My Humble House @ Esplanade

AMEX changed their attached Feed at Raffles membership for their Platinum Card to Palate, which offered similar discounts but for a different set of restaurants. Being a frequent visitor of Esplanade, I have always passed by My Humble House but never got to try it as it looked posh (and of course, expensive). But with the new Palate program, I decided to try it as I could enjoy a 50% discount for 2 pax.

What they serve is somewhat closer to Chinese fine dining food, so the portions were rather small. But because of this, we got to try many different dishes instead, so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Crisp-seared Foie Gras marinated with Seven Spices on Caramelised Watermelon, $16

This was quite good, especially when the foie gras was eaten with the bread underneath. I found the foie gras to be a little dry though - foie gras is supposed to be more oily and fatty - but it was still enough to satisfy my craving for foie gras.

Roast Boneless Chicken marinated in Smoky Sauce, $12

When this dish came, my first thought was "hey, I don't think I ordered any scallops..." But this was nice, and the taste was rather unique. The smoky sauce and the accompanying black stuff under the chicken (I have no idea what it is) went quite well with the chicken.

Crispy Boneless Sakura Chicken marinated with "Mao Tai" Wine, $16

Sakura chicken is a special breed of chicken from Japan, and is supposedly not injected with any hormones. It is also given more space to run around compared to normal chickens, and has less fat too. So obviously it costs more than normal chickens. 

For this dish, the chicken was pan-fried quite well, and the skin was indeed crispy but not too dry. But I found the meat to be somewhat lacking in flavour and juice. Ironically, I found the previous dish, which uses normal chickens, to be better than this Sakura chicken.

Poached Baby Spinach with Three kinds of Eggs in Superior Broth, $8

I have tried this dish many times before at Crystal Jade. But this was really much better. While the broth and eggs did not really stand out, the baby spinach was excellent - it was really succulent and rich in flavour.

Crisp fried Pumpkin glazed with Salted Egg Yolk, $8

The salted egg yolk made the dish taste all right, but the pumpkin wasn't sweet and moist enough.

Homemade Noodles with Crab Meat and Roe drizzled with Red Vinegar, $14

This looked very filling, but it was surprisingly light. The homemade noodles were homemade indeed - they were very smooth and went down very easily. The sauce looked thick but was actually just nice. Now, if the crab meat and roe had a stronger presence, this dish would be perfect.

Warm Truffle Noodles with Fried Sliced Fish in Salted Beans, $12

There was nothing really special about this dish, and it tasted quite plain.

The total bill came up to around $51 for 2 pax, which was quite reasonable considering that the food was quite close to fine dining, and that we got to try a variety of dishes. Wouldn't mind coming here again to try their other dishes.