Asia Grand Restaurant

Hello! (:

Sorry for the long hiatus! I went away for a while to sightsee, eat, shop and relax (: It's good to be back though, just in time for Christmas! (: My siblings and I are going to cook Christmas dinner tomorrow and I'm excited to see how that turns out.

Anyway, my family and I went to Asia Grand Restaurant before I left for my trip to celebrate my sister's 21st birthday! =) We chose that restaurant because it serves Chinese food (my parents are fond of Chinese cuisine) and also because their Peking Duck is extremely affordable! Instead of charging the usual $60+ for an entire duck, Asia Grand only charges $30! We've tried Peking Ducks at other Chinese restaurants and Asia Grand's isn't inferior in quality or quantity despite the cheap price. It's definitely THE restaurant to go to if you're a fan of Peking Duck because it allows you to enjoy the dish without burning a hole in your pocket.

Table setting. The restaurant has an oriental feel but it wasn't overdone.

Instead of serving the usual peanuts for pre-meal nibblers, they serve preserved vegetables with mini fishcake bits ($3). Because the preserved vegetables have a sweet and sour taste, it whets your appetite and prepares you for the glorious food that's about to arrive at your table.

Peking Duck ($30). In my opinion, I feel that people are drawn to Peking duck because of the duck skin wrapped in crepe dish. There's no other roll that is quite like this. The duck skin is nicely roasted and it goes perfectly well with the crepe and duck sauce. It's like a popiah/ handroll made specially for carnivorous people.

Stir-fried duck meat with spring onions ($10). The rest of the duck meat can be cooked in various ways but you've to pay an additional $10 for this. Surprisingly, the duck meat wasn't as tough as the previous time my family had Peking Duck so I guess it was a good choice to have the duck meat cooked this way.

Fried mantous/ Deep fried plain buns ($4 for 4). My brother's staple at Chinese restaurants. They're quite small so you can order more if you want to.

Fish maw thick soup ($42). We ordered a huge bowl of fish maw soup which was enough to serve 10-11 people. It had a nice, thick texture but it tasted pretty ordinary. Nevertheless, I liked it because I wanted something warm and soupy to start off my meal.

Broccoli with scallops ($48). This is probably my favourite 'Chinese' dish! I like ordering it but because it's awfully expensive, I try not to order it every time we dine at a Chinese restaurant. Both the broccoli and scallops were fresh and the xo sauce made the entire dish delectably delicious.

Prawns with egg yolk ($39). If there were such a thing as a 'best new entry for cooking for the year' kind of award, I think the salted-egg egg yolk mixture is definitely a strong contender. I first tasted this novel flavour last year at my dad's birthday dinner, when we had salted-egg egg yolk crabs and I was blown away by the peculiar richness of this particular concoction. It is a taste which can be acquired though some people take to it almost instantaneously. Definitely a must-try, even if you may never ever want to come close to this dish after sampling it! =)

Beancurd with spinach ($24). As Asia Grand doesn't list many tofu dishes on their menu, we asked the waiter for his recommendation and he suggested this. The tofu cubes had light and crispy skin and its apparent blandness was offset by the sauce and vegetables that accompanied them. It's a dish that I would strongly recommend and I hope you like it as much as my family did.

Stir-fried green beans ($24). This was a more straightforward vegetable dish that tasted pretty ordinary. Though the green beans were crunchy, it was slightly too spicy and it didn't appeal to those who don't like to have so much spice in their food.

Sweet & sour fish slices ($39). Another outstanding dish that everyone ought to try. It's probably one of the best sweet and sour fish dish that my family has tried and trust me when I say that my family members and I have tried enough sweet and sour fish dishes to tell the good, the average and the bad ones apart.

Mango cream with sago ($5). To round up our feast, we ordered these two cups of cool, fruity goodness. It's pretty average but nevertheless sufficient as a finale dish. Afterall, we'd a huge chocolate fudge cake to consume after my sister's cake-cutting session so all of us were sugarhappy by the end of the night (:

Alright that's all for now! I hope that all of you are enjoying your holidays! Merry Christmas to one and all! =) Hohoho!