With 100 outlets in 18 cities under its belt, Singapore's own home-grown Crystal Jade Culinary Concepts Holding group celebrates its 20^th birthday by expanding even faster - this year, it'll open nine new outlets in Singapore, and 13 in the region.

As part of the celebrations, Chef Cheng Fa Kwan, the Group Assistant Chief Chef, has introduced six new dishes to the menu at Crystal Jade Golden Palace. The contemporary signatures are rooted in Cantonese and Teochew cooking techniques, but with a nod towards current trends in presentation and flavours. To start, the cold combination of Teochew-style lobster and marinated pig's knuckle is a refined Chinese version of surf and turf. The chunk of poached lobster is only lightly seasoned, and left to cool at room temperature before serving, retaining its sweetness, while the marinated slices of pork has accents of cinnamon and Chinese rose wine, to be eaten with preserved vegetables in a lettuce roll. For a more decadent fowl, deep-fried chicken with a lusciously crisp dark brown skin is served with black truffle and mushroom sauce with real bits of the aromatic fungus.

When it comes to the simmered dishes and soups, Crystal Jade really shines with its focus on nourishing the body. For those avoiding heavy, ‘heaty' ingredients, double-boiled sea whelk and chicken soup is a fine dining alternative to ginseng and other ‘heaty' elements. The soup includes chicken, conpoy, cordycep flower, dried longan and wolfberry, with starfruit and pomelo added at the end of the process - pliable whelk, imported from Vietnam, is a milder version of abalone, but with a deeper ocean taste. Pureed pumpkin makes an appearance in the soup of simmered cabbage topped with cordycep flower, a vegetarian dish that is naturally sweet and aids digestion.

Group Chairman and CEO Ip Yiu Tung personally contributed his recipe for assorted grain rice, a colourful medley of 10 ingredients including sesame, sweet corn, taro, wheat, and white, brown, red and black glutinous rice that's ideal for as an everyday starch. To balance out the flavour, there are sautéed prawn, chicken and mushroom in the rice, served in a martini glass. Two refined desserts round off the meal - a dainty slice of chilled pea cake, a laborious work of art, and Teochew sweet soup of hashima (frog glands) and bird's nest, accented with lotus seed, gingko and dried longan.

290 Orchard Road, #05-22 Paragon, 6734 6866.  

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