I recalled that there was this one night that I was being summoned from my lesson in a nearby university to help my wife and friend finish this delicious fowl dish. After listening to the taunts over the phone, I whispered a good bye to my professor and sped over to, this fowl of a place, Min Jiang in Rochester Park. Since I was just doing a good deed by helping to finish the food, I did not pay...... :)

The Peking duck is a must try. Due to its popularity and the chef's insistence of still doing a good job of preparing this fare for you, PLEASE CALL TO BOOK YOUR DUCK! I've had Peking ducks from else where but having it in all alfresco style, in a restored Colonial style bungalow set among the greens, is quite a refreshing feeling. How do I express that feeling......hmm how about imagining you're a duck being liberated....ok cut the crap!

The Peking duck is served with many condiments and of course, it includes the tangy popiah skin that we wrap the duck skin with. Dip it into the special sauce that is provided, close your eyes and then let it slide into your mouth ...... Mouth watering climax achieved!

In another occasion, I had a family lunch and we were seated inside of the bungalow, on the 2nd floor. The duck was still good and the air conditioning was most welcome. I wouldn't encourage an alfresco lunch in our humid climate.

The original Min Jiang is at Goodwood park hotel. I won't go try it though as I feel adamantly that the same food will taste better with a good ambience.

Visit my food diary at......
http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.com/2008/09/min-jiang-one-rochester-what-fowl-place_09.html

True, Min Jiang's duck is done authentic Beijing style, with the meat sliced together with the skin, and the meat is very tender, but if you're like me what you're really after when you eat peking duck is crispy, melt in your mouth skin. And in this regard the duck was lacking, the two times I've had it. But if you just love duck, by all means go for it. They do the first serving in 3 ways; my personal favourite is still the traditional pancake, scallion, cucumber and sweet sauce style, but the pickled radish was a refreshing accompaniment. For the second serving, I would recommend you give the black pepper duck a miss. It somehow tasted like american chinese stir fry. The noodles were much better.

But everything else was good. The most recent time I went there we had, besides the duck, the appetiser platter, tofu with century egg and spinach, and asparagus with scallops and tientsin (I think I got the spelling wrong) mushrooms. At $22 a person, the appetiser platter was expensive, but was the highlight of the meal for me. I recommend you order at least one to share, because you get to try the best of the chef's appetisers. But, besides the crispy eel, there was only one of each thing, so sharing may be a little tricky. My favourite was the lobster with molten salted egg served in a kueh pie ti shell.

Service was attentive and well-meaning, though our waiter couldn't really express himself very well in English.

The food, though good overall, was not good enough to justify the price tag. So this is not a place I would come just to give myself a treat. But it would be a good place to treat someone to dinner at, since the ambience is nice enough.

If you ask me, this place is a much better place for Chinese food than Hua Ting.

I absolutely love the way they do their Peking Duck. It is not cheap though, we were fleeced. My good friend wanted to try everything that was recommended and we had our own plating of succulent fish, sharks fin soup and their wonderful wonderful coffee ribs amongst many other things. We couldn't even eat the noodles at the end

...will have to save up to go back there again.

If not for the fleecing, I would be back there every other day. So, do order from the menu.

Service was impecable, but if you take into account the fact hat we were "leaving it to them", that is expected and takes the Service level down a couple of notches.

Ambience is great as is expected of all Rochester units.

I thought the food was good, so was quite surprised to see the earlier reviews. We ordered the set lunch - quite a feast actually.

We had appetiser which was 2 small pieces of chicken in chinese wine, one chilli prawn and very deep fried and crispy small fish!

We had sharkfin consomme, which i don't usually take. but since i was with a client, i swallowed it all. i did a quiet apology to the shark who died in vain!

Then a flurry of food came along. I remember there was a sea perch with mango slices, this one is lovely. the sea perch was so crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. the mango slices were a nice touch, sweet and tangy at the same time.

then there was abalone with tofu. nice sauce, i love abalone - can't go wrong with abalone. then there is the noodle with 2 prawns. i like this one, though the noodle a little heavy considering the rest were nice and light.

i am sure there are other food but i can't seem to remember. but the dessert was durian pudding with 2 popiah roll with banana filling. the durian pudding is pure durian! they just scooped it out of the durian shell, deseed it and put in in the cup! it was that thick! i am not a durian fan so i didn't finish it. it was quite generous actually.

ambience was fantastic. beautiful. service was a little brusque, but efficient. empty plates were quickly removed, though one or two courses came a little too early! but service does not come with the smile.

parking - a walk away at NorthBorder. or valet parking costs $6.

i didn't pay for the lunch, so no idea how much was it, but it must have cost a bomb!

one thumbs-up - they have this tiny chair for your bag. so your Gucci, LV and Prada will be kept clean, away from the floor's dirt and grime.

Came here over lunch with wife as we wanted to have a quieter place to eat by ourselves. No problem parking. I think nowadays Rochester park is not so popular anymore.

Ambience - The place is a redecorated colonial white and black house. We sat inside in the aircon. Outside is sheltered by natural tree shade but i could see some business crowd people sweating away :) Decor is quite ok, typical high class modern chinese restaurant. They have a nice wooden divider separating conceirge area from dining area. And they have wooden lamps over some tables.

Food - Wanted to eat timsum, so we ordered.
- Har Kau
- Lotus seed biscuit thingy
- chicken feet
- scallop dumpling
- sour, spicy beijing prawn dumpling
- fu pi juan

Generally all were competent but not spectacular. Will come back if only for the nearness and quietness. One thing stood out though... their vinegar was very fragrant.

Cost was S$44 for 2 persons after 15% discount for UOB card.