Private Chef Dinner @ The Riverhouse @ Clarke Quay

MiMi_Restaurant_The_Riverhouse_Clarke_Quay

The Riverhouse @ Clarke Quay houses three concepts - Yin Bar, Yang Club and MiMi Restaurant. Now we can call Jeremy 📞 9726 8082, The Riverhouse's operations manager to arrange private dinners by MiMi Restaurant's chef Sam Chong.

This was my second time tasting chef Sam's food. Chef Sam is a veteran of Nanjing Impressions (Singapore), Jumbo (Bangkok) and Crystal Jade (San Francisco). He started his culinary career that took him around the world as an early teen in his hometown in Ipoh, Malaysia.

The first dish was a mixed platter of char siew, Peking duck and wood ear mushroom that came in a tray blowing dramatic dry ice.

The kurobuta pork char siew was juicy and tender with good balance of fat and lean meat. It was well infused with gentle sweet savoury flavours inside and overlaid with savoury toasty taste outside. I love it.

I was blown away by this shrimp wanton in a very rich smooth creamy savoury sweet soup. The soup was made with pork and chicken with ham. Large onions inside added to the layers of sweetness.

By now, I was unabashedly revealing my chef Sam fanboy colours.

Meanwhile, chef Sam was showing off his true Ipoh Cantonese colours with this steamed Soon Hock fish doused in Canto style savoury dressing sauce with underlying sweet notes.

The Soon Hock was done perfectly. Tender, juicy with a gentle squeakiness to the bite. The meat was naturally sweet and was well complemented by the savoury sweet sauce.

This deep fried Soon Hock came together with the steamed Soon Hock. Audrey said chef Sam like to do "black and white" or "Yin and Yang" pairings.

I thought silently to myself, "Yeah right, what a waste of a good fresh fish isn't it?" 😅

Here's where I grew even more respect for chef Sam.

The fried Soon Hock was crisp outside while inside the meat was like it was from a steamed fish - tender, juicy, naturally sweet.

This deep fried Soon Hock was so good, I couldn't decide which I like better - steamed or deep fried 😂

Herbal Drunken Prawns.

Sweet crunchy meaty large prawns that went well with the savoury sweet spicy dip. The herbal soup was delicious as it infused the crustacean umami from the prawns.

The salt baked chicken came with a lot of drama.

Made with Aqina Farm 70 day old, organic free range kampung chicken fed with pineapple enzyme and no growth hormone in their feed.

Wrapped with lotus leaf, foil, encased in salt and baked. The bird was tender and moist. Today, I feel they were slightly heavy handed with the salt.

Nevertheless, after hearing so much good things about it, I am curious to try Aqina Farm chicken again.

Pepper crab made with black and white pepper (chef Sam's signature Ying and Yang style remember?). The thick sauce enveloping the crab was savoury salty with a layered kind of peppery heat. I like it as it complemented the crab's crustacean sweetness well.