Yalong Bay Flaming Chicken in Toa Payoh North 亚龙湾地道小厨

I had been curious about Yalong Bay's flambeed chicken since it appeared on social media about a year ago. Finally checked out the famous flaming fowl today in Toa Payoh North near Braddell MRT station. It tastes quite nice and worth a try, if only for novelty's sake.



Yalong Bay is located in an air conditioned food court on level 2 of Blk 978, a flatted factory/ office block in Toa Payoh North. Plenty of parking at the multi-storey carpark and just 10 minutes walk from Braddell station. (Use exit A, if you come by MRT.)



Yalong Bay is a zhi char stall (stretching two lots) in the food court.



Without much ado, we went straight for Yalong Bay's claim to fame - their "Roasted Standing Chicken" 火焰栋企烧鸡.

The chicken was seasoned with spices and herbs, coated with maltose, oven baked and air dried. It was then brought to the table, set up upright, doused with Chinese rose wine 玫瑰露 and whisky, and flambeed.

Orange flames danced on the naked brown bird for about 10 seconds.

A post shared by Tony Johor Kaki (@johorkaki) on Apr 10, 2018 at 1:12am PDT

The fiery spectacle never fails to please. Curious heads turned whenever a chicken lighted up around the food court. 

Ehhh...... a bit gimmicky, but how did it taste? We soon found out 😄



We were honoured to have Alvin, the famous Chef and Sommelier helped us carved the bird. Alvin said it was easy to carve as the bird was falling-apart tender and juicy.

The meat and skin had a mild savoury sweetness from the seasoning and maltose. The well browned skin had a slight crisp and toastiness. There was also fleeting floral and fruity taste and aroma from the rose wine.

For all the show and drama, the flambe did add subtle, interesting flavours to the chicken that was not possible otherwise.



Besides the "Roasted Standing Chicken", we also had a few zhi char type dishes at Yalong Bay. Generally speaking, Yalong Bay was rather heavy handed with sauces and seasoning with their zhi char dishes.

Sweet potato leaves fried with sambal belacan (price $9). The vegetable was slightly overdone. The sambal belacan's robust taste lifted the soggy vegetable with savoury umami flavour, rescuing the dish.



The slab of tofu was deep fried till it was well browned outside. It was smothered with a thick blanket of fried dried shrimps and minced pork. The whole dish was sitting in a pool of savoury blended soy sauce.

The layers of robust savoury flavours made the tofu with dried shrimps and minced pork quite enjoyable (price $12).



Signature curry fish head (price $28).

The fish was very fresh, submerged in a thick curry approaching the viscosity of cream. The curry was very sweet and loaded with mild spice flavours. Fortunately, I was still able to taste the fish's natural sweetness.



This dark heap was deer meat fried with kam heong sauce (price $17). The sauce was robustly savoury, completely overwhelming any flavour there was in the chewy deer slices.



Fried black pepper live frog (price $16).

The frogs were deep fried and then served with a strong savoury peppery sauce. I was not able to taste the frog (which has delicate sweetness), just saltiness and pepperiness.



👉 The highlight of our lunch was Yalong Bay's flaming chicken. The orange flames provide a focal point for any gathering at the food court. As the bird is not too large, it makes a nice couple dish - almost romantic for dinner, dare I say. At $32 a bird, it is just a small premium for the visual feast and the tender chicken tastes quite good too with its rose wine notes. (Best to book the flaming chicken, a day ahead if you are coming ☎ 8457 4885.)

Seven of us, we paid $20 each for our share of the total bill.



Restaurant name: Yalong Bay 亚龙湾地道小厨
Address: Blk 978, Toa Payoh North, #02-01, Singapore 319001
GPS: 1°20'35.0"N 103°51'03.7"E | 1.343050, 103.851033
Tel: 8457 4885
Hours: 11:00am - 2:30pm | 5:00pm - 10:30pm

Non Halal

Date visited: 10 Apr 2018

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