For one week only, master chef Ge Xian'E – known as China's 'Queen of Dim Sum’ for her skills in the cuisine and her innovative approach to using both northern and southern Chinese cooking techniques to create dim sum – will be in town to present her signature dishes.
The combination of Shanghainese and Cantonese styles of cooking does lend to thicker dim skins which might not suit those who are used to lighter dim sum. However, those who like their dim sum with a burst of flavour will find these dishes to their taste. Standouts include the pan-fried pork bun filled with soup ($7), which is an explosive mouthful in a thick, steamed pastry skin with a crispy base, steamed preserved turnip and sesame rice roll ($6), reminiscent of chee cheong fun or chwee kueh but comes in bite-sized pieces placed on generous amounts of sweet sauce, and the deep-fried crab meat and lychee ball ($6) that looks like a bird’s nest but has a sweet, robust lychee centre.
Other dishes to try include the gold-dusted pear-shaped deep-fried bun with assorted seafood in cream sauce ($7), and the handbag-shaped baked parsnip pastry ($7). Finish the meal with a pig-shaped bun filled with viscous chocolate sauce ($7) or the chilled avocado cream with sago ($7).