Man Fu Yuan

The weekend is ALMOST here! I've been staying back in school later than usual this week so I think I'll leave earlier tomorrow to prepare for my test on Saturday! There's a lot to cover and I hope that I will be able to do some revision so that I won't fare too badly. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Today, a good friend of mine who has recently settled down in a new college halfway across the world (you know who you are!) sent me an email and she reminded me to update my blog! Since I'm waiting for a reader to finish loading on my computer, I decided that I'll do a short entry on one of the best Chinese restaurants that I've been to in a while.

A month or so ago, Jeffrey, Joanne and I decided to meet up for dinner at Man Fu Yuan because we seldom have Chinese food together. Initially, I was pretty hesitant about having a Chinese meal with only two companions because for one, we would not be able to order as large an array of dishes as we would like and secondly, we may not be able to finish the food that we ordered! Thankfully, the attentive waitress helped us gauge how much food to order to make sure that we didn't end up over-ordering! (:

Man Fu Yuan's menu is a thick and well-bounded book with pages of detailed information about each dish as well as some accompanying photos. We were spoilt for choice and because my knowledge of Chinese food is severely limited, I'd to depend a lot on Joanne and the kind waitress to recommend dishes! Eventually, we settled on four dishes which proved to be just about the right amount because we'd sufficient variety but the portion-sizes were slightly overwhelming for three people. I think it would have been perfect if there were four of us!

The highlight of the night was the Man Fu Yuan Cold Dish ($38) which comprised of peking duck, fried prawns with wasabi sauce, jellyfish and fried egg with some other condiment. Frankly speaking, I've never had such thick and fresh jellyfish slices before and those on this plate really blew me away! I loved their jelly fish! The wasabi sauce on the prawns were a little too domineering but the duck and egg dish was great! (: I would highly recommend this dish to anyone who wish to have a taste of four yummy Chinese goodies all at once!

The waitress recommended asparagus with bamboo piths ($22) for our vegetable dish and it was a hit with us! I personally like asparagus but I didn't expect the asparagus to be so thick! I think I prefer those with medium-thickness! The most fascinating thing about this dish is probably the bamboo pith, which was thin, soft and relatively tasteless on its own. However, because the bamboo piths and asparagus were soaked in herbal soup/ sauce, the bamboo piths absorbed some of the soup/ sauce and gave additional flavour to the asaparagus shoots! (: I loved this 'healthy' combination!

The bean curd with prawns ($24) was pretty normal but because I'm quite a fan of beancurd/ tofu, this dish sat well with me.

Last but not least, we ordered a huge plate of braised ee fu noodles ($22) to share and the waitresses actually helped us to separate the noodles into smaller bowls for us. The noodles were honestly one of the better ee fu noodles that I've tasted because it wasn't overly fried nor was it too dry. The noodles still retained its tangy texture and it wasn't too salty on the whole. I was glad we chose to have noodles instead of fried rice/ plain rice! (:

By the time we finished these four dishes, we raised the white flag and said no to dessert! It's rare for me to give dessert a miss so I'm pretty sure I'll go back again some time in the near future to have another meal, or at least try their dessert(s)!

In short, Man Fu Yuan is one of the better Chinese restaurants that I've been to, not only in terms of range and quality of food, but also because of the friendly staff and customer-friendly ambience (: I would certainly love to go back for another visit in future!

Alright, that's all for now (: Have a good weekend everyone! (: