Canton Paradise @ 112 Katong

[Invited Tasting] 

 I was recently invited and tried some very exquisite Cantonese Food at Canton Paradise at 112 Katong Mall. The latest dining concept by the Paradise Group, Canton Paradise offers Cantonese favoutires and also Shunde specialties. If you are wondering where is Shunde, it's the area at the Pearl River Delta at the Guangdong province, known for their delicate cooking styles.

Executive Chef Hu Shu Sheng, a native from Guangzhou in China, works closely with Paradise Group Executive Chef Fung Chi Keung and CEO Eldwin Chua to conceptualise Canton Paradise’s menu. 


I was new to 112 Katong and got lost and wondered where Canton Paradise was. I went up floor by floor until I reached the top floor. I decided to google for the address. It's located at Basement 1. I was happy I had a good tour of the whole mall though.

The deco of this place is very nice. On one side is the purplish lit wall with what I call an organised kind of mess which I thought was nice. We don't usually see purple restaurants do we?


I had a very safe cold watercress to drink and was soon tempted by the Gula Melaka Milk Tea 黑糖冰奶茶($3.80) that my fellow diners were all trying!
Not a bad twist to the usual Milk Tea. Something only Peranakans like my Father in law will have secretly mixed in their kitchen behind the mum's back!


The first dish that we tried was the Baked BBQ Honey Pork Bun 脆皮叉烧包 ($4.50)

Yes, it taste almost similar to the famous Michelin starred Tim Ho Wan in HK! I was in HK just few weeks ago too, and yes, they are almost similar, looks wise, this one just a bit paler and the meat less reddish. Taste wise, they are both distinct. Not fair to compare when each chef has their own recipe.


It's something that eating only 1 piece is not enough. I am a char siu lover, so anything with char siu, I love them. It's char siu bits with more sauce inside a bun.


Fried Pumpkin Coated with Salted Egg Yolk and Mixed Nuts 秘制坚果炬南瓜 ($7.80)

A rather unique creation. Pumpkin's naturally sweet, they deep fry it to give it a crunch. The salted egg yolk over the crispy pumpkin gives it some saltiness. It's good but don't eat too much, cholesterol will shoot up!


In Singapore, there are two types of char siu lover. One that only select the leanest of all meat and the other only goes for the fattest to enjoy the taste of it. Which type are you?


BBQ Pork Belly with Honey Sauce 秘制肥婆黑叉烧 ($15.80)

If you like the fatty parts of meats, this you got to try. Fatty pork belly marinated with honey caramelized. So tender and so flavourful. Portions are a little small, but the calories in it is enough. Does the photo above tempt you? 


Canton Crispy BBQ Pork 脆皮叉烧 ($15.80)
This dish is totally wicked and sinful. I was told it runs out fast daily, so if you want to try it, reserve the dish when you make reservations here.

It's the top part of the BBQ pork without the meat. You know when you order BBQ Pork, if the pork is not cooked till it's dry, you have layers of pork and fats that gel like? The chefs here have prepared this dish in such a way that it's crispy on top and when you bite it, you get the gel part of lard oozing cholesterol into your mouth. It does not taste that oily though. Was told it takes a few hours to roast this!

Heavenly to some, and totally disgusting to some. Lard lovers, this is yours.


Steamed Kampong Chicken in Canton Style 水晶真味山芭鸡 ($15 half / $28 whole)

This dish looked so simple, but it taste really good. Firm and yet tender is how I describe it. The dish is prepared quite delicately. Compared to their pork dishes before, this was lean chicken. Kampong chicken has the least fats. Oh yes, this is one example of delicate Shunde cooking style.

The Kampong chicken here is not some Pulau Ubin chickens. These are free range chickens from Australia. 


If you enter the restaurant, you would have seen this huge steel containers that has soup boiling in it for hours and hours.


Nourishing Soup滋润健康煲靓汤
A choice from the 3 daily soups ($6.80 per person / $16.80 per pot)


Cantonese soup. These soups here will get the approval of my Cantonese mother in law. I should probably bring her here to see if it will win her seal of approval, I think it probably will. Boiled for hours, you just need to drink the soup, the other ingredients are sacrificed themselves and nutrients and goodness seeped into the soup.


This soup we had was the Hami Melon with Pork Ribs and Fish Maw Soup.

Hong Kongers working in Singapore or Cantonese from KL working here, or those without Cantonese mothers/mother in laws to boil soup for you, add this as one of your places to get your soup fix.


Steamed Lingzhi Tofu in Supreme Soya Sauce 清蒸灵芝山水豆腐 ($8.80)

The chef makes his own tofu here from scratch. Made from soybeans (not sure where it's sourced from) and Danone Aqua Mountain Spring water. Why Danone? Not sure. :-)


Wok-fried Pork Belly with Salted Fish 咸鱼花腩煲 ($14.80)

For a while you might think the food is getting more and more bland. Wait there's this wonderful wok-fried pork belly with salted fish. It's a nice claypot dish that goes well with steaming hot rice. You can wallop a whole bowl of rice just with this dish!


Wok-fried Bean Sprout with Vermicelli and Salted Fish 乡下佬炒银芽 ($12.80)

We were offered this dish to taste to showcase the dishes from their Classic Canton Selection. Very nice dish. Another dish that goes well with rice. The dish was so fragrant when it was served. It made you want to just dig in.


Poached Sea Bass with Pickled Cabbage in Fish Stock 辣辣地酸菜沸腾鱼 ($28.80)

They have a Szechuan portion in the menu. To show case this part of the menu, we were served this super fiery soup! If you can take extreme extreme, yes another extreme heat, order this. Get the fire truck on standby!

This was a huge bowl of soup and can easily serve 6-8 persons.


Look at the dried chilli and the szechuan peppercorns in the photo earlier. It gave the dish extreme heat and you probably get light headed after drinking this. The soup was tongue numbing, yet when you taste it, you keep wanting to try more! The fish was so tender and sweet, and from the 'kiam chai', saltiness. It's a very appetizing soup!

Warning, not for the faint hearted.


Custard Glutinous Rice Ball with Grated Oat 金沙汤圆 ($4.80 for 3 pieces)


Fancy more salted egg yolk? Try the glutinous rice balls that's filled with salted egg yolk custard.
An interesting creation that has grated oats on top.

I was extremely full to enjoy the desserts. I remember it being a saviour to my numbing tongue though.


Chilled Red Bean & Yam Jelly 芋头红豆糕 ($4.20)

I can't comment on this too after a numbing tongue. I remember this was even better than the custard to nurse my overworked papillae.

The food's of high quality and the chefs are creative. On average a meal would be around $20-25 per person. The prices are on the moderate range. Their staff seems attentive too, not only to our table, you can look around and notice it.

CANTON PARADISE 乐天小香港 112 East Coast Road I12 Katong #B1-15 Singapore 428802 Tel: +65 6344 8201 Hours: Mon-Fri: 11am – 10pm / Sat, Sun & PH: 10.30am-10pm

Note: They have recently opened Canton Paradise at JCube.

Oasia Hotel Singapore - 1st Year Anniversary.

This was a 1 day staycation invitation by Oasia Hotel Singapore (www.oasiahotel.com) to celebrate her 1st Year Anniversary in Singapore. It's so generous of them to invite some of us for their celebration and a one night stay to try out their rooms too! 


Happy Birthday Oasia Hotel. This was their special cake made from so many delicious macarons!
The 1st Year Anniversary is also to promote the Club Rooms.

If you have not heard about it, the Club Rooms and Suites Guest in Oasia has it's own private-access swimming pool and sky deck. For many other hotels, it's only the private-access food area / Executive Lounge.


Oasia has raised the bar by introducing gourmet style coffees (from local artisan roaster, Coffee Culture), artisanal chocolates (from French chocolatier house Monbana) and organic teas (from German premium tea brand, Naturalis) for the Executive Lounge.

The above drink is the White Chocolate Cocktail. (I happen to have the same brand of chocolate drink at home, but never made it that way.) It's white chocolate shake with red Martini or in the case above, it was curacao.


For those who like an interesting mix of tea with some alcohol, this is the Summer Bouquet. The Naturalis tea brand has their own Singapore Sling Tea mix and this tea has been mixed with Elderflower syrup and vodka and some lemon.


Another drink which I can't remember the name, it's a greenish white chocolate milkshake with also a tinge of alcohol. You can always request a non alcohol version of all the drinks above ;-)


These delicious chocolates are what you can get from executive Lounge called The Living Room.
Quite a few flavours of white, dark and milk chocolates.


The area in the Living Room that mixes other good stuff that most of us can't live without. Coffee and chocolate drinks.


For those who prefer organic teas, the Naturalis flavours.


The Club Room


This is my second visit to this hotel. The first time I was here, I knew I like this place because it has lots of 'wood' elements in it. Designed by award winning Japanese designer, Takashi Sugimoto from Super Potato, he uses a lot of 'wood' in the whole hotel.

Always check the fire escape plan to orientate yourself, I always take a photo of it with my phone. It's put to good use in this post to show you how the hotel looks like. It has a very very long corridor!


The King size beds that the wife and I slept on. It's quite a comfortable bed. The wife and I have been having mini honeymoons since we got married last May. We either have staycations or take a short trip overseas and we have been sleeping around. (Oooii! I mean the hotel beds! Don't think other wise.)


The wife thinks I am crazy, but I have taken photos and mark down all the brands of mattresses I have slept on! Hotel Oasia uses Simmons Beautyrest. Even if your partner moves, you don't really feel it for this mattress.


The view of the hotel is the usual Singapore skyline. You won't get Singapore Flyer or Marina Bay views from this hotel. But if you go to the private pool for Club Members floor during sunrise or sunset, it's quite beautiful.

See the switches near the telephone, it's for the automated blinds. These switches are easier to use and less confusing than the ones in MO Landmark Hong Kong where we stayed recently.



Pardon the blur photo, at the other side of the bed is a see-thru glass to the bathroom.
There's the rain shower and other bathroom by Toto.


If you love to shower, this ToTo rain shower is superb.
Tip: If you are renovating, this is a good place to try it out if you were looking for Toto stuff.

Soap, shower gel, shampoo are from Thai brand, Thann. The lemongrass based bathroom amenities smell really refreshing and its non drying too.


A welcome fruit platter. Yes, it's wooden too!


I thought this was rather interesting. Their safe is the newer models which opens to the top, and it comes with electricity supply too! By having it open upwards you can see exactly what's left inside. I took note of this because I have left my passport in a hotel before and I was on my way to the airport!


There's a Nespresso machine and also a mini bar that fits in around 8 cans of soft drinks. Things in the mini bar are complimentary.


There's the iHome to dock your iPhone if you are using one.


I realised it's the same model of phone used by the Far East Hospitality group residences.
Some hotels use IP phones that can store messages etc, but I guess they have all incorporate those features into their IP Television instead!

For TV addicts, 32 channels available.


Everything you want to find out about the hotel if you are those who are shy to call the Reception is available on their interactive TV. I like it that only a simple remote control was used, not some gadget that is hard to figure out.

We even tried to order room service from the TV!


I felt like having a soup, while the wife loves to test out club sandwiches from almost everywhere!
The hotel does not have their own kitchen, so the food if you order from room service comes from the restaurant that's on their ground floor, Zaffron.


The club sandwich here is not the usual brown or white bread, but they used focaccia bread instead which according to KopiKosongGirl a nice touch, nice herb bread. The other ingredients were ordinary. The other thing that make KKG happy was the wedges instead of fries.


The Seafood Tomyam soup I had was a bit on the spicy and choking side, but after a few mouths, I grew to like it.




The Executive Lounge: The Living Room


The Living Room is the name of the Executive Lounge. It's where you can get complimentary breakfast, cocktail, and all-day coffee, tea, juices, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks. This was our breakfast that morning.


Some very crispy bacon, chicken sausage and some what some people call breakfast noodles.


The eggs are made to order. I had two kinds of eggs that morning. Sunny side up and some roast tomatoes from the buffet line.


My other egg is a semi boiled egg. My hands got itchy and I decided to decorate my egg.


The all day drinks that they serve here. This is KKG's mocha. Instead of a biscuits they serve you a piece of Monbana chocolate.


My cup of hot chocolate.


There's a range of bread and pastry, but I only took a croissant.


I was too tempted by the teas, so I had a Wild Berries tea by Naturalis as well.
We checked out after breakfast. It was an enjoyable stay at Oasia Hotel.

Interested in a staycation here? You probably have read that hotel prices are going up in Singapore on the last two weekend's newspapers. Are you interested to enjoy 10% off an Oasia Hotel Singapore Weekend Package?

Here are the details: 
__________________________________