Tung Lok Classics at Chinese Swimming Club

Everybody loves Peking duck. Tell me if you don't. I am not fond of duck normally, but ooh, I can never get enough of this delicacy, no matter how good or bad it is.



This is last month's Makansutra dinner, held at Tung Lok Classics at the Chinese Swimming Club. It's only been open a year, so I had not heard of it (despite living so close by) until this dinner was announced in the forums. As usual, it was a multi-course meal for a steal (around S$40 per pax).




The standard appetiser was not so standard after all - braised peanuts that were not soft, but instead crunchy. Nice element (even if small) of surprise.



Here is the duck again, protesting. Sorry, duck, but you will be loved.



Duck is soon turned into crepe du canard. All polished off in no time.



This was followed by the biggest tureen of soup I have ever seen. And it was chockful of ingredients. Double-boiled Soup of Sea Treasures. It had a whole chicken, big chunks of pork, some sea whelk or shellfish, Chinese herbs, dried fruit and nuts.



It smelled so good when it was being ladled out. You could tell this was a nutritious brew. The warmth did the constitution good, and the taste was pleasing, smooth and sweet.



Steamed Crimson Snapper with Minced Pork in Bean Sauce. The fish was a little bit overdone, but still more than palatable.



My favourite of the evening. Two ginormous and deliciously stewed pork hocks made our table very happy. Stewed Australia Pork Shank combined with Crisp-fried Long Bun. See the long, yellow "buns" (rather fuzzy) at the back? These were like mantous shaped like breadsticks and fried! Simply marvellous! I wish I could buy these from a cornershop, I'd eat so many!



Crispy Sakura chicken. I can't argue with crispy chicken. This one didn't even need any sauce or salt for seasoning. Yum!



The token vegetable. Sauteed Assorted Vegetables served on Winter Melon Ring. Not particularly memorable because we've eaten this kind of sauce too many times in too many places. But ingredients were fresh and good.



Braised Japanese Mian Xian with Shredded Duck Meat and Pickled Vegetables. OK, it's never easy to do mian xian or mee sua (in this case, somen) well. And they didn't. Bits of it were clumpy, and it was too soggy. Poor duck gave its meat to something less than stellar.



Chilled Pumpkin Cream with Pomelo and Water Chestnuts. I suppose they are trying to break away from the traditional mango, but I'm not sure pumpkin works that well. This was so very thick too - we had a lot left over that we could not finish.



They rounded off with the Classics Test Tube Juice. I'd tried these before at Tung Lok Signatures, so I knew these would be good. Very refreshing combination of fruity and vegetal sweetness. We tried guessing the ingredients - guava, wheatgrass, lemon, apple? Well, all wrong! The waitress didn't tell us the complete formula but there's pineapple and surprisingly chye sim in there!



Oh yes, this was a good dinner.


TUNG LOK CLASSICS
Chinese Swimming Club
#03-00
21 Amber Road
Singapore 439870
Tel: +65 6345 0111

Opening Hours:

Mondays to Saturdays
Lunch: 11.30am - 3.00pm
(Last order 2.30pm)
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm
(Last order 10.00pm)

Sundays & PH
Lunch: 10.00am - 3.00pm
(Last order 2.30pm)
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm
(Last order 10.00pm)