Roast turkey & honey baked ham with 12 sauces

Together with misstamchiak, Justin, Keropokman, Hungry Cow, and Jasper & Saunders, we checked out the Christmas lunch buffet at Plaza Brasserie at the invitation of PARKROYAL on Beach Road.

I was most impressed with the juicy roast turkey, as well as the tasty honey baked ham. And to top it all, they have 12 different kinds of traditional and Asian-inspired sauces to go with the meats:

1. Traditional Giblet
2. Cranberry
3. BBQ
4. Black Pepper
5. Mustard
6. Laksa
7. Rendang
8. Thai Mango
9. Satay
10. Tong Gui Herbal
11. Sichuan
12. Pineapple

My favorites were Traditional Giblet, Cranberry, and zesty Thai Mango for its sweet, tangy, and spicy flavors!

Chilled prawn & mussels on ice

Lunch buffet also has a small chilled seafood selection. The prawns were supremely fresh and succulent.

There were several live stations featuring Christmas roast meats, Japanese sushi & sashimi, Indian food, and local Asian favorites.

Japanese selection

At the Japanese station, besides the usual sushi, there’s also sashimi that’s only sliced upon order to ensure freshness.

Oyster omelette

The oyster omelette was excellent! Juicy, tasty, with a hint of chilli and wok hei — this was similar to Penang-style oyster omelette. Definitely one of the highlights of this buffet!

Laksa

The laksa was another winner with its fragrant and lemak (coconutty) gravy.

Hainanese chicken rice

Another popular local dish is the Hainanese chicken rice. I found the chicken rice here to be rather old-school in style. The rice isn’t heavily flavored with ginger; instead it has the subtle flavor of chicken stock. The succulent chicken is chopped into large chunks with bone-in, the old-fashioned way. I like!

There’s also Indian curries and freshly made prata. Sorry, no pics, but the range of prata was rather creative. There’s both savoury and sweet pratas like ham & onion and even banana!

Salads & canapes

There’s also a decent selection of salads. They look simple but taste very nice! Same for the bite-sized canapes.

Desserts section

Being a Christmas-themed buffet, there’s Christmas fruitcake, gingerbread, and of course, log cake! There’s also the usual buffet selection of miniature cheesecakes and mousses.

For local desserts, there were sago pudding with gula melaka, mango pudding, and also fruit cocktail jelly.

Fresh fruits

There’s also fresh fruit and a DIY ice cream counter with various toppings (not pictured).

Amazing chocolate cake!

Psst! Grab this chocolate mousse cake if you see it. It’s definitely worth the calories! *wink*

Plaza Brasserie’s buffet would probably satisfy the tastebuds of those who are looking for a Christmas-themed buffet with an emphasis on Asian and local dishes. For instance, this menu would suit my parents-in-law as their palates are still very Asian.

The buffet range isn’t too extensive, but it should be sufficient for smaller eaters. Also, it’s attractively priced for a Christmas-themed buffet.

*Child below 3 dines for free. Child prices applicable for those aged 4 to 12. Prices are subject to 10% service charge & 7% GST.

Plaza Brasserie
PARKROYAL on Beach Road
7500 Beach Road
Singapore 199591
Tel: +65 6505 5710

Many thanks to PARKROYAL on Beach Road for the invite.

Save the airfare to Penang and come here instead!

Sounds luxurious? The reality: Buffet was hawker fare, and the shopping was just wistful browsing. “Ooh, look! So gorgeous! Wah, so ex!”

We are, after all, merely HDB tai-tais. Still, it was fun!

Back to the food, which is the main reason for the outing. Ever since my Penang trip, I’d been unable to forget the delicious street food. Besides, I’d been wanting to try York Hotel’s legendary Penang hawkers’ buffet. Ongoing since 1986, the hotel flies in hawkers from Penang 3 times a year (in March, September, and December) for this theme buffet.

Compared to usual hotel buffets, this one has considerably less variety. The focus is on hawker food. Each dish is prepared a la minute at live stations. The whole set-up is like a food court!

Lor bak (fried meat roll)

Let’s start with my favorite item of the spread. Lor bak = Singapore’s ngoh hiang. Served with other deep-fried items like prawn fritters, beancurd, battered taro and sweet potato.

The batter was very light and crispy, and nearly grease-free. Even the prawn shell was crispy enough to be devoured. This was really addictive!

Hokkien mee (prawn noodles)

Penang Hokkien mee = Singapore prawn mee. The prawn and pork broth was flavorful and tasty, and the pork ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. But why did they use such small prawns? Crunchy they were, but not particularly sweet.

Koay teow thng (fish ball noodle soup)

Not a terribly exciting dish, but this was well-executed. The soup was very clear, and tasty but light at the same time. The dry-tossed version is also available.

Assam laksa

I actually enjoyed this version more than the one I had in Penang, probably because the broth here is less fishy and sour. I liked the balance of sweet, tangy, and spicy flavors. Very appetizing!

From left: Ban chang kueh (peanut pancake) & apom balik

Another “hot” stall was the pancake station. The apom balik is a new addition. There’s a small piece of banana hidden in the fold of the soft pancake. We were pleasantly surprised by coconut shreds in the batter, which gave the pancake a wonderful fragrance and texture. The apom balik was so popular that there was no more when we went back for seconds!

The peanut pancake was just as more-ish! Filled with crushed peanut and sugar, the wafer-thin pancake was very light and crispy. There’s a slight drizzle of melted Planta margarine inside, which gave a subtle kick!

Penang fried koay teow

Without doubt Penang’s most famous dish, the fried koay teow station had the longest queue! According to Camemberu who did the queueing, there were two chefs, each frying a wok of koay teow. One is the master and the other is the disciple. She got a plate from each of them.

The difference in taste was heaven and earth! The disciple’s version tasted flat, and the noodles were broken and looked unappetizing. But the master’s fried koay teow was full of wok breath, and the flavors were robust and complex. So now you know whose koay teow you should queue for!

Fried oyster

Penang fried oyster egg is more “wet” in style. I’m not crazy about oysters, so this was just ok for me. The eggs were very tasty.

Penang rojak

Penang rojak is fruit-based. The thick hae ko (shrimp paste) was delicious, but I’d have preferred it to be more piquant.

Ju her eng chye 鱿鱼蕹菜 (cuttlefish & water spinach)

Ok, I’m not a fan of ju her eng chye, so no comments.

Cendol & ice kachang (background)

The cendol was sorely disappointing! I was so looking forward to it, but it isn’t authentic. The green bean jelly isn’t the soft, pale green type, and there’s no distinctive gula Melaka taste. Even the ice kachang was lacklustre. I really miss the awesome cendol we had in Penang.

So, did this satisfy the Penang food craving? Well, I was very happy up to the point of the cendol, which shaved many points off the overall grade! I was also hoping to see more items, like satay, curry mee, or even curry chee cheong fun, but no such luck. Some might say 30 bucks is too much to pay for hawker fare, but hey, it’s still cheaper than the price of a plane ticket to Penang!

The buffet also includes free-flow bandung (rose syrup and milk drink).

Penang Hawkers’ Fare (4 to 20 September 2009)
White Rose Cafe, York Hotel Singapore
21 Mount Elizabeth
Singapore 228516
Tel: (65) 6737 0511

Lunch: 12 noon – 2:30pm
Dinner: 6:30pm – 10pm
Price: S$25.80++ (adult), S$18.80++ (child below 12 years)
No table reservations.

Fried oyster egg, S$5.00

I was here to review their signature fried Hokkien prawn mee, but couldn’t resist trying the oyster egg 蚝煎 as well.

Overall, it was very likeable, which means a lot considering I’m not a fan of oyster omelette. The eggs are fried till crisp, and the starch mixture isn’t too gooey. There’s about 4 plump oysters for the cheapest order of S$5. The seasoning is a wee bit spicy, and if you dip it into the accompanying piquant chilli sauce, it’s even more appetizing.

I actually enjoyed their oyster egg more than their fried Hokkien prawn mee, which was tasty but too salty for my liking. They also have oyster omelette, which doesn’t have the starch mixture. Good for those for don’t like the sticky starch and prefer more eggs.

Geylang Lor 29 Fried Hokkien Mee
396 East Coast Road
Singapore 428994

Tue to Sun: 11:30am – 9pm
Closed on Mondays

I wasn’t very hungry either, after all that free food and plane meal, but I just couldn’t resist the bustling street stalls just outside the hotel entrance. Real street food! So exciting! So I went to tar-pow some supper back to our hotel room.

Oyster omelette , RM7.00 ≈ S$2.90

Very fresh plump oysters, with no fishy smell. But unlike the Singaporean version, this one was rather “wet”. Our or-jian (oyster omelette) is more like an crispy omelette, with the starchy bits. This one is more like scrambled eggs, with a lot of sauce. But still, it pretty much hit the spot, after such a disastrous day of eating.

Char koay kark with seafood, RM4.00 ≈ S$1.70

This is pretty much like our chai tow kway, except the rice flour cakes are called koay kark, and are plain, with no chai tow (radish). The usual version is fried with egg and beansprout. For another RM2.00, you can opt to have seafood, which turned out to be just two measly prawns!

New Lane Eng Kee

Again, like the oyster omelette, the char koay kark was very “wet”. Both are from the same stall. I wasn’t impressed with the char koay kark. And although cheap after converting to SIN$, portions were very small, and I thought it was expensive by local (Malaysian) standards.

Cold dessert soup, RM2.00 ≈ S$0.80

However, dessert was really good! At first I thought it was cheng tng, but it’s a combo of cooked lotus nut, red bean, gingko nut, and dried longan. The lotus nuts and red bean were so powdery, and the gingko nut was cooked till candied just like Mom does! You can tell everything was cooked from scratch, the good ol’ fashioned way.

Also, it wasn’t too sweet. Very healthy and refreshing. You can opt to have it hot or cold. I’ll be looking out for this again!

As at June 26, 2009, conversion rate is approximately 1 Malaysian ringgit to 0.412 Singapore dollar.