Crystal Jade Kitchen

Last weekend, Jeffrey and I weren't feeling very well so we decided to head to Crystal Jade Kitchen for some porridge. Personally, I don't really like eating porridge on normal days because I find it a hassle to eat and I don't think porridge keeps me full for long. Perhaps the few occassions that will make me want to eat porridge is when I'm feeling a bit under the weather or when it's really cold. In these few circumstances, I tend to crave porridge from Tiong Bahru Porridge at Bukit Timah Food Centre or Crystal Jade Kitchen because these two places serve the the nicest porridge, in my opinion at least.

Unfortunately, Jeffrey forgot to bring his camera battery along so I decided to upload photos that we took during our past visits to Crystal Jade Kitchen. One thing we really like about Crystal Jade Kitchen is the dim sums that they serve, which explains why we love the Crystal Jade Kitchen outlet at Holland Village because unlike other outlets which serves dim sum during the day, the Holland Village outlet serves dim sum all day long! (: There are a few standard dim sum dishes that Jeffrey and I always order when we dine at Crystal Jade Kitchen and they never fail to satisfy our Chinese food/ dim sum cravings. Here are some of the food items that we have tickled our fancy:


Custard Baos. I order this dish whenever possible because I absolutely LOVE how the sweet yellow custard complements the soft bao skin. Although baos are supposed to make you feel full, I don't think these custard buns are that filling because both the custard and bao skin have a certain lightness to them. I'm thankful that I found this delicacy in their menu.

Char Siew Baos. This serves as a savoury alternative to the sweet custard baos. I usually donate all my charsiew to Jeffrey and eat the skin which is coated with layer of charsiew sauce. Yummy stuff.

Har Gaos (little prawn dumplings). We love the har gaos because they contain extremely big, juicy and succulent prawns! I don't know how Crystal Jade manages to make their prawns taste so springy! It's amazing (: I like the texture of the har gao skin as well because it's soft and it's not completely tasteless because of the prawn filling.


Chives Dumplings. We don't usually order this dish very often because Jeffrey doesn't really like chives. I wouldn't recommend this to people who don't particulary like chives because each dumpling contains a ball of chives! Also, the skin tasted harder and drier than the har gao's.

Jeffrey's all-time favourite and a MUST order dish whenever we visit Crystal Jade Kitchen: Carrot Cake. He can finish the entire plate on his own! That's how good it is (: I think one reason why this tastes so good is because of the little pork bits in the carrot cake! They give the carrot cake the extra oomph and they help the carrot cake taste spectacularly nice.

Water Chestnut Cake. If you prefer to have something less oily, you can order a plate of waterchestnut cake instead. This dish is probably the sweet counterpart of the carrot cake. Each piece of waterchestnut cake contains very generous portions of water chestnut bits, which gives the cake a very crunchy taste. The outside of the cake is slightly crispy because it is panfried but the inside is warm and soft. A delectable dish to have if you like water chestnut! (:

Char Siew Puffs. Another of Jeffrey's favourite dishes. We order this dish when Jeffrey's feeling exceptionally hungry because he has to finish all three puffs if we order this! He says it's like the fried/ puff version of Char Siew Bao. I guess you'll like this if you like their Char Siew Baos!

Fried Spring Rolls. They taste like ordinary fried spring rolls that you can find elsewhere, nothing spectacular and nothing to rave about.

Okay I'm starting to realise that most of Jeffrey's favourite dishes have something in common: they contain char siew. This dish - Chee Chong Fun with BBQ Pork - is also one of his favourites and a MUST-order whenever we dine at Crystal Jade. I think this dish is very popular with diners because it's always one of the first dishes to be sold out. Personally, I think the sauce that comes along with the chee chong fun is a key ingredient that makes this dish so appealing to people. It's neither too salty nor too viscous and it definitely complements the thin and comparatively plain chee chong fun very well.

Pan-fried Chee Chong Fun Rolls. If you're more adventurous and you're craving for something with a bit of kick, I'd suggest you order this dish because it has a mixture of tastes. The outer layer is spicy and salty but the inside is made of nothing but plain chee chong fun. You can dip your rolls into either a bbq-taste-alike-sauce or peanut sauce, which will be served in a small dish that comes along with this plate of yumminess. Personally, I think the peanut sauce is an ingenious creation! (: It gives the rolls an added roughness in terms of texture and the peanut flavour gives your tastes buds an additional second or two of pleasure whenever you take a bite of this wondrous chee chong fun roll.

Crispy Noodles. We didn't take a photo of our porridge because we didn't have battery with us so here's a photo of a "main" that Jeffrey tried last time. He doesn't usually order this dish but he said it's nice to eat anyway! I think the portion is quite generous so two people can share this, along with other dim sums.

Dining at Crystal Jade Kitchen is always a pleasure, especially when you're ravenous, because the staff are friendly and the service is quick. It's definitely a place to drop by whenever you can't decide what to eat or whenever you need a quick Chinese food fix. =)