Famous Treasure (Capitol Singapore)

Most if not all restaurants will offer to serve up the remains of the carved up peking duck in a different manner for an extra $5 to $10 as a means to eke out extra cash from their customers. I usually find this a terrible waste of money as you usually end up with a giant heap of duck bones which no one eats because it is annoying to have to gnaw on the bones just to get at scraps of dry, old and tough duck meat.

I am not sure if Famous Treasure levies an extra surcharge. I'm sure however that they deliberately serve you less sliced duck meat alongside the crispy duck skin so that you get decent sized chunks of moist, tender duck meat stir fried with salt, pepper and roasted garlic comes. Needless to say, there was no duck left behind this time!

This is one of Famous Treasure's signature dishes, and it's not hard to see why!

This sounds like a relatively simple and straightforward dish but is in reality, quite difficult to execute. Due to varying cooking times, it is quite easy to end up with squid which is tough and rubbery or ladies fingers which are 'old' and soggy.

No such problems with Famous Treasure's sautéed squid with sambal and chinchalok. The tr textures of the key ingredients are preserved - the squid is tender and chewy and the ladies fingers crunchy. They are all coated in fragrant and aromatic sambal and savoury umami chinchalok. This is the perfect rice-grabbing dish!

We were back at Famous Treasure for a CNY lunch and it was, as usual, a sumptuous treat visually and astronomically.

Famous Treasure's peking duck was crackling good. The skin is thin and crisp, and beautifully roasted to amber brown perfection. For those who are lazy like me, you will like that the duck skin is served wrapped in a thin crepe. All you need to do is dabbed a little hoisin sauce or sugar and it's good to eat!

I am sure most people are familiar with chaotah (or burnt) bee boon how much chaotah hor fun?

At Famous Treasure, they pan fry flat rice noodles with pickled radish (chye poh) and kailan to create a dish that is both savoury and yet crispy at the same time. It's kinda like crispy carrot cake but with all of your kueh being crispy!

Chinchalok is a traditional Malay condiment made of fermented small shrimps or krill. It is bright pinkish in colour, has a pungent fermented smell (which can turn some people off) and a salty and mildly sour taste.

It is not common used in Singapore cuisine save with bbq seafood at hawker stalls as a savoury, spicy and tangy dip.

It was therefore rather surprising to see that Famous Treasures has incorporated this into their deep fried fish dishes. I was expecting a rather strong tasting sauce but their chinchalok was surprisingly mild with a very subtle savoury and tangy twist. The marble goby or soon hock was fresh, flaky and succulent.

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable dish.

This was Miss K's and my favourite dish of the day.

The soft, tender and juicy pork belly is surrounded by a crispy crust. Before deep drying, it was marinated with fermented beancurd, giving it a salty, subtly sweet and slightly rich flavour. It goes well with the green chilli sauce served on the side but even better when you chase it with the sweet nutty roasted garlic cloves served with it.

This dish is strangely addictive and is a must order for us!