Man Fu Yuan – Ring in the Year of the Dog with a Splendid Reunion Feast!

Located on Level 2 of InterContinental Singapore, Man Fu Yuan is helmed by Executive Chef Eric Neo, who is a familiar face in the local dining and culinary scene as the Vice-President of the Singapore Chefs Association and a judge in multiple local cooking competitions.

As one of the top Chinese restaurants in Singapore, it should come as no surprise that Man Fu Yuan is fully booked throughout the fifteen days of the Lunar New Year each year. This year, Executive Chef Eric Neo has curated and crafted five festive menus to impress in the Year of the Dog. Priced from $118 per guest, these prix-fixe menus are available until 2 March 2018.

Man Fu Yuan puts an interesting spin on the classic yu sheng this year. Instead of the usual sour plum sauce, the restaurant has created a sake goma sesame dressing which is nutty, light and refreshing. The yu sheng not only comes with the quintessential salmon slices, but also fresh Hokkaido scallops. These cream-coloured discs are sweet and full of umami, which pairs exceedingly well with the sake goma sesame dressing.

Man Fu Yuan’s Double-boiled Chicken Soup, which is filled with fish maw, bamboo pith, chicken and Matsutake Mushrooms, is the epitome of how a bowl of good soup should be – nutritious, tasty and rich. I was told that the intense flavours of the broth are extracted from pork bones which are boiled for four hours.

Most of us are used to having an entire suckling pig set on our table as a whole. Man Fu Yuan’s classy rendition comes in a form of a wrap. The deboning of a whole piglet, and the skilful separation of the crispy glossy skin from the meat, are essential steps to the creation of this dish. Rectangles of crisp suckling pig skin are served with a thin crepe and preserved bean paste, to be wrapped into a “popiah” and savoured.

The next dish is my favourite. The Man Fu Yuan Abundance Treasure Pot is filled to the brim with 18 premium ‘treasures’. Look forward to braised spiky sea cucumber with minced prawns and pork, 10-head whole abalone, Canadian lobsters and more. The indulgent ingredients are cooked in a luscious and fragrant thick brown superior sauce that is only achievable through hours of simmering.

Chef Eric highlights the freshness and quality of Man Fu Yuan’s lobsters by using simple ingredients, such as Chinese wine and egg white, to bring out the natural sweetness and lovely crustacean flavours embedded within the lobster. The dish might sound simple, but it takes a brilliant chef and fine seafood for such a creation to be made possible.

Fish is a quintessential Chinese New Year dish as it symbolises bountiful blessings and wealth. Man Fu Yuan serves star garoupa, cod, soon hock and tiger garoupa this Lunar New Year, and I had the pleasaure of trying the latter which is firm, flavourful and succulent. The steamed fish carries a captivating sweetness that is complemented by the smokiness and savouriness of a unique addition – Chinese ham.

You can see the amount of effort that the chefs at Man Fu Yuan put into their food, especially in the Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf dish. Chicken is first deboned, and stuffed with mushrooms, chestnuts and gingko nuts, before it is sewn and deep-fried. Next, the chicken is steamed, before it is wrapped in a lotus leaf with glutinous rice. This dish requires an immense amount and hours of preparation but it’s incredibly delicious. Praises could be heard from every diner in the room, after just a bite of it!

We ended the meal with the Double-boiled Hashima Soup, which was served in a whole coconut. The warm and comforting soup is cooked with red dates, lotus seeds and hashima. Don’t forget to dig into the sweet coconut flesh which has adequately absorbed some of the wonderful sweet notes of the soup.

Welcome and celebrate with your loved ones at Man Fu Yuan this coming Lunar New Year. There’s no better way to start the year than to share each other’s joy and happiness over an amazing meal that is filled with decadence and opulence. We believe that our families always deserve the best, and the best can be found right here at Man Fu Yuan, InterContinental Singapore.

This post was brought to you by InterContinental Singapore.