though not by much. 🙂

the wasabi prawn was well executed & excellent dish, nicely lightly deep-fried & not too much wasabi mayo (the last time a friend bought dinner here, it was coated in thick green paste, probably by a trainee!) but this dish had become pedestrian being served in every restaurant from majestic to tung lok, paradise, crystal jade, imperial treasure etc. 🙂

the 3 egg (egg, salted egg, century egg) spinach (“hoing chye”) was another competent dish, good accompaniment after all the meat!

char kuay teow

ee-fu noodles

for carbo, the char kuay teow was tops! very good wok hae & tasty. the ee-fu noodles were forgettable (& forgotten!)

pulut hitam with coconut ice cream

some of us had all 5 desserts. the 杨枝甘露, a popular dessert, was the only one not worth taking here. i had the pulut hitam with coconut ice cream which was very good & the jelly which was nice & refreshing. 🙂 the almond tau huay (beancurd) & the sea coconut were ok too. 🙂

it was another usual df3 (din-filled, food-filled, fun-filled) evening. the servers came twice to say that the other tables complained about our noise level but what to do? (not that many of us heard her anyway). 🙂

the evening was memorable & i really liked the food, so maybe start thinking about going back…haha. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy