[Wordless Wednesday] Chinese New Year In Singapore

[Chinese New Year Flowers] Cherry Blossoms

Tak Po (德宝 ) Dim Sum Restaurant, Chinatown

Tak Po (德宝 ) Dim Sum Restaurant opens 7 days a week from either morning (weekend and public holidays) or noon (weekdays) 8.00am to 10:30pm where they serves the breakfast, lunch and dinner crowds. The restaurant has an air-conditioned dining area as well as several tables located outside the entrance of the restaurant.

Usually during weekends the place will be packed and you might have to wait for at least 15 minutes or more to get a table. But no worries, as from what I observed while having our dim sum outdoor (indoor fully occupied) the queue seems to be moving fast too. And due to their old Chinese style of Yum Cha concept, you could also spot people from different nationalities as well.

Tak Po - Assorted Dim Sum Menu

From a glance at the Dim Sum menu above, you can roughly get an idea of what to expect from their list and pen down your orders on their ordering form(s) which would be placed on the table. Return the forms to the serving staff and just wait for about 5 - 10 minutes for your items to come.

Just for your information, there would be Appetizer (usually roasted peanuts) S$1.00 (per plate) and Wet Towel (S$0.30 each) given to each table and if you do not need them you could ask the serving staff to remove and these items will be deducted from your final bills too. And for those who required warm water /ice water there will be a charged of S$0.50 per cup so you might as well go for the Chinese Tea which is refillable at S$1.20 per person.

Siew Mai - 烧卖 (S$2.60)

My dim sum ordering list always included my favourite Siew Mai which I could have the basket of 3  siew mai for my own. The siew mai from Tak Po seems to a bit tough but the overall taste is still good for the price.

Rice Roll With Char Siew - 叉烧肠粉 (S$3.50)

The rice roll is very thin and smooth with fillings such as char siew (BBQ pork) or prawns to choose from. And the accompany sauce also blends well with the rice roll which is not too salty or overpower.

Chicken Feet - 豉椒风爪 (S$3.00)

For some of you, you either get freak out or enjoy this yummy dim sum delicacy which most older generation likes. But the gravy of the chicken feet at Tak Po is rather too thick and the sauce does not have that unique fragrance of my favourite chicken feet from most of the dim sum restaurant like Red Star.

Char Siew Bun - 蠔皇叉燒包 (S$0.90 per bun)

Pan-fried Carrot Cake - 香煎萝卜糕 (S$0.90 per slice)

Very old school kind of carrot cake and it goes well with their sweet and spicy chilli (must request the dried chilli from them).

Egg Tart - 香酥蛋挞 (S$1.10 per tart)

The egg tart has a flaky outer skin that we all love and the filling itself is smooth and wobble, not too sweet too.

Mango Spring Roll - 香芒春卷 (S$3.80)

This mango snack is made using Mango puree wrapped with a layer of nested spring roll wrapper and deep-fried till golden brown. It is served together with some mayonnaise dipping sauce and it is pretty addictive but I find it a bit too oily.

Crispy Yam Dumpling - 酥炸芋角 (S$1.00 per dumpling)

Crispy Yam Dumpling or also known as Woo Kok is one of the dim sum items which consists of delicious moist pork fillings wrapped with mashed yam and deep-fried till golden with a crispy outer layer. Now it is quite hard to find some really tasty yam dumpling so this one at Tak Po is still worth trying.

Tak Po - Assorted Congee and Dishes Menu

There are quite a huge range of Congee as well as side dishes like beancurd or claypot meats which you can order to go with the congee.

Century Egg With Lean Meat Porridge - 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (S$3.50)

Mixed Pork Congee - 猪杂粥 (S$4.00)

We ordered two types of Congee shown above and our favourite is their Mixed Pork Congee which filled with generous amount of ingredients like meatballs, pork liver, lean meat and etc. The porridge is smooth and tasty with the combination of the mixed pork ingredients and my kid love this as compared to the century egg congee above.



TAK POK DIM SUM RESTAURANT
42 Smith Street
(opposite Chinatown Market carpark entrance)
Singapore 058954
Telephone: (65) 6225 0302

Opening Hours:
~ Monday - Friday: 12.00pm - 10.30pm
~ Saturday, Sunday And Public Holiday: 8.00am - 10.30pm

Chinese New Year Market @ Chinatown, Singapore

Every year in Singapore, the Chinese New Year celebration kicks off with Street Light-up, festive bazaar stalls, street performances and etc. And these activities usually takes place in the Key streets in Chinatown such as Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road, South Bridge Road, and Garden Bridge.

This Luna New Year would be the year of the Water Dragon and there would be with traditional Chinese lanterns and colorful street lights together with street performers and acrobats like lion dancers to buzz up the lanes in Chinatown.

Make your New Year wishes come true at the Chinatown Wishing Tree this Spring Festival! You can try your hand at tossing a mandarin orange wishing charm onto a lucky banyan tree at Chinatown.

The Lunar New Year bazaar stalls occupied the lanes from the Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street and Trengganu Street within Chinatown. Below are some of the photos showing the auspicious New Year goodies and the bazaar stalls at Chinatown.

Pussy willow or also known as Ying Liu has fluffy white blossoms which resemble silk with the color of green jade. And majority of the Chinese enjoy such signs of growth which represent the coming of prosperity.

Cakes such as "Sticky Rice Cake - 年糕" which symbolizes a rich, sweet life plus "Pomelo - 柚子" in mandarin word "柚子" sounds like the word for "to have" and "Red Radish" symbolizes auspicious beginning and etc.

All sorts of sweets, puddings, jellies, peanuts, preserved persimmons and etc which is must to purchase during New Year.

Stalls selling waxed meat products such as sausages, waxed meat, waxed duck and etc which most of the household used it to braised delicious dishes during Chinese New Year gatherings.

All sort of Chinese auspicious handicrafts, red packets and customary New Year decorations along the bazaars area.

In conjunction with the 2012 celebrations, the festive Bazaar runs from December 31 2011, opening from 6pm to 10:30pm daily till January 22 2012.(some stalls starts around NOON time during weekends too) And during Chinese New Year Eve, the Bazaar would extends its operating hours to 1.00am.

To avoid heavy traffic around the Chinatown area, you could take public transport as such the MRT and alight at Chinatown station.

Chinese New Year @ Chinatown

Every year during a few weeks before Chinese New Year, most of the people would love to hangout around "Chinatown - 牛车水" area. No matter which country you are from or going to visit, you will definitely see crowds of people gathering in Chinatown area in order to join in the Chinese New Year atmosphere or they will be there either buying or sourcing for New Years goodies and clothing.

Since this year, we are busying with the house renovation @ Pinnacle - Duxton, we have more chances to roam around Chinatown area which is within walking distance to the apartment upon taking MRT.

Along the Temple Street @ Chinatown area, you can see the Chinese New Year Flea Market which starts from 23 January 2010 to 13 February 2010 which is the Eve of Chinese New Year. The Flea Market starts around noon time till late evening where it is much cooling to enjoy the night lighting as well as stroll through those stalls along the stretch where you can sample most of the goodies before buying.

There are stalls selling all kinds of Chinese New Year goodies like:- Pineapple Tarts, Shrimp Rolls, Love Letters, Peanut Puffs, Kueh Balu, Bee Hives and etc. Whichever it is, this is the time where you can get to eat all sort of your favourite New Year goodies till your waist length expanded :p

Other than the above Chinese New Year goodies, here are some of the "Must" have in each household too.... "Mandarin Orange - 橘子/柑" which everyone who goes to house visiting/greetings will accompanied with a pair of this which is a traditional practice among the Chinese. It symbolises "Gold" and all the good wishes for the new year.

"Pomelo - 柚子" is also a common fruit that can be found during Chinese New Year and Mooncake Festival. The mandarin word "柚子" sounds like the word for "to have".

"Bak Kwa - 肉干" is usually minced pork with seasoning/spices that are made into thin square layer and BBQ over Charcoal fire. And the price of this can be higher during Chinese New Year season at around $50 or more per kg for brand like Lim Chee Guan that people will spend hours queuing for their Bak Kwa..

Cakes such as "Sticky Rice Cake - 年糕" have symbolic significance on many levels. Their sweetness symbolizes a rich, sweet life, while the layers symbolize rising abundance for the coming year and lastly the round shape signifies family reunion.

There are also a lot of Auspicious Chinese New Year vegetables that can being seem and found during this period of time. And out of these vegetable, Chinese Leek is the most common type that each household will grab and store at home. They believed that it sounds like "counting - 算" in Teochew dialect.