Cystal Jade Kitchen

I love the Crystal Jade Kitchen at Holland Village - it's one of my favourite places to have supper, especially when I'm clean (just bathed) since it isn't oily and smelly and has airconditioning. And it's pretty quiet at night, so it's a nice place to have a late night supper. Late being around 2-3am. My default porridge order - the Lychee Boat porridge (they have recently changed the name from Lychee boat, which is a direct translation from Chinese to 'Lai Wan' Style). I like this porridge cos there's lots of liao (ingredients) inside, such as fish, cuttle fish, shredded pork, lettuce, peanuts, you tiao and spring onion.

I like the texture and taste Crystal Jade style porridge. I dunno how they make it so tasty? Maybe there's lots of msg inside?

Holland V crystal jade kitchen opens till 3 or 4am, I think 4am for weekends. And best of all, I usually just dapao so I save on the peanuts, wet towels and service charge. It's quite a sizable saving. And they even take in phone orders so I'll just call in and pick it up. Ahh feel like eating porridge for supper now! Buu to neonatology!

Aloe Vera Dessert with Osthamus (sp?) and red dates. I can't remember how much this cost (I think it was in the range of $5) and it's supposed to be very liang. Im not sure if they have it now, but the oshtamus flower smells really fragrant.

Crystal Jade Kitchen

Holland Village

Tel: 6469 0300

Crystal Jade Korean

There's so many many many types of crystal jade restaurants but my fave one is the Korean one! It's prob cos Chinese food generally isn't on my fave food lists. Despite having so many branches, the service isn't compromised at all (unlike many other well known food chains...) One of the reasons I like Crystal Jade Korean is becuase they always serve you 6 dishes of appetisers whenever you order their main course. And it's FREE FLOW. Super yums! Of course, there is kimchi (which is a must have for every Korean dinner - a bit like green tea to the Japanese), and soyabean sprouts (not those green bean kind we usually get) which are lightly marinaded in sesame sauce. There's also lots of spinach, potato salad (prob not v traditional but its nice). There's also this tofu with some spicy sauce - the tofu is really smooth and silky and it's so soft it will break into pieces when you try to grab it with your chopsticks, so must use spoon). And there's this preserved turnip (i think) which I don't quite like.
It's such a healthy way to start off your meal with...

They have this high class bbq(completely unlike Seoul Garden) and you can even ask them to help you barbeque your food for you if you're too lazy to do it yourself :D This time, I tried the seafood noodle soup ($16) which was one of the only non spicy non beef dishes on the menu.

I was eyeing this Korean Ginseng Chicken (a must to eat whenever you go to Korea) for quite long but it's pretty ex - $25 but it's really yummy and the soup is thick and cloudy and tasty. The soup is really yummy but then refills for soup is $6. The chicken's quite big and can be shared with about 3 to 4 ppl.It's stuffed with glutinous rice and a chestnut - the soup isn't too bitter but there is a hint of ginseng.
I also tried the seafood omelette (which I saw another table eating the last time i came here and wanted to try it this time) which was pretty ex - it's like $15? for the omelette but it's crispy oustide and slightly doughy iside with nice crystal shrimps and other assorted seafood.

This is probably one of my more favourite restaurants in Takashimaya - there's a branch in Centrepoint too.

Crystal Jade Korean also has a 'Da Chang Jin' menu (the Korean cooking show with a Palace Maid) but it's $53 ++++++++ per person and must order a day in advance, and a min of 4 people.

Crystal Jade Kitchen - Takeaway

When we're too lazy to go out and too cheapo to pay service charge, my family da paus from Crystal Jade Kitchen. Da pau-ing food from restaurants is one of the most economical discoveries we made last year. Instead of going to Holland V (the nearest Crystal Jade), wasting time competing with the dinner crowd for a parking space, wasting time queueing up for a table, wasting time waiting for the food etc we simply give crystal jade a call and place our order, wait abot half an hour for the food to be prepared and then pick it up.

Best of all, we don't even have to pay the 10% restaurant service charge. Or for the greasy peanuts and wet towels (which does add up to the cost)
It's not like you're paying for the ambience (it's so noisy and cramped inside the restaurant) when you go to Crystal Jade anyway.
So, in other words, take away is cheaper and since we live so nearby, the food is still nice and warm and not soggy. My favourite dish from Crystal Jade is the Prawn and Egg Hor Fun. I have no idea how Crystal Jade makes their prawns so juicy, until the prawn juices explode when you bite down! And the noodles have the oily wok taste too! I used to be crazy over the san lau ( or issit lou?) hor fun (the dry, white one with fish slices and beansprouts) till I ate this.
Dian Xin - below is 3 servings of Siew Mai, 3 servings of Har Gau and 2 servings of char siew pau
Nice and fresh har gau

Siew Mai - My favourite dian xin :D i like the yellow skin and mushroom inside. The Crystal jade ones arent too fatty so i like them.
Sheng Mian
Still reasonably crispy even though we brought it home.

Lychee Porridge

Dunno why they call it lychee porridge. There isn't any lychee inside. Just cuttlefish, and fish maw i think? And topped with peanuts and you tiao. I like how Crystal jade makes their porridge it's very tasty (even the plain one) must be some secret sauce inside.

And lastly, my favourite, Mango Pudding.
This is my tower of mango pudding.Pour in the evaporated milk (must be kept seperate cos the mango pudding will absorb the evaporated milk_