While festivities might be slightly more limited this time round, it doesn’t mean that the Lunar New Year celebrations have to be any less convivial. Phase 3 and its allowance of eight in a party, after all, is still quite a number – not to mention an auspicious one, especially favoured for its connotations of luck, prosperity and wealth.
READ MORE: The FEMALE Team Shares Our Favourite Dining Spots
Usher in the year of the ox with the refreshing, wholesome and exhilarating menus that have graced our shores this new year and celebrate, if not the preceding year of adversities overcome, the following one of new beginnings and endless possibilities, each more exciting than the last.
Yan Ting’s Exquisite Pun Choy – or pen cai – with nourishing pig’s trotters layers ingredients like dace fish balls and roast duck with braised abalone and sea cucumber, bathed in a flavourful, umami-packed broth. The dish comes as a set with yusheng with crispy silverfish, wok-fried glutinous rice with preserved meats, and an osmanthus and wolfberry cake to end your meal on a sweet note. For dining in, they’ve got a set menu with indulgent classics like steamed sea perch with bell peppers; as well as Boston lobster served with their flavour-packed housemade X.O sauce. Available from January 15 to February 26. Takeaway pre-orders open now.
The St. Regis Singapore; tel: 6506-6887
For consummate Cantonese gastronomia to celebrate the festivities, look to Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant. Executive chef Brian Wong flexes his impressive culinary chops with a selection of newly minted takes on classic flavours. Festive highlights include braised giant prawns topped with a decadent, creamy salted egg sauce; Boston lobster, black truffle and cheese served in a superior stock; and a healthful, collagen-laden Wan Hao Eight Treasures imperial pot with bird’s nest. The lattermost functions as a diametric opposite to the intensely flavoursome pen cai with a lighter stock base – though no less exciting, replete with nutrient-heavy ingredients like 10-head Australian abalone, prawns, fish maw and bird’s nest. Available from January 20 to February 26.
Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel; tel: 6831-4605
With a little under four decades under their belt, and two sister outlets in Dempsey and London, Min Jiang’s no neophyte to crafting excellent Sichuan and Cantonese nosh. For the Lunar New Year, look forward to delights like a fiery, 4-hour-braised oxtail with pickled mustard and enoki mushrooms, a reference to the zodiac year that stands in its own right with aromatics like Sichuan peppercorn, fermented chilli bean paste and preserved cabbage lending it multi-layered, spicy complexity.
Other highlights include a clear, flavourful chicken broth filled with 10-head abalone, eel maw, handmade prawn dumplings, and pork balls; as well as a claypot of braised pork, abalone, and beancurd stuffed with pork and crabmeat that begs for steamed white rice. For dessert, the chilled durian nian gao makes a comeback: glutinous rice flour, gula melaka and rock sugar are simmered and steamed, before final assembly with a mix of D24 durian and kaya, and sprinklings of desiccated coconut. Available for takeaway from January 24 to February 26.
Min Jiang at Goodwood Park Hotel, tel: 6730-1704; Min Jiang at Dempsey, 7A and 7B Dempsey Road, tel: 6774-0122; The Deli at Goodwood Park Hotel, tel: 6737-7411
Get the royal treatment at Shangri-la Hotel Singapore’s Chinese restaurant with a selection of seven or eight-course Chinese New Year sets this year. Indulgent from the set menus include pan-fried scallop with pacific clam and garden greens with housemade sakura shrimp XO sauce, as well as a savoury, collagen-rich of braised bird’s nest with sea cucumber. If you’re going all-out for reunion dinner, Shang Palace’s Abundance Set menu has got you covered with indulgent picks like braised whole three-head abalone with sea cucumber; Buddha jumps over the wall; and a whole roasted suckling pig. A vegetarian menu is also available, with dishes like assorted vegetables with truffle paste. Available from January 25 to February 26.
22 Orange Grove Road; tel: 6213-4473
Enjoy Yan’s bona fide Cantonese offerings from their roost in the National Gallery with a bevvy of resplendent Lunar New Year menus. Highlights include fish maw in an enriching stock comprised of cordyceps flower, Jinhua ham, pork bones and lean pork that’s been through an extensive eight-hour double-boiling process; whole spring chicken, deep-fried then braised for three hours and accompanied by six-head abalone; and crowd-pleaser and Cantonese classic stir-fried ee fu noodles, given a new year twist with braised lobster and umami-rich cured shrimp roe.
Finally, dessert comes in the form of double-boiled bird’s nest fortified by lily, white fungus, wolfberry and lotus seed brewed in a pandan broth. There’s also take-home options like whole roasted suckling pig, and the restaurant’s signature roast duck, New Year’s pastries and more. Available from January 28 to February 26.
#05-02 National Gallery; tel: 6384-5585
Celebrate Lunar New Year in the clouds – or at least, 57-storeys closer to them – at Ce La Vi, who’ve come up with a Chinese New Year menu well-suited to their usual contemp-Asian style. Their six-course dinner menu includes not-your-usual-CNY dishes like heirloom tomato and burrata salad with lashing of yuzu-shiso vinaigrette and black sesame tuile; a headily-earthy broth made from black truffle, dry shitake and black chicken; and Thai-inspired steamed local seabass from Kuhlbarra in a lemongrass-coconut broth alongside sauteed squid. Their yu sheng is available as a part of this menu, or a la carte – and if you think about it, you’re more or less guaranteed to be tossing it higher than anyone else around. Available from February 8 to February 21 (less Valentine’s Day on February 14).
Level 57, Tower 3, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands; tel: 6508-2188
Resorts World Sentosa’s Aqua Gastronomy is back for its final iteration. Underwater dining meets spring festivities for the Lunar New Year, thanks to a breath-taking all-round view of some 40,000 sea creatures in the S.E.A. Aquarium’s Open Ocean Habitat, all decked out in chic New Year decor. An ocean-focused five-course menu follows, including the likes of Nordic salmon, king prawn, Patagonian toothfish and caviar and more, with corresponding dynamic lighting and music to pair with each course to boot.
To complete the multi-sensorial experience, narration of a folktale detailing the Golden Ox’s visit to the Dragon Emperor’s undersea palace for an extravagant feast culminates with an underwater dragon dance performance in the ocean above. A fitting way to end off what might be Aqua Gastronomy’s ultimate run. Available from January 14 to February 28.
Open Ocean Habitat, S.E.A. Aquarium; tel: 6577-6688