Eating at Imperial Treasure’s new Huaiyang restaurant is a bit like meeting relatives you never knew you had in your ancestral village in China. Or rather, relatives you never bothered to look for in the first place. Because if you did, you feared they might serve you their version of yak tea and ask for money and your iPhone. But, by chance, you do meet them and, surprisingly, they turn out to be worldly sophisticates much more gastronomically cultured than you. And their top-of-the-line Xiaomis are way cooler than your iPhone. Such describes the Chinese restaurant scene of late, which has been a get-to-know-you session of Huaiyang, Ningbo, Hunan and other regional cuisines we should know about but don’t. And thanks to the proliferation of eateries catering to the mainland Chinese palate, we’re reaching out beyond stalwart Cantonese, Teochew or Hokkien cooking to discover what we’ve been missing all this while.
That said, authenticity does not equate to accessibility, which is why regional Chinese food is still somewhat esoteric to the Singaporean palate. Enter Imperial Treasure, the Switzerland of Chinese restaurants. It may bill an individual eatery as Cantonese, Teochew or Shanghainese, but there’s a familiar Chinese genericness that runs through all of them so individual preferences aren’t compromised.
That’s why Imperial Treasure Huaiyang is an easy introduction to a style of cooking described as one of the four great traditions of Chinese cuisine – and which spawned a generation of chefs with the kind of knife skills that can rival the best mechanical paper shredder. Huaiyang takes over from the group’s steamboat restaurant in Ion Orchard, and sits in a totally refurbished space with a serene Chinese garden-like foyer that leads into a fairly roomy, main dining area.
The chronically unadventurous can fall back on a handful of dim sum at lunch, or mapo tofu and Yangzhou fried rice – hidden in the menu like fillers in a Labubu blind box. The fun is really in spotting the dishes that are typical to the region, and the balance of sweet, spicy and tangy flavours that are familiar yet new at the same time. That said, the first to make an impression is also the simplest. At least deceptively so, because we don’t know how many fingers were harmed in the process of training chefs to prepare shredded tofu Jiangsu-style (S$18). A mountain of long, thin and springy strips of firm tofu are tossed in a savoury sesame oil dressing and served cold as an addictive snack. Deep-fried cod fillet in Yangzhou style (S$28) is less predictable than its fried rice compatriot, as you get the yin-yang effect of crunchy-soft fish coated in a thick sweet-sour glaze that’s perky without being cloying.
On the other hand, the cold pickled cucumbers with Sichuan pepper (S$14) tempt you with a bit of spice and then nothing, like a speed-date with no potential for a follow-up. But we would go the long haul with sliced Angus beef in sour soup (S$60), which is as misleading as describing a Ferrari as a red car that goes very fast. The broth is almost a deep ochre, with a complex depth that’s rich with a pleasantly sour tanginess. There’s enough chilli in it to make you choke but not kill you, and very tender beef slices cosying up to chewy glass noodles and enoki mushrooms. While we would commit to a relationship with the beef soup, we’d be tempted to have a fling with the soft-shell turtle steamed in chicken oil (S$112). It’s rare to find turtle offered on menus without it being a special advance order or some such, and to find it steamed rather than cooked in soup.
Note that this will appeal only to fans of the thick, gelatinous cartilage and the smooth sticky mouth feel of turtle in a brothy sauce laced with a layer of rendered chicken fat. It’s salty from Yunnan ham, but evened out with the infusion of Chinese herbs and sweetness of red dates. Rice would complete this.
Fried egg white souffle ball filled with red bean paste and banana (S$7.50) is familiar but well-executed. More interesting is a bowl of sweet fermented rice soup (S$8) with a hint of booziness from the lees, and tiny glutinous rice balls to chew on. The food may well be tweaked for local palates, but it must be authentic enough for the healthy proportion of mainland Chinese diners that eat here. A single diner even orders an entire steamed carp covered with pickled chillies for herself, while we make a mental note to have that on our next visit.
And a next visit there will be, because like a long-lost relative, Huaiying cuisine is one we want to get to know better.
NEW RESTAURANT
Imperial Treasure Huaiyang Cuisine #04-12A Ion Orchard 2 Orchard Turn Singapore 238801 Tel: 6636-9339 Open daily for lunch and dinner: 11:30 am to 3 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm. Open at 11 am on Sat and 10:30 am on Sun
