Serangoon Gardens is a genteel, placid neighbourhood just 15 minutes’ drive from my place. Known to locals by its old Hokkien moniker, “Ang Sar Lee”, the suburb is characterised by low-rise, mostly single-storey bungalows, quite a change from Singapore’s usual high-rise housing estates.
My Village is a tiny suburban mall with two well-stocked supermarkets, about 6 restaurants & cafes, a small food-court, and some retail shops. East Bistro occupies the largest space on the top floor of the mall.
An uncle & aunt invited me to a sumptuous dim sum lunch at Serangoon Garden’s 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼 @ 𝗠𝘆 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗲, founded by Tony Wong, the former head chef of Hong Kong’s famous Lei Garden.
Tony served Lei Garden for over 40 years, since 1986, and is best known as the original creator of the ever-popular 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙤 𝙎𝙖𝙜𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙋𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙤 dessert, which has become 𝘥𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘶𝘳 in Cantonese restaurants in Singapore and elsewhere! Over here in Serangoon Gardens, East Bistro has become a de facto lunch spot for Hong Kong expats wanting a “taste of home” ever since it opened in 2018.
Our dim sum lunch spread:
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Siew mai - steamed minced pork-shrimp dumplings. These were huge, and steamed perfectly - juicy and flavoursome.
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Fu pei kuen - prawns wrapped in beancurd skin and deep-fried. A bit greasy for my taste, but the rendition here was pretty good - light and crisp on the outside, moist on the inside.
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Lau sar pao - salty-sweet custard buns, with salted duck’s egg yolk mashed into the molten custard filling. Absolutely delish!
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Sichuanese chive-and-pork dumplings, in a spicy vinegar dressing
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Braised house tofu - this was a subtly-flavoured dish: pan-fried large cubes of soft tofu, gently braised in a soy-minced pork sauce.
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Kow choi kao - chives-and-pork dumplings.
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Pai kuat - steamed pork-ribs, flavoured with salted black beans and red chilis
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Char siew polo pao - these are baked buns with a sweet-buttery crust on top, an adaptation of the Mexican bun, but with Cantonese-style caramelised BBQ pork filling.
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Jin deui - crisp-fried round pastry balls made from glutinous rice dough, studded with sesame seeds. The balls are hollow, but most dim sum restaurants would fill these balls with either sweet, mashed mung beans or red beans.
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Milk pudding in young coconut
The whole place has a suburban eatery feel, and Tony Wong was a perfect host: friendly and approachable.
His dim sum spread has a rustic quality to them, not quite approaching the finesse of the best dim sum houses in Singapore like Imperial Treasure at ION Orchard or Great World City, Crystal Jade Palace in Takashimaya, or Paragon, or Taste Paradise in ION Orchard.
Address
East Bistro @ My Village
1 Maju Avenue #02-01/02, Singapore 556679
Tel: +65 6634 2998
Opening hours (dine-in):
Lunch: 11am - 3pm (Mon- Fri), 10am - 3pm (Sat & Sun)
Dinner: 5pm - 10pm daily
