腊味盅仔飯

You know my weird thing about pork right? I'm not at all keen on the meat itself, but I'm less opposed to its innards. Hahaha. Minced pork porridge is fine, but only if that minced meat is super well-minced. I will have pork sparingly in the form of spam or luncheon meat, pig stomach soup and lupcheong (Chinese preserved sausages).

I'm also bloody picky about lupcheong. Currently, my favorite flavors are all provided by Hong Kong shops, and only a few local restaurants give me similar flavors. I haven't had lupcheong much this year. I usually cook it myself during oshōgatsu, the Lunar New Year period or around my grandfather's death anniversary. But this year, I just didn't feel like doing it. So I made it up by having two bowls of cured unhealthiness in a commercial kitchen.

Asia Grand Restaurant at Odeon Towers is one of those casual restaurants that provide the familiar taste of Hong Kong Cantonese dishes done well. There's a 腊味盅仔飯 (lupcheong on steamed rice) on the menu. It charges S$10 for a bowl, and is fairly generous. The entire bowl is steamed together upon order, so it's about a 20-minute wait for it. It's a ridiculously simple dish, zero nutritional value and probably full of processed crap, but it's tasty. Hurhurhur. All you need are uhhh damn good quality preserved sausages. An oxymoron, I know.

This isn't a dish I can eat at night. Indigestion lah. Having it for lunch is perfect. The restaurant served up a delicious bowl (gotta be shared among two persons) of 腊味盅仔飯, my first for the year. Super satisfying. It included the liver sausages (膶腸, which is usually duck, but some are pork) too. Asia Grand Restaurant's version offers no mushrooms or vegetables, and nothing else. Just a complete assault of nitrates. Heh. When I visited the restaurant the following week, I just had order this again. Blinked when it was served. Waaah! The second bowl was overflowing! They were sure feeling super generous that afternoon. Luckily it was a big bowl to be shared among four people. All right, that's it, lupcheong quota of the year fulfilled.

Asia Grand Restaurant (亚洲金阁)
331 North Bridge Road
#01-02 Odeon Towers Singapore 188720
T: +65 6887 0010 (Reservations necessary)