Nanjing Impressions – Impressive Nanjing Cuisine

Jinling Signature Salted Duck @ Nanjing Impressions

Dining at Nanjing Impressions like a time travel experience. Imagine that you are seated at an ancient tea parlour in the late era of the Qing Dynasty, served with traditional food by service staff from that time.

The Entrance

Nanjing Impressions pride themselves with quality original flavours fuelled by coal-fired clay pots and seasonal ingredients. Their trove of recipes has been time tested to delivery the immaculate flavours in front of you.

Items on the Table

Green Plum Marinated with Chinese Wine ($5.80). Crunchy plum with sweet and savoury flavours. A good dish to open up your appetite or to balance the sweetness of Madam Chiang’s Nutritious Beauty Porridge.

Green Plum Marinated with Chinese Wine

Jinling Signature Salted Duck ($16.80 (S), $32(M), $62(L)). Nanjing’s famous salt-water duck. Don’t let this simple looking dish deceive you. To produce this dish, it needs to go through 10 extraneous steps. The result is well-seasoned duck, with tender flesh, bouncy skin and unique deep umami flavour. Yummy!!

Jinling Signature Salted Duck - Small

Jinling Signature Salted Duck - Large

Celestial Roast Duck Dumpling ($5.80 for 3 pcs). This dumpling can easily be mistaken for pork dumpling. The fillings in juicy and bursting with delicious sweet jus.

Celestial Roast Duck Dumpling

Celestial Roast Duck Dumpling

Celestial Roast Duck Dumpling - The Fillings

Chilled Drunken Virgin Red Crayfish (($19.80 (S), $38.80(M), $68.80(L)). Most Chinese Restaurant only served the red crayfish in mala version. When LD saw this version is marinated with wine, she did not hesitate to order this. It takes a bit of work to get to the flesh, but you will be rewarded with sweet, bouncy and delicious flesh. The wine marinated nicely accentuates the sweetness of the prawn. If you like the brain of the prawns and shellfish, there are abundance here for you to savour.

Chilled Drunken Virgin Red Crayfish - Small

Chilled Drunken Virgin Red Crayfish

Chilled Drunken Virgin Red Crayfish

Madam Chiang’s Nutritious Beauty Porridge ($6.80). Made from soya, starch and sugar. It is sticky with a smooth texture, surprisingly tasty and easy to eat. The lily buds and yam provided different texture in this Nanjing version of sweet soya milk porridge.

Madam Chiang’s Nutritious Beauty Porridge 

Jinling Noodles in Light Soy Sauce Broth ($4.80). It looks like plain shoyu ramen. The noodle is springy and bouncy, while the robust is broth infused with the right amount good quality soy sauce.

Jinling Noodles in Light Soy Sauce Broth

Jinling Noodles in Light Soy Sauce Broth

Sesame-scented Beancurd Julienne ($8.80). The julienne beancurd in the soup gives it an impression of the noodle. The milky duck broth is robust, filled with the duck essence and duck meat. The julienne ginger helps to remove any gaminess from the duck and brought up a bit of fiery spark in each bite. Yum Yum.

Sesame-scented Beancurd Julienne

Sesame-scented Beancurd Julienne

Pan-fried Pastry with Minced Meat & Preserved Vegetable Fillings ($5.80). A crispy and fluffy bun filled with “mei cai” (preserved vegetable). It can be better if they are more generous with mei chai fillings, let’s say about 50% more.

Sesame-scented Beancurd Julienne

Sesame-scented Beancurd Julienne

Custard / Steam Egg with Preserved Vegetables ($6.80). Smooth and velvety steam egg topped with mei cai. A simple dish, yet one of the most likeable dishes by the young and old.

Custard / Steam Egg with Preserved Vegetables

Steamed Glutinous Rice with Pork ($12.80). Thinly sliced marinated pork belly, steamed with glutinous rice. The sticky glutinous absorbs the flavour of the pork and braising sauce as well. Surprisingly, the taste is milder than I expected.

Steamed Glutinous Rice with Pork 

Nanjing Special Shredded Duck Fried Noodles ($14.80). A solid rendition of duck fried noodle. It has a strong wok hei aroma, crunchy noodle and succulent duck meat.

Nanjing Special Shredded Duck Fried Noodles

Braised Pork Shank ($28). The meat is firm, tasty, while the skin is chewy and crunchy. The tangy sauce on the side helps to reduce the jelakness from the meat.

Braised Pork Shank

The overall atmosphere in Nanjing Impressions is just superb, just like dining an ancient tea parlour in the late era of the Qing Dynasty. The receptionist greeted us in Qing Dynasty costume and carry Hu / Shaku (flat sceptre of Chinese Origin). He will then escort the guests to their allocated tables. Service staff is friendly and helpful, however, if you are seated in the cubicle, it will be more challenging to get the service staff attention.

View from Outside

Dining Hall

Overall, Nanjing Impressions deliver a traditional Nanjing dining experience. The food standard is very good and the ambiance is just excellent. As a restaurant serve Nanjing cuisine is very rare in Singapore, this place is worth a visit. Cheers!!

Food & Drinks: 8/10

Value: 8.5/10

Service: 7.5/10

Ambiance: 9/10

Budget per Person: $11 - $25, $26 - $50

Nanjing Impressions

68 Orchard Road

#04-46/51, Plaza Singapura

Singapore 238839

T: +65 6352 7877

W: https://nanjingimpressions.business.site/

F: https://www.facebook.com/nanjingimpressions/

IG: @Nanjing_impressions

OH:

Mon – Fri: 11.30 – 14.30; 17.00 – 22.00

Sat: 11.00 – 22.00

Sun: 11.30 – 22.00

Menu Part 1

Menu Part 2

Menu Part 3

Menu Part 4

Benson Salted Duck – Delicious Salted Duck

Salted Duck

Every time we travel to Taipei for work or holiday, without fail LD and I will treat ourselves to a salted goose meal. However, as the AVA still banned the goose in Singapore, salted duck is the next best alternative.

There are only a few stalls in Singapore that sell salted duck, you can probably count it with the fingers in one hand. Benson Salted Duck is always one of the names that come up when you google salted duck in Singapore. Even Singapore “Makan Guru”, KF Seetoh hold this stall in high regards.

The Stall

As it was only two of us dining, we decided to order a 3-person portion for the duck, 2 rice, innards and fish maw soup. Total damage $19.

The duck itself roughly chopped and partly deboned to easy eating. At the first bite, the duck is on the saltier side, especially on the skin. The skin is thick, fatty and springy. Although the meat is dense, it remains succulent as the fats from the skin rendered into the meat.

The Duck

The secret to eating the duck is to squeeze the lime on it. The fusion between the lime juice and the salted created the superb umami flavour and remove the saltiness from the duck. It just transforms the flavour of this dish to another level. The duck is also served with salted vegetables, to balance the dish.

The Chilli

The rice served at Benson is butter rice. It is fragrant and tasty, can easily be mistaken as chicken rice. The rice is al-dente and can easily be eaten on its own without other dishes.

The Rice

For the duck liver is dense yet creamy. It is not as moist your goose liver (foie gras), more like in between goose and chicken liver. The giblets are crunchy, but it is braised in dark soy sauce instead of blanched in salt like the goose version in Taiwan. Not sure what is the reason for this, but I was expecting the giblets in the salted version.

Salted Duck Liver, Braised Duck Giblets, Tofu

The fish maw pig organ soup ($5) is actually a hidden gem that you must try here. They are very generous with their ingredients, especially their fish maw and pig’s liver. The liver is cooked perfectly, making it creamy with a bit of crunch to it. The pork ball is springy and packs of flavour as well.  The clear, pork and duck infused robust broth is just awesome. Yum Yum.

Fish Maw Pig Organ Soup

Fish Maw Pig Organ Soup

Service is efficient. Order at the stall and they will deliver your order to your table. Price is reasonable as well.

Overall, Salted Duck is almost like a rare commodity in Singapore. It is unique, delicious and difficult to find. Benson Salted Duck is definitely a must visit stall. Cheers!!

Food: 8/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 7/10

Ambiance: N/A (Coffeeshop)

Budget per Person: $0 - $10.

Benson Salted Duck

Blk 168 Toa Payoh Lorong 1

#01-1040

Singapore 310168

T: +65 9781 4042

F: https://www.facebook.com/bensonsaltedduck/

OH:

Fri – Wed: 10.00 – 15.00

Closed on Thursday