Latest news with #Peking
Business Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Times
Food review: Peking duck for S$9.90? Cheap and good Chinese food at Mansion 7
NEW RESTAURANT Mansion 7 30 Maxwell Road #01-03 Singapore 069114 Tel: 6038-0295 A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Open daily for lunch and dinner: 11am to 3pm; 5.30pm to 10 pm. (From 9 am on Sat & Sun) IF you had S$98 to spend on dinner for two, what would you choose? A few tapas in a sharing plates joint? Or a blow-out, one-for-one abalone set menu served with a side of Broadway Beng? You find the latter at Mansion 7, a strangely unlikely Chinese restaurant that we can't help but like. It's just six months old, but it feels as if it's been hidden in an obscure corner of Tanjong Pagar since 1987. Yet it's so unattractively retro, it would fail any audition to be the filming location of a period drama. You don't so much find as stumble into this nondescript low-rise, industrial-like block that houses Mansion 7 and a fitness equipment showroom. This is also where you'll run into Alex – part restaurant manager, part fastest tongue this side of Maxwell Food Centre. Ok, he's Beng without the Broadway, but just as entertaining, unleashing corny zingers as easily as he reels off the day's specials. 'Are you open?' We ask him tentatively, 20 minutes before opening time. 'For you, of course,' he deadpans without missing a beat. He's service in a no-nonsense way, letting us in and making us comfortable, needlessly apologising that the kitchen isn't open yet, while offering drinks as we wait. He works with an equally friendly and down-to-earth service team, immune to his constant ribbing. When it comes to the food, though, Alex knows his stuff, so just leave it to him to sort out your order. You know that business is on the slow side when you see one-for-one offers on the menu, but in this case, take advantage of it while you can, because it's a genuine steal. Pick from the lobster set menu at S$118 for two diners, or abalone for S$98. We decide on the latter, and, like a gift that keeps on giving, Alex says we can top up an extra $9.90 for an order of Peking duck. Mind you, this offer is only until the end of June, and who knows if there'll be similar deals after that? Even if not, the a la carte menu is priced quite sensibly, if not cheap. And it's reasonable for what you get – cooking that's confident and well-executed in a comforting and reliable way. Crispy deep-fried silver fish. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT For starters, we pick crispy fried silver fish (S$18) from the regular menu, and get a basket of deep-fried battered baby fish with a crunch that should humiliate a few tempura chefs. A little spice gives it a bit of kick. Artfully presented Peking duck for S$9.90 PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT The Peking duck comes next, and it's the best S$9.90 we've ever spent. Crisp duck skin, already sliced with some thin pieces of meat for contrast, is artfully presented on a ceramic platter encased in a wooden tray, with compartments for dipping sauce and condiments. Instead of flour pancakes, we get thin crepes to roll everything in. It's not stellar, but still enjoyable, especially when it's S$42 for half a duck on the regular menu. Char siew and salted egg-crusted abalone. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT The abalone set starts proper with two cubes of sticky-sweet, meaty char siew and a whole, smallish abalone crusted with a salted-egg coating. The abalone is tender and you cut through it with little effort. The salted egg isn't necessary, but adds some depth. While Roberta Flack kills us softly and painfully over the sound system, we focus on a thick fish broth packed with slices of grass carp that have been prepared in a way that gives them an almost crispy, cartilage-like texture. Unusual, but good. Golden crispy prawn ball is a reinterpreted cereal prawn. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT Cereal prawns are reinterpreted as large, bouncy specimens coated in a thick and sticky sauce with cornflakes only for decoration. It's a bit of an overkill, but the prawns are nice and juicy. There's also a decent-sized slab of foie gras, pan-fried till crisp around the edges and paired with a meaty dried mushroom in a brown sauce. Pan-fried foie gras with mushroom. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT You end off with truffle fried rice – fragrant with wok hei and studded with baby abalone, oily but well-fried with individual grains retaining their bite. And for a sweet finish, it's classic mango puree, with bits of pomelo and sago for a refreshing taste of nostalgia. Black truffle fried rice with abalone. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT Don't miss the Teochew yam paste (S$9), but order it early because it takes 30 minutes to prepare. The smooth cream has the distinctive aroma of lard, and it's surrounded by a sweet, creamy pistachio sauce which doesn't detract, but we prefer it without. Yes, we're won over by the set-menu pricing, and we're not sure if we would be as enamoured if we were paying full price. But with seasoned chefs in the kitchen and Alex's hospitality, we're betting that we will. Rating: 7 WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN 10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average Our review policy: The Business Times pays for all meals at restaurants reviewed on this page. Unless specified, the writer does not accept hosted meals prior to the review's publication.
Nikkei Asia
4 days ago
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
Discount coffee, hotels thrive in China's penny-pinching economy
DALIAN, China -- As a wave of cost-consciousness sweeps across China, businesses offering quality at a discount have seen earnings surge while their high-end peers struggle. Quanjude, the restaurant chain known for its gourmet Peking duck, saw revenue shrink 7% on the year during the first quarter through March.
Time Out
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Rappu launches limited-time pop-up this month with free seaweed rice burgers on May 16
Japanese restaurant Rappu at Duxton might be known for its viral handrolls, but this May, it's introducing Rappu-giri, a limited-time pop-up selling sushi seaweed burgers. The pop-up will run from May 16 to July 5 at café-bar Stay Gold Flamingo on 69 Amoy Street. Forget regular buns – here, your 'burger' comes wrapped in crispy Japanese rice and premium seaweed, then stuffed with fillings like spam and egg ($8) and salmon mentaiko ($14). More luxurious toppings include Peking duck, unagi ($20), and even wagyu beef. One thing Rappu does well with its handrolls is to serve its seaweed wrappers warm, retaining all their crispiness, so we're expecting the same at Rappu-giri. To pair with the rice burgers, Stay Gold Flamingo will also be slinging Japanese café-style drinks, with both boozy and booze-free options to complete the experience. Here's the real kicker though: on opening day (May 16), free Rappu-giri will be given out from 11.30am onwards till they're all snapped up. But if you don't manage to get your hands on the complimentary burgers, fret not, you still have eight more weeks to try them till the pop-up concludes in July.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Taxpayers may have to quack up $1M for slaughtering 100K ducks at Long Island farm in virus scare: documents
Taxpayers may get their gooses cooked paying for a duck massacre. A Long Island duck farm is asking for the federal government to quack up $1 million after it euthanized 100,000 of its flocks over bird flu fears, documents show. Crescent Duck Farm, which supplies 4% of the nation's duck meat, has already received $150,000 from the USDA and is asking for more after it put down tens of thousands of birds — and now animal activists are slamming the cost and the carnage. The farm used carbon dioxide foam, then snapped the necks of surviving birds with a handheld scissor-like tool called the Koechner Euthanizing Device, according to USDA documents. 'If you see videos of it, it looks like a scene from a horror movie,' Ben Williamson, the executive director of Animal Outlook, told The Post of the foam. 'It doesn't knock them out, it doesn't stun them. They essentially will suffocate, and will be conscious while they're suffocating … and then the ones who survive have their necks rung by these devices.' But Crescent Duck Farm owner Doug Corwin told The Post the UDSA ended up using a different killing method, and the farm 'had nothing to do with whatever was decided upon.' 'This was a heartbreaking thing,' he added. 'We had no standing in that.' A request for comment from the USDA was not immediately returned. The 116-year-old farm on the North Fork estimated it was owed $811,635 from the government due to the mass culling after 700 Peking ducks died from the virus in January, records show. The requested funds were used for sanitization, disposal and replacement of roughly $166,365 in losses, the farm said. Corwin told The Post the USDA has reimbursed to date 'about 10%' of what the flock was worth,' or about $150,000, and is expecting more. Long Island animal activists weren't taken by the sob story — or use of government cash. 'New Yorkers don't go to work with the intention of spending our hard-earned money on a multimillion-dollar enterprise that kills a million 6-week-old ducklings a year while they're still peeping,' said John Di Leonardo, executive director of animal rights group Humane Long Island. Poultry farms and live markets are mandated to kill inventory when highly-contagious bird flu is detected, and dozens of outbreaks have torn through New York State in 2025, according to the USDA website. The first case of bird flu in the U.S. was detected in 2022 and has since resulted in the deaths of an estimated 166 million birds. Toxic carbon dioxide foam is used in culling about half of the time, per a USDA report, and require secondary measures to kill surviving ducks about 29% of the time. Despite the culling at Crescent, The Post reported in February that more than 3,700 new ducklings hatched at an off-site location. The ducks can return to the North Fork once barns are found to be free of any active avian flu DNA, Corwin said, adding the barns were last tested Monday. 'The ducks are nine weeks old and in good shape,' Corwin said. 'We're hoping to bring them home when we can – when its 100% safe to do so.' Williamson told The Post he will be presenting an offer to the farm on Thursday to help the business transition to crop production instead, which he deems more 'humane and sustainable' than duck farming. 'While we recognize Crescent Duck Farm's historical significance to Long Island, the documents we've obtained reveal not just the financial cost to taxpayers, but also the grim reality of how these birds met their end,' he said. Corwin, however, balked at the idea of scrapping his beloved ducks for farming lettuce and other vegetation. 'It's going to take me a year and a half to get any income off of this place [after the culling],' he said. 'I'd be better off to bulldoze every barn we have and put it up for sale, but I'm a farmer at heart.'
New York Post
01-05-2025
- General
- New York Post
Taxpayers may have to quack up $1M for slaughtering 100K ducks at Long Island farm in virus scare: documents
Taxpayers may get their gooses cooked paying for a duck massacre. A Long Island duck farm is asking for the federal government to quack up $1 million after it euthanized 100,000 of its flocks over bird flu fears, documents show. Advertisement Crescent Duck Farm, which supplies 4% of the nation's duck meat, has already received $150,000 from the USDA and is asking for more after it put down tens of thousands of birds — and now animal activists are slamming the cost and the carnage. The farm used carbon dioxide foam, then snapped the necks of surviving birds with a handheld scissor-like tool called the Koechner Euthanizing Device, according to USDA documents. 4 Doug Corwin, owner of Crescent Duck Farm, carries a female duck used for breeding in one of several barns on his property. AP Advertisement 'If you see videos of it, it looks like a scene from a horror movie,' Ben Williamson, the executive director of Animal Outlook, told The Post of the foam. 'It doesn't knock them out, it doesn't stun them. They essentially will suffocate, and will be conscious while they're suffocating … and then the ones who survive have their necks rung by these devices.' But Crescent Duck Farm owner Doug Corwin told The Post the UDSA ended up using a different killing method, and the farm 'had nothing to do with whatever was decided upon.' 'This was a heartbreaking thing,' he added. 'We had no standing in that.' A request for comment from the USDA was not immediately returned. Advertisement The 116-year-old farm on the North Fork estimated it was owed $811,635 from the government due to the mass culling after 700 Peking ducks died from the virus in January, records show. The requested funds were used for sanitization, disposal and replacement of roughly $166,365 in losses, the farm said. Corwin told The Post the USDA has reimbursed to date 'about 10%' of what the flock was worth,' or about $150,000, and is expecting more. 4 Doug Corwin holds one of several hundred ducks he uses for breeding at his farm. AP Long Island animal activists weren't taken by the sob story — or use of government cash. Advertisement 'New Yorkers don't go to work with the intention of spending our hard-earned money on a multimillion-dollar enterprise that kills a million 6-week-old ducklings a year while they're still peeping,' said John Di Leonardo, executive director of animal rights group Humane Long Island. Poultry farms and live markets are mandated to kill inventory when highly-contagious bird flu is detected, and dozens of outbreaks have torn through New York State in 2025, according to the USDA website. The first case of bird flu in the U.S. was detected in 2022 and has since resulted in the deaths of an estimated 166 million birds. Toxic carbon dioxide foam is used in culling about half of the time, per a USDA report, and require secondary measures to kill surviving ducks about 29% of the time. 4 The 116-year-old farm on the North Fork spent about $811,635 — which is poised to be reimbursed by the USDA — to douse its entire flock in deadly carbon dioxide foam, and surviving birds had their necks snapped with a scissor-like handheld tool, records show. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Despite the culling at Crescent, The Post reported in February that more than 3,700 new ducklings hatched at an off-site location. The ducks can return to the North Fork once barns are found to be free of any active avian flu DNA, Corwin said, adding the barns were last tested Monday. 'The ducks are nine weeks old and in good shape,' Corwin said. 'We're hoping to bring them home when we can – when its 100% safe to do so.' 4 Doug Corwin, owner of Crescent Duck Farm. AP Advertisement Williamson told The Post he will be presenting an offer to the farm on Thursday to help the business transition to crop production instead, which he deems more 'humane and sustainable' than duck farming. 'While we recognize Crescent Duck Farm's historical significance to Long Island, the documents we've obtained reveal not just the financial cost to taxpayers, but also the grim reality of how these birds met their end,' he said. Corwin, however, balked at the idea of scrapping his beloved ducks for farming lettuce and other vegetation. 'It's going to take me a year and a half to get any income off of this place [after the culling],' he said. 'I'd be better off to bulldoze every barn we have and put it up for sale, but I'm a farmer at heart.'
