Min Jiang: Sichuan Peppercorn Pork Knuckle + CNY Dishes At Goodwood Park Hotel & One-North

To usher in the Year of the Pig, Min Jiang at Goodwood Park and Min Jiang One-North has prepared a feast featuring pork dishes!

A proper Chinese New Year meal always needs to have yusheng, so we started our meal with the Prosperity Yu Sheng (S$168++). The intricate drawings are hand drawn by Master Chef Chan Hwan Kee, which shows eight pigs enjoying a stroll (the number eight is an auspicious Chinese number). 

You can look forward to slices of salmon sashmi, baby abalones and homemade bak kwa, together with crisp vegetables, such as lettuce and rocket. The lettuce gives some crunch to the dish and the rocket adds a hint of bitterness at the end.

The bak kwa also adds an initial sweetness to the dish, with a lingering smoky flavour. I really liked this yusheng, as it gave a modern twist to the traditional dish.

Meat lovers, you need to try the Duo Of Deep Fried Pork Knuckles And Slow-Baked Honey Butter Ribs (S$147.65, available for takeaway only). The dish serves six, and the pork is prepared in two different ways.

The pork knuckle is marinated in traditional Sichuan peppercorn and baked for four hours, before deep frying. The result is tender pork meat with a golden brown crispy skin. I would recommend enjoying it with the sour pineapple and pickled cabbage served on the side.

The slab of pork ribs was slathered with honey butter, then slowly baked for 30 minutes. However, I did not quite enjoy it as I felt that the meat was a bit dry and could do with more sauce.

If you have more of a sweet tooth, you’ll enjoy the sweets and pastries from Min Jiang at Goodwood Park. The Drum Of Fortune (S$108) is a 1.3kg cake shaped like a Chinese drum, bringing to mind the festive sound of drums.

This was actually a chocolate marble cake that’s coated with fondant. However, the cake didn’t have a very intense chocolatey flavour, so chocolate lovers like me may be a little disappointed.

For those staying in the west, you can head over to Min Jiang at One-North instead.

We tried their Fruitful Abundance Yu Sheng With Whole Abalone In Rasberry And Sour Plum Sauce (S$118++ per small portion, S$168++ per large portion).

This light and refreshing yusheng option comes with loads of fruits, which is great if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the festive feasting.

The dish came with peaches, dragon fruit, kiwi, honeydew and many more fruits, and there was even ingot-shaped yuzu jelly on the side for an extra kick of tangy flavour.

There’s even cereal added to this fruity mix, for an extra crunch. I definitely enjoyed this yusheng more because it was light on the palate and whetted my appetite for the following dishes.

The Double Boiled Whole Chicken Stuffed With Bird’s Nest And Duck Foie Gras Dumplings (S$308.15++ for 6 pax, available for takeaway) was one of my favourite dishes. This soup dish had really rich and bold flavours which made it stand out for me.

Deboned, and salted, the two whole chickens are then left to simmer for three hours. They are then stuffed with bird’s nest and left to boil for another 30 minutes. Finally, they add in the foie gras dumplings to the double-boiled soup.

This cooking process intensifies the flavours of the broth, resulting in a thicker and richer soup.

Biting into the foie gras dumplings, I experienced an explosion of robust flavours in my mouth. The gamey duck flavour hit first, followed by the smooth and decadent foie gras.

I really enjoyed this dish, because the foie gras simply melted in my mouth, and each spoonful of soup packed a flavourful punch. It’ll definitely impress your family members!

The Fortune Delight Crispy “Heung Song” Duck With Glutinous Rice (S$179.75) is a crispy duck dish that’s sure to delight your taste buds. In Cantonese, “heung song” translates to “fragrant floss”, and it’s named for the skin that’s as thin as floss. 

In addition, the duck is so crispy that even the bones can be eaten. However, I didn’t like how the meat was a little dry, because of the deep frying.

The glutinous rice, on the other hand, came with a lot of ingredients and was packed with flavour. Stir-fried with sesame oil, shallots and lots of Chinese sausages, the rice had a gamey flavour from the Chinese sausages. Upon chewing, there was also an underlying nutty flavour from the sesame oil.

Finally, I tried the Trio Of “Nian Gao” ($52++ for 15 pieces) for dessert, which had nian gao served up in three ways.

The durian nian gao roll was made with D24 durian puree and gula melaka, all mixed with the nian gao. I loved the combination of chewy nian gao and creamy durian purée.

The second piece was a cempedak nian gao, made with cempedak puree and fried nian gao. I was expecting a very oily dessert, with the outer crust overpowering the taste of the filling.

To my surprise, this dessert had an extremely thin and airy outer crust which let the cempedak nian gao filling shine through. I’m not a cempedak fan but this cempedak nian gao really converted me.

The third nian gao came in the form of a sandwich with deep-fried shredded pumpkin and yam. I really liked the contrast in textures between the crunchy crust and the sticky and chewy nian gao.

Overall, this dessert had a variety of different textures which I enjoyed a lot. If you are sick of having nian gao the same boring way, you need to order this dessert.

I felt that some of the dishes could be fine-tuned a little more, like the pork dish. I expected the pork ribs to be much more tender and juicy, but it was unfortunately rather dry and stiff.

Despite that, I would still bring my relatives to Min Jiang for reunion dinner. After all, they have years of experience in exquisite Chinese cuisine.

Expected Damage: S$80 – S$120 per pax