Jing - Weekend Brunch (Part 1)

I think by now many people know about Jing's weekend brunch (S$36++ per person, S$18++ per child, see full menu here). It was nearly full when we made our reservations (we got the second last table) on Sunday. It's a really generous menu (inclusive of Chinese green or jasmine tea), and made us wonder how they manage to eke out any profits. Nonetheless, the brunch is a lovely way for the whole family to sample Chef Yong Bing Ngen's culinary prowess without breaking the bank.

There are nearly 30 photos, so I will split the posts into two. Today I will focus on appetisers, dim sum and soups. Tomorrow I will feature the mains. Pardon the hastily-taken photos. The kids were extraordinarily naughty.


Interestingly, there are a couple of stations serving appetisers and desserts. A chef will carve you some crispy marinated duck at the BBQ meats station.


You can help yourself to little plates of deepfried fish skin (possibly of Chilean seabass). These are oddly placed at the dessert station but no matter. They are addictive. Nadine polished off an entire plate.


We also started with some flaky mini egg tarts from the dessert station. At first I thought hubby had taken too many - six on a plate. He rarely takes so many of an item at a time. But I soon found out he was on to something. The six were not enough! I had to get my own. The flaky pastry is light as air, and the custard gorgeously tasty. Perfect level of sweetness.

At the BBQ meats station, we have some cold items too. The jellyfish is cured in a different way from the Japanese chuka kurage. Bits of Chinese celery or parsley add an unusual hint. The beef shank is intensely flavoured too.

I think there were some braised duck wings on the same plate as the beef shanks, but we didn't take those.


There is a giant claypot of "pork knuckle with ginger and egg in sweet vinaigrette", a.k.a. vinegar pork trotters, bubbling hot at the meat station. I took only a small portion. It's sweet, tart and richly savoury all at once. Good appetiser but can be very filling. I wish I tried the egg too, but there's just too much to eat at the brunch.


The drunken chicken is like white steamed chicken with just a hint of wine. That's the last of the meat station items. And now for dim sum, which they do beautifully.


The char siew bao is excellent. Soft, fluffy skin with hearty fillings that aren't dyed that garish red. Almost as good as one restaurant that does it with kurobuta pork.


These look like entire scallops but they're not. It's a sliced scallop topping for a prawn base, wrapped in shredded filo. It's all delicious, though.


To complement the deepfried and steamed items, we had steamed beancurd skin rolls with pork and shrimp in abalone jus. The gravy is fragrantly savoury.


Their shrimp dumplings are more than decent. Delicate, translucent skin with entire shrimps within. Fresh and good.


Fans of "ham sui kok", rejoice (hello, Julia)! It's a classic dim sum item but rarely found in Singapore. Look for Deepfried dumplings with chicken, ham and dried shrimp or 家乡咸水角 on the menu. The skin is quite thin and even, and they held their shape firmly while still being soft and chewy inside - that must be a feat to accomplish. Fillingwise though, I still prefer the ones from Man Fu Yuan.


Each table is allowed two choices of soup. We went for the "tantalising hot and sour soup", which was rather thick. I didn't have enough time to evaluate the taste, because dishes were coming fast and furious.


The other soup was "fish maw with crabmeat" soup, which was also rather thick. Plump chunks of crabmeat and shredded fish maw adorned the soup. But I think it had some medley of vegetable or pumpkin puree as well, which I thought clouded the flavour a little.


After the dim sum, we took a break outside on the wooden deck, which features alfresco dining overlooking Marina Bay. Great place for kids to expend some of that restless energy!

Tomorrow, I will post the mains we had, including one whopper of a chili crab! Yes, chili crab for this price too! Amazing.

JING
One Fullerton, #01-02/03
1 Fullerton Road
Singapore 049213
Tel: 6224 0088
Opening Hours
Lunch - 11.45am to 3pm (Last order - 2.30pm)
Dinner - 6.30pm to 11pm (Last order - 10.30pm)