Sum's Kitchen & Hong Kong Roasted Meat

This place on the northern side of Singapore (3 Jalan Legundi, 6757-2118) was recommended to me by a business acquaintance a good while back. We had tried to come a few months ago, but they had sold out of everything already, so we were relieved to see two ducks still hanging in the window today when we arrived. I had three recommendations at hand to try: the Three Egg Vegetable, the Steamed Olive Fishhead, and the signature roast duck.

The Three Egg Vegetable got the meal started on the right foot with very fresh spinach and a surprisingly refreshing and savory broth that kind of made this more like a soup. At first it almost also appeared as if the "three eggs" meant simply that a total of three chicken eggs were used to create mass (like an omelette) rather than consisting of three different types of eggs, but upon digging further, we did indeed finally come across some chopped Chinese century egg as well as salted egg. No wonder why that broth was so savory.

The fish arrived next. An olive aroma emanated from it, invoking thoughts of focaccia. This was not a good thing for me, seeing that I don't like bread and dislike rosemary even more. I suppose that the fish was nice and tender, done in the usual steamed Cantonese style topped with hot oil, soy sauce, and shredded scallions...although with olives on top. Well, after enough bites, the taste of the olives didn't seem that far out of place; it almost seemed as if they could replace those salty black beans that are commonly used to season Chinese food. But I probably won't go out of my way again for this one.

Last but not least came of course the roast duck. I would have expected more from a place that has gotten many rave reviews, but this was ultimately a disappointment. The meat was rather tough and without that edgy duck taste that we have all come to love. The skin was crispy with fat attached, but that wasn't enough to make up for it. While still edible, it still was nowhere near what one gets in Hong Kong. Oh well. Out of all of these, I would readily come back for the Three Egg Vegetable, but I'll have to find a couple other dishes to go with it.