手拉手，一起走...(Beware: Very long review, picture intensive!)
I remember my parents singing "手拉手，一起走..." (to a tune which I have never heard before) whenever my dad drives past 手拉手京华小馆 (Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant) which was originally situated at 263, Geylang Road. (However, it has moved to a bigger place at at Jalan Besar, near to Sim Lim) It was very funny because somehow both of them will sing the song at the same time. However, we never ever thought of eating there because of the restaurant's very "Cheena"(China) outlook.
Our encounter with this restaurant was only after recommendations by my sis and Jeff. They kept singing praises of the restaurant and my parents went there without me the 1st few times...*Humph*
Finally came my chance to experience the food there and boy was that gooood! That is why I MUST recommend this family restaurant to all of you out there.
The restaurant is run by a Chinese national couple, the husband's the chef while the wife handles the servings and cashier. My family's quite familiar with the lady boss and she's always very friendly and chatty. Despite moving to a new location, business is still brisk with the support of old customers.
Our encounter with this restaurant was only after recommendations by my sis and Jeff. They kept singing praises of the restaurant and my parents went there without me the 1st few times...*Humph*
Finally came my chance to experience the food there and boy was that gooood! That is why I MUST recommend this family restaurant to all of you out there.
The restaurant is run by a Chinese national couple, the husband's the chef while the wife handles the servings and cashier. My family's quite familiar with the lady boss and she's always very friendly and chatty. Despite moving to a new location, business is still brisk with the support of old customers.
*Take note of word circled in green. Don't you just love them?*
Let's move on to the food... First up, we have the braised peanuts in star anise and other spices. Note that this is not the commercial canned peanuts that you eat with porridge, but homemade ones. Although you might just think that this is pretty common in Chinese restaurants, but one mouth and you can tell the difference. The perfectly braised peanuts, all soaked in the goodness of the sweet sauce, is just so perfect that we can't help but to order another plate of it.
Next, this is something that we never fail to order each time we dine there ---> 蒜泥白肉 which is a really simple cold dish. The thin slices of fatty pork melts along with the flavours of the non-spicy chilli oil and garlic, which is the main ingredient which gives this dish it's unique taste. The slices of pork lie on a bed of shredded cucumber which provides an extra crunch to it. Even a "I'll never eat fatty pork" person like me can't resist this dish.
Another cold dish which we ordered was cold tofu with century egg and pork floss. The unique combination of the 3 ingredients fuses perfectly together. This dish has a very light and subtle taste to it and I just can't stop putting this into my mouth!
XLB or 小笼包 is pretty delicious at Hand In Hand restaurant. The skin is relatively thin and each XLB is filled with a good amount of superior stock. I feel that their XLB is comparable to Crystal jade and Ding Tai Fung's ones. Do try and tell me =)
You must be thinking what the hell is this flat piece of thing with 8 rectangular browned parts in the middle.
This is the yummy and eye catching 三鲜锅贴 (at least that's what I remembered it as..hehe) Another dumpling dish, just that this is pan fried with a thin crust attached to the bottom. The crust doesn't really have much taste but that is also the most sought after part. My mum actually tore out a large part of the crust to eat while I stared at her with my mouth agape and asking "你拿了那么大块的皮，我还剩什么？"
Next up on the list is fried shredded potato (土豆丝) which is not meant to be eaten on its own but accompanied by approximately 8 pieces of handmade "thicker-than-popiah skin" kind of wrap. Talking about the wrap, it has a more elastic texture as compared with popiah skin. It is made on the spot (takes quite awhile to arrive) so that customers are able to enjoy piping hot wraps and did I mention that they smell really fresh and good, though their just made of flour...I would say that this dish is pretty bland and not for people who likes strong flavours. However, I like it for its lightness and dipping it in the chilli sauce really brings out the flavour.
This is the yummy and eye catching 三鲜锅贴 (at least that's what I remembered it as..hehe) Another dumpling dish, just that this is pan fried with a thin crust attached to the bottom. The crust doesn't really have much taste but that is also the most sought after part. My mum actually tore out a large part of the crust to eat while I stared at her with my mouth agape and asking "你拿了那么大块的皮，我还剩什么？"
Next up on the list is fried shredded potato (土豆丝) which is not meant to be eaten on its own but accompanied by approximately 8 pieces of handmade "thicker-than-popiah skin" kind of wrap. Talking about the wrap, it has a more elastic texture as compared with popiah skin. It is made on the spot (takes quite awhile to arrive) so that customers are able to enjoy piping hot wraps and did I mention that they smell really fresh and good, though their just made of flour...I would say that this dish is pretty bland and not for people who likes strong flavours. However, I like it for its lightness and dipping it in the chilli sauce really brings out the flavour.
Our 6th dish is non other than the deep fried crispy spring chicken. Looking at this picture alone doesn't do any justice to the real thing. The chicken that they serve is SUPER crispy on the outside and extra moist and juicy on the inside. Definitely the best fried chicken I've eaten. Especially when you dip the tender meat into the pepper and salt mixture, the whole experience is heightened to the max! 赞！
This plate of fried rice may look just like any other ordinary fried rice. But what you can't see is the aromatic 'Wok Hei' that this dish exudes when the plate arrives. I just can't resist food with 'Wok Hei'. And more importantly, fried rice can be easy to cook but mastering it isn't an easy feat. An interesting point to note is that this fried rice is not as oily as most fried rice that we find at other places.
Last but not least, something that we have to order everytime is the 拔丝地瓜, which is sugar glazed sweet potato. This is a special dish and not easily seen in Singapore. If you want to try this, you will have to inform them beforehand so that you won't have to wait too long for this dessert after your meal.
As my series of 3 pictures show, the way to eating it is to first separate out a piece of sweet potato as they are all stuck together by the sticky caramalised sugar. Next, dip it into a bowl of ice water to solidify the caramalised sugar. This creates a cold and crispy texture on the outside and a hot and soft texture on the inside. You should try this dish at least once in your life. It's really very unique!
*NOTE*
The quality of the sweet potato directly affects the quality of this dish. Out of the 3 times that I have tried this, only the last round wasn't as good as the sweet potato wasn't sweet enough.
On the whole, we felt that this restaurant is "Shiok" as what Marky said. Definitely good value for money. WIll go there again to take more pictures of their delicacies, especially their fried fish that I did not have a chance to feature in this post.
Anyway, the receipt below shows the breakdown of the cost of the featured dishes.
蒜泥白肉
Tofu with century egg and pork floss
Roast chicken
土豆丝
Orange juice (which we didn't order at all!)
Yang Zhou fried rice
Xiao Long Bao
三鲜锅贴
拔丝地瓜
