A Good Meal at Shang Palace, Shangri-La Hotel

This meal at Shangri-La's Chinese restaurant Shang Palace to celebrate my mother's birthday definitely delivered. We ordered the SGD48 Peony Blossoms lunch set with 6 courses, which was very affordable and value-for-money especially after taking into account Shangri-La's current 39% special discount.

First course: Trio cold dish combination (from left to right: prawn with salted egg, drunken chicken, silken beancurd with century egg), served in delightfully small tasting portions. My favourite was the beancurd with century egg paste - so fragrant, and without any hint of that faintly-noxious ammonia tinge which can sometimes permeate century eggs.

Second course: Braised sharks fin with crab meat. Wow, this came with so many generous chunks of sharks fin and crab meat, that I was in some disbelief as they kept on appearing in every spoonful that I took! The only teensy complaint that I had was that the base stock could have been slightly more robust.

Third course: Wok-fried scallops and coral clam with chives and preserved vegetable. The wok-fried label was not used in vain - this dish had a wonderful "wok hei" aroma. My father liked this so much that he crunched up the lettuce (which had some leftover sauce on it) after devouring the scaloops and clam.

Fourth course: Pork Belly with Golden Pumpkin. This came piping hot in a little pot and the stewed pork belly was tender, but otherwise rather unremarkable. The interesting twist for this dish was that instead of the usual deep-fried round bread buns (or man tous), we were presented with a vase of "breadsticks" which turned out to be man tou. I suppose the shape was to make it easier for us to mop up the sauce without getting it on our fingers too.

Fifth course: Stewed seafood noodle with XO chilli sauce. A humble dish that tasted so good (so much so that my mum, who was stuffed at that point and had to be persuaded to eat at least one strand since it was her birthday and you're supposed to eat noodles on your birthday, ended up finishing the entire plate). She blamed it on the addictively moreish, salty-spicy XO sauce and the bouncy, fragrantly-eggy noodles.

Sixth course: Trio of Desserts (from left to right: white lotus and salted yolk mooncake, pomelo and mango sago, and mochi). Nothing particularly good or bad about this.

All in all, a good lunch made even better by the happy and celebratory mood of everyone. Worth another (or a few more) repeat visits, even without the discount!