Healthy Chinese Cuisine
With a Contemporary Twist
Chinese nutritional
restaurant; Asia’s health
kitchen. Fung Ding Hung
serves up winner after
nutritional winner.
The quivering mass of chilled lamb,
encased within jelly concocted from
chicken leg stock, sat quietly on my
plate. I eyed it warily, uncertain of its
taste. Like most people, I am seduced
by appetising appearances; a carefully
plated arrangement of ingredients
designed to not only look good but taste
incredible as well. The chilled lamb
jelly with black bean was plain-looking
and the name itself raised eyebrows.
Nevertheless, I picked up my spoon,
carefully carved out a small bit and
put it into my mouth. A cacophony of
tasteful adjectives immediately rushed
their way into my cerebral cortex; it was
my brain’s feeble attempt to pinpoint
what exactly I was tasting. In the end, it
finally decided on one: amazing.
Throw out all notions you have about
chilled jellies. The chilled lamb jelly
with black bean is a surprising wellrehearsed orchestra, a tantalising
mixture of savoury jelly with tender
lamb topped off with rich-tasting black
beans. The dish is a perfect example of
the whole being greater than the sum
of its humble parts.
I had to know how this was made and
the manager discreetly summoned
the chef out. “There are two parts to
the dish. The first part of the dish is
the jelly, which I made by simmering
chicken legs in water for a few hours
to make stock. While that’s happening,
we prepare the lamb, which is actually
collagen from the animal. Once the
stock is done, we combine the two and
chill it to arrive at what you’re eating,”
Chef Chai Ngen Kin says.
Formerly of Tung Lok Classics and
Restaurant Ten, Chef Chai has expertly
brought to life the items in the fertile
culinary mind of restaurant owner, the
vivacious Elsa Tong. They say you are
what you eat and in Fung Ding Hung