Anyway the restaurant owner Roland is my dad's long time friend since army days some 30+ years ago? So my dad has been patronizing his restaurant since the days when it was still located by the beach, then over to the indoor stadium, and now finally to marine parade. Those days it was still called Palm Beach though. Dad always prefers to go to Roland's because service is good, it's value for money and food is of better quality. Might not be the best, but it's my bench mark for seafood. Was quite disappointed when I went to certain places like Jumbo a while back. Maybe they were too busy or something but food served was kinda cold and a tad bit too salty for my taste buds.
Once again my photography skills kinda suck so pardon the lousy pics. I did learn something about food photography yesterday though! Should try it out the next time. The link is below:
The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips
First dish is one of my all time favourites! Yu Char Kuay or Cruellers they call it. Basically it's deep fried dough fritters stuffed with squid paste. Very crispy and yummy! Goes well with the chilli sauce.
Then we had a standard vegetable dish which is stir-fried baby kailan with garlic. Its something we can never replicate in our home kitchen because we don't have a big enough fire to get the same taste and texture. The veg is moist and crunchy so it wasn't over cooked.
One of Roland's signature dishes is this homemade tofu(beancurd) with ginko nut. The homemade tofu is very smooth and soft, and is seasoned with something to make it tastier than normal tofu. The challenging part of making this dish is probably when they fry the tofu, they have to be careful not to break them since it's so soft n delicate. The dish is topped off with ginko nuts, veg and sauce.
Next up was steamed prawns with garlic. Uncles and aunties always tell me, the way to tell if a prawn is fresh is to eat it steamed, and the shell must be on. They always say it's the best way to eat prawns so you can savour the flavours and texture of the meat. Well if that was any indicator to go by then at least we didn't murder the prawns by deep frying them with cereal or something, though we did have them with garlic. The prawns were good! Fresh and succulent with that garlic-ky oomph! I like prawns a lot, and last time whenever my family goes to a restaurant and orders prawns, I'm sure to whack a good portion of it. Haha =X I guess it's partly because my mom never cooks prawns except for on rare occasions once in a blue moon. So prawns were like a delicacy for me. Of course nowadays I don't horde the prawns anymore la, must make sure everyone gets a fair share. See so nice right? Haha
Another one of my BIG BIG favourites is the Black Pepper Crab! These things make me go crazy last time man. It's a must have for me whenever I eat seafood. Even better I can have both black pepper and chilli crab! Hahaha greedy guts ya? I love the spicy-ness of this dish. I have a liking for spicy stuff so I guess this really hits the spot. The crab meat is done just right. Not soft and mushy nor hard and rubbery, just nice in between. Man I'm starting to drool.....
This final dish we ate is something pretty new to their menu. You may not be able to get it every time you patronize Rolands Restaurant so you gotta ask them first. It's their version of Crab Bee Hoon. I think we only knew that they had this dish like one or two years back, but once you've tasted it you'll think it's shiok shiok shiok! A rich broth simmered with the crabs, very tasty and probably high in cholesterol but well worth it. It's served in a claypot but they'll dish it out for you into individual portions if you like. I prefer to remove all the crab meat from the shell and just dunk it into the soup and slurp it up with the noodles n roe.
Roland serves both seafood and traditional chinese cuisine. You can even have dim sum during lunch time. Dim sum is made fresh so quality is guaranteed. Try out their specialties like USA Duck, Chilli Crab, Steamed Tofu with salted egg, Asparagus with lingzhi mushroom etc. More details at their website.Roland Restaurant
Block 89, Marine Parade Central, #06-750 S(440089)
Operating Hours:
Lunch: 1130-1430(last order)
Dinner: 1800-2230(last order)
Sundays and public holidays opens earlier at 1100
Website: http://www.rolandrestaurant.com.sg/index.html
What a way to end mother's day man. Good food for the whole day! Luckily I had a 2hr session of tennis before dinner. Well that's it from me now. Laterz!
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