Chinese New Year Feast At The Han Room

Another day, another round of feasting and toasts to the coming Lunar New Year. Okay, I exaggerate as it’s not as if I get to attend such dinners on a daily basis. I’m grateful for the ones I am invited to as it gives me an opportunity to dine in nice restaurants and taste sumptuous food which obviously costs more than many people’s monthly salary and then some.

This time, the 8 course dinner was at The Han Room at The Gardens Mall which I have been to for their excellent dim sum. Personally, I think their dim sum is a lot better than at Tim Ho Wan and I don’t have to queue for ages either just for dim sum in a fast food environment. Oh no, meals at The Han Room are a lot more leisurely and I am not squeezed uncomfortably between 2 tables with barely enough room for all the dim sum ordered.

But back to the Chinese New Year Feast at The Han Room. It was held at the ‘Chefs Private Rooms and Tables’ and not the Main Dining Hall. I didn’t know this so I strode all the way to the back thinking the party was inside but when I got all the way there, I knew something was amiss so I asked a waitress who brought me to the other section via their staff entrance. She could have brought me all the way out of The Han Room and used the Gardens Mall entrance but she said since I was already there, might as well use the staff entrance. Aha! Something new I have discovered about The Han Room.

Chinese New Year Feast At The Han Room is lavish and opulent

I found my allocated table easily without having to ask the hosts since I’d requested to be seated next to my pal and she was already there. It was just another half hour wait for the courses to come rolling out. The first course is……

Surprise, surprise! No prizes for guessing anyway since everyone knows it’d be some variation of the ubiquitous and obligatory Yee Sang. This one is Geoduck & Sea Clams Yee Sang. I’ve always been fascinated by the Geoduck since it is a clam but it doesn’t look like the kinds of clam I am used to eating. According to Wikipedia, Geoducks are champion spawners as a female geoduck produces about 5 billion eggs in her century-long lifespan—in comparison, a human female produces about 500 viable ova during the course of her life. The texture is slightly chewy and goes well with the crunchy crackers and sauce.

Monk Jumps Over The Wall is a dish I have always associated with Chinese New Year. I like the fact that this was in individual servings. I have never tasted a soup this hot! It remained boiling hot to the last spoonful! I wonder how long they boiled this for. This one has abalone, scallop, sea cucumber, all expensive ingredients.

Although I am not a vegetarian, there are certain dishes that make me shudder when they’re brought out and one of them is suckling pig. The thought of slaughtering a piglet makes me feel like abstaining. This one had its mouth agape, for goodness sake, as if it was shrieking out its lungs as it has its throat slit! I am sure I’d have run away if I’d seen it raw as it’s already disturbing cooked. I’d rather restaurants stopped serving suckling pig just as they do shark’s fin soup. It’s just my personal feeling. Honestly, I had this picture of my dog on the plate, same size more or less. Besides, this one was so fatty that all the diners on my table were just carving off the skin without partaking of the flesh. It’s like consuming Babe Pig In The City. I gave up after tentatively chewing/gingerly nibbling on the skin of one piece. I couldn’t get Babe out of my mind!

Refreshing starfruit juice was served after the piglet dish. I took 2 glasses, starfruit juice is great to cleanse the palate and eliminate that oily feeling.

Braised ‘Soon Hock’ with Clams in Clay Pot ‘Shunde’ Style was one of my favourites of this feast. I thought the braised ‘soon hock’ was so chock-full of flavor! I had quite a few pieces of the fish. The fact that there were just 6 diners (and then my pal left after this dish was served) at my table meant there was plenty to go around.

Stir-Fried Wild Mushrooms in XO Sauce comes with lots of green beans. I liked the sauce, not salty.

After all these dishes came a huge bamboo basket filled with Steamed Fresh Water Prawns with Glutinous Rice. Most of us just gorged on the prawns (full of minced ginger) and didn’t take the rice (too filling!). The prawns varied in freshness. Some were more chewy than others. Luckily they provided knife and fork as chopsticks wouldn’t have been able to tear these apart from the shells.

The Han Room is very generous with the ingredients in Double-Boiled Six Treasures with Sea Coconut. Perfect way to end an overall superb meal.

The pastries on the top tier are beautiful, they look so scrumptiously yellow. These are a little salty, they contain mashed pumpkin and complement the sweet deep-fried sesame ball with azuki red bean on the bottom tier.