Paradise Dynasty

I kept seeing the advertisements for Paradist Dynasty's famed xiaolongbaos. The bamboo basket filled with  eight xiaolongbaos in rainbow hues against a black backdrop was seriously everywhere. In the newspapers, on the Internet, magazines etc. It was like a sign. I knew somehow that I would definitely be trying those devilish morsels that were seducing me right from their unattainable position in the ad pages.

Paradise Dynasty

La mian with beef; la mian with pork slices

The family members all said the the ramen noodles were very good. Hmmm, I beg to differ though. Though they tasted springy, they weren't what I envision la mian texture to be. Different tastebuds different preference I guess. Definitely not my favourite lamian shop in Singapore. Then again, they weren't the main attraction of the place...the star of the show has yet to appear...

First of all, backup dancers are needed to support the key act. And what else should the support be other than ginger slices in vinegar? As previously mentioned, I've taken a liking to ginger recently, and ginger is great when paired with pork since it kinda lessen the pork-y taste that pork meat has. I'm not a vinegar fan though, so I'll just pick out the ginger slices and drain them before eating them with my xiaolongbaos...

Star(s) of the show

From clockwise - Black truffle, Ginseng, Garlic, Cheese, Foie gras, Sze chuan, Crab roe, Original (middle)

It was a novel experience tasting these colourful xiaolongbaos. When I told of my girlfriend that I was eating these coloured xiaolongbaos, she was like "eeeew, were they gross?" - she thought that the xiaolongbaos skins were just colouring and nothing more. Ha! I was like like explaining to her that no, they were flavoured differently too...

There was a sequence that you're supposed to follow when eating these flavourful orbs, as shown in the placard on every table (placard depicted above). In my opinion, I felt that the best flavours were the black and truffle and ginseng. The flavours were really prominent and really popped in the mouth. The garlic was a little bit too much. The cheese and original were passable. I didn't really like the foie gras, sze chuan and crab roe. The foie gras was quite blah, the sze chuan wasn't very spicy as I had expected, and the crab roe just tasted seafood-ish (not crabmeat taste). Overall, the novel flavoured xiaolongbaos is quite an interesting concept and I don't mind revisiting again just to have the unique xiaolongbaos basket... :)