[[Mum's Birthday Dinner @ My Humble House, Esplanade]]

Step into My Humble House and you feel like you are transported to a grand albeit magical & whimsical world of wizards. The decor uses a dark theme but they have very unique furnishings- like these high-backed chairs, and even their waitresses have the most unique uniform- a mid-drift chong-sam inspired top with a long "tail" at the back with black pants. We were enchanted the moment we walked into the restaurant.

I often hear about this place being a ripped off-for its price and lack of quality of the food. But I think that the dinner tonight was really well-done. The price is worth the experience dining there.

We ordered the set dinner that is called "Someone is singing behind the mountain"-I didnt make this up at all; they had both chinese and english names to all the titles and dishes on the menu.

The first dish we had was the quail egg salad. It is the epitome of a simple food made sophisticated by skilled matching of colour and taste by the chef and naturally, the presetation of the dish. It was just a quail egg dipped in herbs, placed on a sliced cherry tomato and drenched with a zesty, citrusy flavoured dressing.


The first dish on the menu was amuse bouche- crisp fried fillet of silver cod with spinach, prawn mousse and mushrooms, drizzled with honey mustard. It was really tasty- having a myriad of flavours and textures in a single item. The batter was really light and crispy which makes it doubly yummy. The slightly citrus, slightly spicy sauce complemented on the dish really well. I was wondering if they should have used a different type of fillet because I felt that the flavours of the silver cod was overpowering on the other flavours. However, it seemed like I was the only one who thought so amongst my family.

The third dish is titled simple satisfaction- Braised sharks fin with fish maw in shark’s cartilage consommé. Indeed, it looked so simple that it was deceiving. It is satisfaction the moment you place the first mouthful of the soup into your mouth. The intensity of the shark’s bone in the soup is really intense. The shark’s fin slide down almost too quickly into my stomach. I was happy with this; my only grouse is that it was slightly too salty and too rich?


Next came the Unexpected-Steamed fillet of marble Goby in chef’s special sauce. Actually it was unexpected to me because I didn’t know what a goby was. The goby was a fish with very sweet and smooth texture. Really yummy. This was cooked the traditional Chinese way of steaming fish. So a fresh fish with tender and sweet meat is already a sure winner.

Tip of the iceberg was served next. Initially, we were wondering why was lychee Sorbet served in the middle of the meal. We finally realized it- it was there to “cleanse” our mouth before they start serving us the beef tenderloin. The first few dishes we had were rich flavoured seafood. The lychee sorbet had pistachio shavings on the top of it. I don’t really fancy sorbets but I guess this was a necessity before the next item was served.

The much awaited Tenderness-Pan-seared marinated beef tenderloin in red wine reduction was served. However, it was really disappointing. My sis call it the horfun typed beef. How totally sad. It was not that bad but then it was not fantastic either. It was just an item that failed to impress. I guess beef tenderloins should just be eaten at western restaurants.

If you thought that dinner was over, it wasn’t. The inspiration-Fried fragrant rice with egg white and freshly peeled crabmeat was served. I think this was really nicely cooked. The grains of rice weren’t overly soft or hard, the crabmeat and the egg whites were really “light” ingredients and a good ending to a heavy meal.

The finale was the dessert. We were all wondering what it will be like when we saw it on the menu. It is called Ice fragrance-My humble house dessert fantasy. To claim it to be a fantasy, it definitely needs to be something really special don’t you think so. We were marveled when they were served to us. Just look at it: firstly, it is served in an enormously huge bowl. Secondly, the arrangement and colours just excites you so greatly. This was a really simple dish: simple fruit dipped in chocolate sauce and a bowl of jelly-like stuff. I think we just had a lot of fun eating this.

Anyway, dinner was a great experience for my family and I. It was not just about the food, but the ambience, the presentation of the dish. And of course, dinner took a really long time, but it was definitely worth it.