This is the first time Chatterbox - known for its local dishes - is serving food from another part of Asia.

 

THERE are two reasons to check out lunch or dinner at Chatterbox, but they both have nothing to do with the famous chicken rice. One is to go for the view - now that the cafe has been relocated to the 38th and 39th floors of the hotel's Grand Tower, replacing the defunct Top of the M revolving restaurant.

The other more time-sensitive draw is because the cafe is now having a Penang-Hakka food promotion, from today till May 4. Penang-Hakka cuisine is a unique one from the Hakka dialect group that isn't common or easily found in Penang itself.

This is apparently the first time the cafe - known for its local dishes - is serving food from another part of Asia. Patrons have food 'ambassador' and veteran actor Moses Lim to thank, as he's the one who hooked up the home chefs from Penang with the hotel.

Penang-Hakka dishes are a hybrid form of cuisine, as is much of the food in this island which has seen a diverse, multi-cultural population for hundreds of years. Hakka cooking is known to employ braising and stewing methods, and the dishes demonstrated by Qua Hun Siam's team were some of the tastiest stews around. Mr Qua runs a catering business in Penang, and his wife is the one who cooks, using traditional family recipes.

It's a must-taste promotion, especially as the Quas don't run a permanent restaurant. The pig trotters with garlic and chilli is a super-tasty stew, with sweet and piquant overtones, and very flavourful from the slow-cooking of the trotters in its natural juices.

The yam, prawn and winter melon fritters are tasty appetisers, with the yam providing a chewy texture to the prawn-flavoured fritter balls.

Bitter gourd is stir-fried with sun-dried Malaysian oysters, enhanced with salted vegetables, ginger and oyster sauce.

And there's a dish which should be familiar to all mothers who've gone through a traditional confinement diet - chicken braised with ginger and Chinese wine. Mrs Qua's version packs a sensory punch with a fuller and richer melding of the chicken in ginger, sweet wine and black fungus than most versions you find.

There's also yong tau foo, with fish paste stuffed in tofu, ladies' fingers and fresh chilli. The Penang-Hakka version of fried rice is baked brown, with diced long beans providing a crunch.

For the buffet, the chefs will also offer different noodle dishes on the side everyday, such as fried kuay teow (fried flat, rice noodles), Penang assam laksa (a fish-based tamarind-infused broth), Penang lor mee (braised yellow noodles with pork) and curry noodles. These will be done in more typical Penang hawker style.

The desserts are Nonya sweets such as kueh dadar (sweet grated coconut rolled in pancakes), kueh lapis (rainbow-coloured steamed rice cake), and fresh tapioca pudding. For those who like their desserts full-on, the cendol is a rich soup full of fresh coconut milk and palm sugar, with a mixture of cendol and ice kacang ingredients like red beans, palm seeds, green jelly strips and generous squares of firm rose-syrup agar-agar (jelly).

Weekday lunch is $42 per adult and $29 per child, while dinner is $48/$33. On the weekend, lunch is $46/$32, and dinner $52/$36. All prices before tax.

Chatterbox will remain in its lofty position for about a year. The only complaint is that the restaurant has stopped revolving, but if you occasionally feel the floor shaking a little, it's because the 'plates' that it's resting on move ever so slightly when a horde of people rush to the buffet stations for seconds - as they will during this promotion.

Penang-Hakka Food Galore (From April 21 to May 4)
Chatterbox, Level 38/39,
Meritus Mandarin Singapore
333 Orchard Road
Singapore 238867
Tel: 6831-6291
Rating: 7/10