A birthday is an excellent excuse to eat something you wouldn't usually eat. Having visited Ah Yat at Shaw Towers for crabs, I decided that I must eat crabs again! And this time must bring my whole family so I can order more food :D~~ Not to forget the 50% discount for seafood on weekdays gimmick, and that my birthday is on a weekday, and that my sister won some vouchers and my father said their abalone is famous, it's a sign that I must go to Ah Yat! And order 1 whole abalone, gigantic prawns and many huge yummy crabs!
But my mother wasn't supportive of the idea because she didn't want to eat freshly-suffocated sea creatures. It sounds cruel to her and especially bad to do it on a birthday, but to me, it's better to kill on-demand so that I know the creature did not die in vain. Imagine the stale seafood discarded daily in the markets island-wide lor...
Anyway, I tried looking for a low-cruelty alternative that's still fit for a birthday. There was a Teochew City Seafood Restaurant voucher for $28 off with min $60 spent lying on my table. Checked out their set menu online. The less pricey meals looked like our regular wedding dinner. How about something more luxurious?
六人位上套餐B Set Menu B for 6 persons $288 ++(Individual servings）潮州冻蟹Teochew Cold Crab潮州小鲍翅Braised Superior “Baby” Shark’s Fin Soup with Fish Maw & Crab Meat潮州卤水鹅片Braised Goose Meat in Teochew Style金菇焗大虾皇Baked King Prawns with Golden Mushrooms烧汁焗鳕鱼Grilled Cod Fish with Japanese Sauce白玉鲍丝拉面Sliced Abalone with La Mian白果金银芋泥Yam Paste with Gingko Nuts & PumpkinGot their signature cold crab and goose meat! And I like yam paste (this is actually in almost all the meals anyway)! So exciting! *Drool*
But $20 off will be negligible lor. End up still have to pay $63/pax can! Siao lor! Cannot lah! And there's no guarantee that they are not going to do real-time fishing for the crab, cod fish and prawns. So it's still Ah Yat. Because got $200 voucher. I'm cheapo.
Asked my sister to make a reservation but the restaurant didn't have a record of it! Wa cannot make it! Luckily still have seats on a Friday night lor! Now I understand why my department secretary must reconfirm her bosses' reservations several times.
Looked very hard at their set menu, until my brother reminded me that no discount for set. Ya hor! Put back. Hands off.
Our food:
Shark's finThis is a single portion only. Not bad, there are actually chunks of sharksfin, which makes it better than your average wedding dinner. Got abalone in it too. Soup is not the starchy and full of MSG kind.
佛跳墙This is a single portion too. My mum commented it's a bit sour and couldn't stop saying that for as long as the bowl was on the table.
Strangely, my mum thought it looked bad when I put the whole 盅 in front of me. Hey, it's actually a single serving, therefore the scenario of splitting a small bowl of soup among 5 pax should looked worse?
The abalones in the soups were rather tasteless already. Or were they tasteless to start with? Whatever it is, I still wished I had ordered one on its own. To convince myself once and for all that it's really NOT NICE and what I really like is the canned STOCK.
Bamboo clamsWe chose stir-fried with garlic. Really fragrant! I love the garlic, although it came with lots of oil. 久久一次 nevermind lah... (Say this a few times more then I know)
Deep fried scallops with yam pasteThe picture of this dish stood out in the menu so we ordered it. But it turned out to be the biggest miss of the night. The scallops were so thin that I thought they had been sliced into halves. The scallops were tasteless, not sure if its due to the quality or cooking style. The yam was the yam wall kind, crispy on the outside. Ok lah, but too much yam relative to the scallop.
伊面Carbo of the meal. It's the wedding dinner type. Left my portion to the last of the meal but unfortunately it had turned cold by then and the starch in the 汁 has coagulated. Eee.
Steamed 老虎斑 in soy sauceDecided to get something my sister likes, so asked to cook it the wedding dinner style. Now wedding dinner where got garoupa liao?
Mud crab in creamy pumpkin gravyAt first I asked for 1 large sri lanka crab, but wasn't sure if it's enough, so the waitress suggested getting a large crab. Not sure what the difference was, but I said ok since she assured it would be enough. They caught the crab and showed my father, who said ok. I only saw it when it was served on a
gigantic claypot! Got such a big sri lanka crab one ah? The waitress asked if we wanted 馒头 (for mopping up the gravy) to which we declined.
Delicious! Especially when I had the pincers. Tried to saturate each mouthful of crab with gravy, but still can't beat my mum, who was warning us about high cholesterol and lapping the gravy up at the same time. 久久一次 nevermind lah... (Say this a few times more then I know)
When I saw the receipt, I learned that it's called mud crab.
I didn't check beforehand whether they accept the vouchers. Even if they don't I'm prepared to pay all. Just eat 菜饭 for lunch everyday only.
When I got home, I recalled the HSBC GSS rebate promotion. Be the first 1000 to spend at least $50 and get $5 rebate and lucky draw chance. I sent the sms and hey, I'm still the first 1000! Further $5 off! :D
Things to note- Only the part of the restaurant at the tanks is warm enough for me
- Chrysanthemum tea only comes in canned form
- Ah Yat knows their crabs' abilities. Even the largest ones can't climb out of the tank.
- The kitchen is oddly located next to the main entrance
Boohoo I miss it!
Opera Ganache! YUM! Thick, smooth, melting chocolate and coffee, with almond sponge (can't taste the almond though). Best!
This is the serving size outside, for almost $7. So small right? Where got enough? My sister said when she told the chef that she wanted 1 whole Opera Ganache, he thought she was mad.
Left side, top to bottom: Hazelnut Royal Praline Cake, Rum & Raisin Cheese Cake, Rich Chocolate Cake
Close-up of the tiramisu with its tattooed chocolate slice. Won't feel 腻, the sponge is booze-soaked! Thumbs up!
See that gold leaf on the Hazelnut Royal Praline Cake? Tastes like a very thin crunchy biscuit. The cake is normal only.
Luscious Peanut Butter Brownie, the one I almost bought whole. The light brown stripe is the peanut butter. A bit strange to taste something salty in the middle of a chocolate cake. Overall nice lah, but too odd to have a whole of this.
5 different flavors from chef-logo shop.
Close-up! Yum~~ There's no cream sandwiched for this one.
From Amande. See the cream? Picture koped from Eat And Train without permission because I don't want to let a stranger know about my blog.
