Yum yum (cha)

Just got back from dim sum lunch at the Fullerton Hotel.  I've written about the Fullerton before, as it is one of my favourite places in the whole of Singapore - a really classy hotel, with several fantastic restaurants, in a beautiful building, in a beautiful location right by the Singapore river.  Sunday brunch at the Fullerton is a treat we save for when we have visitors (so I hope someone will come and visit us soon), but they also do a special dim sum lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves all sorts of small dishes, many of them little filled dumplings, steamed or fried - a sort of Chinese tapas if you will.  They are usually served with Chinese tea, and the expression yum cha (literally "drinking tea") is the term used to describe the entire dining experience. 

I've tried many dim sum eateries, as my sister can attest, not just in Singapore, but in the UK, Australia and in Hong Kong (the last was a really disappointing experience, interestingly) and I can honestly say that the Jade restaurant at the Fullerton represents the apotheosis of the dim sum chef's art.  The room itself is beautiful, the service immaculate and if anyone ever really was prepared to die for the sake of a foodstuff, this would be it for me.  

While some yum cha restuarants use carts to transport the various offerings from table to table and you can have a look see before you buy (thus making sure you do not choose the steamed chicken's feet by mistake),  at the Fullerton you can order anything you like, as many times as you like,  from an extensive menu, at the bargain price of 33 Singapore dollars per person.   If it is possible to OD on seafood, I probably came perilously close with their wasabi prawns, a signature dish of the restaurant.

Perhaps this is the moment to say a word or two about the Fullerton,(http://www.fullertonhotel.com/) which is one of Singapore's institutions, and a much finer hotel in my view than the more famous Raffles.  The hotel is beautifully situated, close to the mouth of the Singapore River, and even closer to my office - literally, a two minute walk away.  The Fullerton building was constructed in the 1920s, and the name comes from Robert Fullerton, the first Governor of the Straits Settlements.  It was originally an office building, was home to the General Post Office, as well as the very posh Singapore Club, was used as a hospital during WW2, before becoming the headquarters of the Japanese Military Administration in Singapore following the surrender by the British.  Its conversion to a hotel was completed in late 2000.  This is the only guise in which we have experienced the Fullerton, and in my view they made a damn fine job of it.  Most of the original features have been retained or restored, and it is truly a special place.  It would feel extremely decadent to spend the night there, given that we live in Singapore, but I think I might just magic up a special enough occasion to warrant it.