Yan Ting @ St. Regis (Sept 6 2008)

How I can resist!!! looking thru the dim sum menu after hearing praises from Danny (the manager for Yan Ting... I just need to figure out if he's the asst manager or the manager... won't want to step on anyone's toes). Woooo!! some of the dishes look nice... so with that information in hand, some of us decided to come for a dim sum lunch... (err it actually became a super long lunch and with extras after that).

Yan Ting ... I walked in with high expectations. Could be the hyper that was done during the mooncake tasting. I love how the place is furnished. However, as I am a person who LOVE her peace and quiet during meals, find the table sittings rather too close for comfort, esp the conversations from around me were so "loud" and intruding. Do not take this wrongly, to most poeple, the noise level is reasonable, but for someone who's hyper sensitive, it was too much. I like my restaurant almost library silent.

My table setting :D I like I like so many things to use... And I used all of them :D hehe and my fingers too!!! :D I always like picking food with my fingers... but I doubt people would grin and let me be. Maybe one day I will just learn to use the right cutlery at the right time.

And this is the "almost" full view of the setting. I like the fact that they have each individual sauce dish with 3 different types of chilli. Maybe for me, I would prefer they had waited to ask me which would be my choices, cause I never like sliced chilli. hehe but it's just me.

Some would say a small dimsum menu is good, cause then the kitchen can focus on what they can do better. And some say it's better to have varieties. For me, I want both! haha! good food with a variety! :D

Frist of all, I am a person who prefer heavily flavoured food. And the pickled lotus root was surprisingly light. It would have been a forgetable dish, if not for the fact that, it still retained its crunchy texture.

Deep-fried Bean curd Roulette - hmmm it was just beancurd skin wrap around some seafood... no big WOW factor. As for the egg pancake below, it was a nice touch, but definitely can do without.

Steamed Shanghai Style Juicy Pork dumpling - Oh yeah! plenty of juice. However, it was not flavourful enough. I decided that Yan Ting is a place which focus on getting the freshest produce they can get, and focus to keep the flavour simple and not too heavy. Definitely a place which will be easily mistaken, esp by me, who prefer chilli with most of my food.

Hong Kong BBQ - Out of the 5 choices, we chose Roasted Pork, Roasted Duck and Chilled Wine Marinated Beef Shank for our combination of 3. I didn't have the shank, as I wasn't really up for too much beef lately.

Crispy Radish Pasty - I like this, esp they have some thin sliced radish in it. Add a bit of the spicy bean paste chilli... *yum* I can easily have 2 orders of these.

Crispy Prawn and Chinese Chives Dumpling - I am so totally lost with this dish. I thought it was some wonton... for something deep fried, I would say it's quite light. Soak it in the soup that came along with it. Hey! we got a deep fried wonton soup! :p

Traditional Pig Trotter in Vinegar - this can't possibly be something light!!! but it was. Toned down, watered down... and everything it should not be. It tasted like 90% water, 9% of dark soya and 1% of dark vinegar!!! It was a total failure, in my point of view. No use saying, we want to let the guest taste the fresh pork or whatever! it's Pig trotter in vinegar!!! Give me the heavy taste of vinegar anytime.

I am surprised at the pot they used.... seemed like one of those 2 dollars daiso claypots I got... Could it be? Even if it's not, I think they could have use a much simpl'er and elegant aka a plain one. This is just too... cheesy!

Steamed Spare-ribs with Black Bean - Note the word "Bean", and it is so! there was only a single black bean in our dish.... for a person who lovesssss black bean... I was hoping they were hidden under some of the spare ribs... but it was not. However, it did not dampen our enjoyment of this dish. Fantastic choice of spare ribs... many pieces come with a bit of fat or tendons, none of those lean meat BS! :p As it was not heavy, I experienced the pork taste. Too often, places would try to hide the pork taste, esp when they are not serving the fresh ones. But Yan Ting did not. The spare ribs were fresh and absolutely a delight to have.

Steamed Shrimp and Scallop Dumpling - pass the chilli sauce please!

Fluffy Steamed Barbecue Pork Bun - nope, I did not have this. Someone else had it.

Crispy Peking Duck - I never came so close to wanting to molest a duck in my life!!! The glorious and shiny skin... a beauty compared to none... except maybe the other ducks in the kitchen! :p

We had it in two styles :-

Did you notice the thin layer of duck fat... yummy! I like mine with spring onion, a thin cucumber, and some sweet sauce... so i took out the pepper or was it chilli piece... and continued to enjoy my Crispy peking duck wrap.... :P~

They took the leftover duck body and created another dish...

Lettuce Wrap with duck - delicious!! there was quite a bit for one piece of lettuce.. but if they had given us two... might be slightly too much, I would have the idea it's too much, considering we had so many other dishes.... :D

Someone we had met earlier, came along and suggested us to try the soup of the day... and it was fantastic!!!! I absolutely looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove it. It's fish, pork and black bean (I think) soup! There was no fishy taste, though it was a fish soup... With enough time on the stove and of course enough of ingredients definitely made this soup an absolute delight! MUST go back for more soup!!! :D

Stir-fried Cheong Fan Rice Rolls with XO sauce - Decision of last min! it was too thick... but it's almost like a fried carrot cake in dark sauce! I like the egg in it... but I felt the rice roll was slightly too thick.

Refreshing Mango and Pomelo soup - Dessert!!!! okie... I like sweet things to finish a meal.... I don't like sour thing, or anything else. Only sweet things would finish a meal nicely. This is compliment from the hotel. And it just perform like it had, but no out of the box results.

With my frist impressions of the food, I might not ever step into this place. But as I slowly recall the taste of the food.... what hit me the most is the simple and fresh dishes that were presented and served. Dim sum had always been a light meal, and Yan Ting has definitely achieved this.