Mother's Day Celebration

The second Sunday of May is Mother's Day - a day to celebrate the greatness of the woman who nursed and developed us. It is also a day for us, as children, to show our appreciation for the care and love that our mothers have showered us since we are born.

This year, our celebration included a new member - my sister's boyfriend. As my sister and her boyfriend had to leave for a celebration with her boyfriend's family from lunch onwards, we celebrated our Mother's Day during breakfast. When I asked around for good dim sum places, a few of my colleagues recommended East Ocean Teochew Restaurant at Shaw Plaza. Despite it being a teochew restaurant, I was greeted by a string of Cantonese when I called to make a reservation. Hmmm....

(The chefs were busy preparing some of the food in the open. If you were at a loss of what to have, you could also loiter around here and determine what the chefs had to offer before placing your orders.)

The restaurant was crowded with people despite it being a Sunday morning. There was no pushcarts to peddle the dim sums. Instead, the waitresses carried the plates of dim sums with trays and moved around shouting the names of the dim sums that they were carrying. Push carts were not used perhaps due to the constraints of the space. However, the tray of dim sums seemed heavy, so we also did not dare to stop all roving waitresses to see what they had to offer. We only stopped those who called out the names of the dim sums we wanted.

We had the egg tarts and the pineapple buns. The pineapple buns were warm and soft with the pineapple sweetness. The egg fillings in the egg tart was soft and creamy and encrusted in a crispy pastry. Simply heavenly. Our conclusion was that the egg tarts here were as good as Zhou's Kitchen which served the best egg tarts which we tasted so far.

The siew mais were a little crunchy with the use of the springy but succulent prawn with pork. It was delicately small and could be easily swallowed in one mouthful. The shark's fin dumplings wrapped in the crystal clear skin was juicy and rich. The few strands of shark's fin added some texture to the bites.

The carrot cake was slightly charred but not crispy enough. It was also slightly too oily for our liking. The century egg and lean meat porridge was sweet. The consistency of the porridge was just right with a good balance of stickiness and liquid. My family voted it the best porridge which we had, even better than Crystal Jade's Kitchen.

The steamed pork ribs were succulent without being too tough. The freshness of the meat could be tasted with each single bite.

My sister loved custard buns. She would ask for custard buns every time we went for dim sums. She was disappointed when she was informed that East Ocean did not offer custard bums. Instead, they offered a custard and egg yolk buns where preserved eggs' yolks were used. It was meant to be a signature dish.

The waitress had certainly made the best recommendation. The skin of the buns were soft and fluffy. The fillings oozed out when I bit into it. The fillings were brightly yellow and creamy. It was sweet from the custard with a tinge of saltiness from the preserved egg. The pounding of the preserved egg yolk and mixed with custard resulted in some sandiness in the fillings. This sandiness enhanced the texture of each bite. Ummm... we were craving for both. It was the best 'custard-like' buns which we ever had.

If you asked me to rate the dim sums here, I would rate it 4.5 spoons out of 5. The taste far outweighed Fortune Yum Char, Red Star, Zhou's Kitchen and Pine Court. However, it could be slightly pricier than most of the above restaurants. If you were looking for quality dim sums, East Ocean Teochew Restaurant would be where you should head towards.